a.shrug your shoulders and walk quickly away

b.call a truant officer to investigate why the students are not in school

c.point out the old library to them and suggest they have a look around back.

Answer C is the nicest response, of course, and you'll likely have an opportunity to try it out this spring as hordes of elementary and middle schoolers descend on the Horseshoe. More than 5,000 K–8 students participate every year in Horseshoe scavenger hunts, organized by USC's Visitor Center to familiarize younger students with the campus while providing a healthy dose of history.

Spring is the most popular time for the hunts, which usually take students about an hour to complete.

"We want them to know this is a fun, great place to be so when they get ready to come to college, they'll remember how much fun USC is," said Denise Wellman, director of the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center, staffed mainly by volunteer Student Ambassadors, is a well-oiled machine when it comes to showing off the campus: they escort about 11,000 visitors on walking tours every year.

But when 8th-graders began visiting the campus a few years ago, it quickly became apparent that their attention spans were lagging on the two-hour cross-campus tour. That's why the Visitor Center created the scavenger hunt.

"We put together a list of questions that encourages the students to read the text panels in front of Horseshoe buildings and to look for details that will help them find the answers. It's designed to encourage students to ask for help and work as a team," Wellman said. "In that sense, it's a metaphor for college life."

The scavenger hunters are looking for answers to such questions as:

What did Pope John Paul II say when he visited the University of South Carolina?

Which building served as a Federal Military Prison during the Civil War?

Who is buried on the Horseshoe?

What six purposes did Rutledge College serve as the campus' only building in 1805?

For teachers who want to get more mileage from the campus visit, there is a lesson plan that guides classroom discussion through important aspects of South Carolina history. But there are lessons in teamwork for those who participate only in the scavenger hunt.

"We give them two sets of questions and two pencils," Wellman said. "Some groups immediately realize they can divide and conquer by splitting up the questions and searching the Horseshoe for answers. Other groups stick together."

There's no right or wrong way to complete the scavenger hunt, of course. The Visitor Center is far more interested in lasting impressions. "If a kid comes running up to you and wants an answer, help him if you can," Wellman said. "Or steer them in the right direction. They form opinions at a very early age, and it's nice to think that someone smiling at these kids or answering a question might help them decide to come here as students in the future."