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!