Week 12

Last week ended well as I got to run a pilot activity from my EDEP with the 2nd graders in Fossil Camp. I thought it went very well, and I think it will be even better for the 3rd to 5th graders that the EDEP is designed for. The activity ended with us going outside and measuring out how big Megalodon was, and the campers were definitely in disbelief when they tried to imagine a 60 foot shark.

As for this week, I was scheduled to be in the office working on my project for Mon and Tues, but someone was out Monday so I helped teach the What's for Lunch? camp. I helped with the 3rd-4th graders. Today (Tuesday), I was able to work on my project. I am almost done with my second week out of four. I am scheduled to help teach camp for the rest of the week.

As we get to the end of the internship, I am not sure whether I will be able to finish my project or not. I should be able to get a good chunk done because I am currently behind on hours, so I will be working extra this weekend and the Thursday and Friday after our class ends. I hope to at least get close to finishing it, so I can feel accomplished and not have to leave too much up to whoever takes it over.

Week 11

I have continued to be very busy at the museum. A couple of people have been sick, so I have been filling in for them and doing camps. Last week I filled in for the photo field camp. It was a lot of fun, as we got to go out to Payne's Prairie to look for wildlife to take pictures of. I am not originally from Florida or used to going out into nature and seeing animals, so I thought this was awesome. I loved seeing the gators, especially.

This weekend I was on supply duty, which was stressful but ended up fine (due to the help of Beth).

This week I was supposed to be back in the office to work on my project, but I filled in for someone else who couldn't be in and I am helping teach the fossil camp. This has been a fun but tiring camp, as there are 20 students per class (a lot different than the other weeks I taught, in which the classes only had about 10 students each). I am scheduled to be in the office working on my project for Wed and Thurs this week, so hopefully that sticks so I can get working! Either way, I am having a great time filling in and teaching camps, that's always more fun than the office!

Week 10

I finished helping teach the Up, Up, and Away camp last week. It was a fun camp and I enjoyed all of the kids. If I had to complain about something, it would be that some of the activities were geared towards making crafts without a lot of substance to go along with it. So while the campers were making a lot of cool aircrafts, they weren't learning much at the same time. I tried to make them think while they were crafting as much as possible, but it was an uphill battle. Even still, the campers did a good job grasping the basics, which is still positive; especially for a summer camp for 2nd graders.

Today I stepped in to help teach the 2nd grade campers in the Florida Wetlands camp. The intern who was supposed to teach could not be there. The campers lacked energy and seemed to count down the moments for lunch the entire time. I think it was because it was a lot of introductory information that was not interactive. From my experiences this summer with the young campers, I found that they listen and learn a lot more when they are engaged by doing something interactive with their hands. Trying to lecture doesn't work because they just won't listen, but if you sneak that lecture into the middle of an activity in which they are building something or creating something, it has a much better chance to stick. I shared this with the teacher after the day ended, because she was concerned about their energy and their level of participation.

Tomorrow I am stepping in for someone who cannot make it to the Photo Field camp. I'm not really sure what this will entail, but I am excited to be outside doing exciting things tomorrow. Wednesday I should finally be able to slow down and work on my project a little. My supervisor looked at my plan and said it was headed in the right direction, so that is a good sign. I'm also on Supply Duty this week and weekend, so I am busy! But busy is good. With a few naps sprinkled in between.

Week 9

Hi guys, I apologize for the late blog entry.

For the end of last week, I was finalizing my EDEP plan to send to my supervisor. Hopefully she thinks I am on the right track. I also met with Callum to discuss my plan, because he is experienced in making EDEPs.

This week I am teaching the Up, Up and Away camp to 2nd grade students. I wrote the curriculum guide for this, so it is fun to see all of the things I came up with actually being put to use in the classroom. It is interesting to see what works and what doesn't and why, and seeing this will give me a better idea of the kind of activities to include in my EDEP and other lesson plans in the future. Right now, the campers are still pretty stuck on making millions of paper airplanes.

Week 8

As stated in last week's blog, I was back home in Los Angeles, California this past week visiting my friends and vacationing. It was a great week.

Today at the museum, I was surprised to see there was no camp for this week. This was disappointing to me because I really enjoy the interactions that occur during camp every day. So, instead of working with camp, I am back in the office getting started on my project. After my visit to MOSH, I finally feel confident about what my project is and how to approach it (just in time to revise my Abstract!).

Because of my lack of an update from my week off, I'll share some pictures from the MOSH trip!

Callum and me, a little bit too happy to be on our field trip:

Entrance to MOSH:

What to learn in the Megalodon exhibit:

Turtle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y

Week 7

Yesterday Amanda (my superviso), Callum, and I made a trip to the MOSH in Jacksonville to see the Megalodon exhibit. The purpose for this trip is that my project is to make an Extended Day Enrichment Program (EDEP) based on this exhibit. It was a very successful trip. I now feel much more confident about what I am supposed to do and I understand all of the details for the project. While looking at the exhibit, I took notes on things I thought were interesting that could possibly be used for various lessons or activities for the EDEP. Now, my first step is to figure out what I want the students to get out of this program and then work backwards and create the lessons and activities of the EDEP based on the final outcomes and goals.

Callum driving the 15 passenger van was a success as well, with only one minor hiccup. I was taking  a nap and laying across the seats when all of a sudden the van came to a screeching halt. I immediatedly woke up and almost fell off the seats but did not because I was wearing my seatbelt (click-it or ticket). It turned out it was not Callum's fault, the car in front of us stopped suddenly without warning because something was on the road. That was the only exciting part of Callum's driving, which is definitely a good thing.

Today, I am taking over Callum's job of being the Guest Speaker liaison. This just entails doing anything the speaker needs, introducing the speaker, making sure the campers are behaving, and pretty much just making sure everything runs smoothly. I have been practicing my English accent all morning so that I can do a great job stepping in for him.

Also, I am updating this blog today (Friday) because tomorrow I leave to go back home to California for a week! I am very excited to see all my friends back home and have a great week of fun and relaxation. I hope you all have a great week as well!

Week 6

The end of my week of teaching was fun. The 1st graders were great, and they became more and more comfortable as the week went on. As they became more comfortable, though, they started misbehaving a lot. They had trouble sitting still and listening and following directions. I had to do my best job of combining baby-sitting with continuing to instill STEM principles to the students. The teacher I was working with and I decided that the best way to do this is to have them do a lot of hands-on experiments and activities. These activities were really the only kind the students would do without acting up. We made model tsunamis, ocean currents, aquifers, and more. 

This week, I have not been doing the internship at the museum because I am working a basketball camp instead.

There is word that Callum, Amanda (my supervisor), and I may be going to see megaladon in Jacksonville on Thursday. I hope we do this!

Week 5

Finally started summer camp today! I am helping teach a camp called Water Water Everywhere. It has been a lot of fun finally getting to move around and interact with kids. I am teaching first graders, so they are adorable and a lot of fun. They started off very shy and quiet, but became energetic and crazy after snack time and once they became a little comfortable. One of my favorite parts of this class is that there is a little girl who predominantly speaks Spanish and does not follow English very well. I am getting to experience what has been talked about in so many UFTeach readings about learning disabilities and cultural differences and teaching students with different backgrounds. It is definitely a challenge making sure this student knows what to do, but I was doing pretty well I think. It helps a lot to use visuals when explaining things to her. Plus, I am currently taking accelerated Spanish here at UF so I get to practice what I am learning in that class, so it is fun. I am excited for the rest of the week of camp!

Week 4

Today was my most eventful day so far. I got a call from my mentor that she needed me to bring her work gloves in the stairwell of the parking garage next to the museum. I brought them to her and found that she came across the cutest little kitten ever (pictured below), separated from its family and injured. I instantly fell in love with this kitten, and felt awful for the kitten as it was injured and scared. I helped my mentor carefully put the kitten into a crate and they are going to take him to animal services to help him get better. It feels good to know that I am not just an intern at this museum...but also a hero.

As for my internship, I am working on a new curriculum guide about primates, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Monkeys have always been my favorite animal so learning about them has been fun. We have also been doing some inventory stuff in the classroom. While it is kind of tedious, it is nice to get out of the office and move around a little bit.

I also helped with the Junior Volunteer training this weekend, and I really enjoyed that. It was a lot of interacting with the 12-17 year old kids, which I enjoyed. My mentor let me lead one of the activities during the training as well, so that was fun. Doing these activities with so much interaction with the kids makes me very excited for camp to start up next week.

Week 3

This week I finished my curriculum guide and began reading some of the exhibit guides to learn more about the museum I will be working in all summer. This way, if a camper asks me something about an exhibit, there's a better chance that I can answer it. I am enjoying this too because this was one of the reasons I was excited to work at a museum this summer...to learn a lot about things I did not previously know about.

I also spent a little bit of time cleaning up the Discovery Room at the museum. This is a fun, hands-on room where kids can explore and play with an array of scientific objects and "toys." It contains things like shells, a fossil digging section, a wind-tunnel, and a lot more. Amanda (my supervisor) said that when I am not directly helping with the camps one of my jobs will be to hang out in the Discovery Room to make sure everything is running smoothly and to interact with the kids who are exploring. I am very excited about doing this, because I thoroughly enjoy working with kids in situations like that where they are playing and learning and having a good time. This will also be good practice for informal science teaching.

First Couple Days of Work at the Museum

Hey everyone!

I am Max Sommer, fourth year Geography major and UFTeach minor. I have a lot of experience with kids both through volunteering with UFTeach and coaching basketball, and I am excited to get more good experience this summer through this internship. 

Yesterday and today were my first couple days working at the museum. Waking up early was definitely different for me…I am usually someone who enjoys sleeping til noon and wasting half my day and now I am working the 8am-noon shift every weekday at the museum. It is good for me though, it makes me feel like a productive, real person.

At the museum my job so far has been to write Curriculum Guides for the summer camps that will be starting in June. These are guides to teach the camps, with background information, learning objectives, and recommended activities.  I am so glad that I am doing this internship after I have completed a few UFTeach courses, because it is similar to what we have to do when writing lesson plans and if I did not have that experience, I would surely be lost.

Everything at the museum has gone well so far, thankfully. I enjoy the people I work with and the work I am doing is interesting. I also enjoy just walking around and seeing all the exhibits. It has been a very positive start and I'm excited to continue!