It has been a closely kept secret, but early, early morning some months ago, before sunrise, and before the cleaning staff arrived, the popular JEOPARDY quiz show’s Video Clue Crew secretly arrived on campus to shoot a full segment of clues in the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Shooting the clues took several hours, so that students arriving at opening hours from Cambridge Rindge and Latin and Butler Elementary School in Belmont that morning saw the Jeopardy crew, and those students who recognized clue crew stars Jimmy McGuire and Sarah Whitcomb were asked to keep the filming a secret.
Working from photographs, and with the help of the museum’s Director of Exhibitions, Jan Sacco, Jeopardy’s California-based writers had carefully crafted questions of various challenge levels featuring some of the 12,000 specimens on display –specimens drawn from the collections of the Harvard University Herbaria, the Mineralogical and Geological Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
You can test your knowledge of the Harvard Museum of Natural History by viewing the segment here.
The program segment aired nationwide on November 24, 2011 and was seen by an estimated 9 million viewers. Jeopardy is a SONY Pictures Television Program.
About the Harvard Museum of Natural History
With a mission to enhance public understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the human place in it, the Harvard Museum of Natural History draws on the University’s collections and research to present a historic and interdisciplinary exploration of science and nature. Harvard Museum of Natural History is at 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, a short walk from the Harvard Square T station. For more information on exhibits and events, explore the website or call 617-495-3045.