Week 9

Last week was a pretty relaxed week. There's no camps so I worked on my project and getting guest speakers for the remaining camps.
This week has been a lot of fun! The kids are crazy in the best way, and I love being in the classroom. The camp for this week is called 'Great Migrations' and it's fun to see the campers react to the long distances that many animals travel, some even dying on the way there.

Not much else has been happening. Today we had a guest speaker set for both camps, the morning camp was a success, but the afternoon guest speaker didn't even show up. Fortunately we rescheduled, but with the stormy weather going on, we were a little worried that he had gotten lost along the way!

Week 8!

This week was a whole lot of fun. Above is a picture of me and Max inside Megalodon at MOSH, which was a whole lot of fun to see the exhibit that will be coming to FLMNH. To the right is a picture of myself with four campers while we were at Saint Augustine for the "First Colony:" Archaeology Field Camp. This was a whole lot of fun for me since I grew up in Saint Augustine watching Indiana Jones, it was like two thirds of my world colliding.

Other than the field camp, which was a whole lot of fun, I've been working on my project which involves EDEP and A Dinosaur Called Sue! I'm looking forward to implementing several different ideas into my lessons.

Week Six - The First Week of Camp is Finally Over!

While the title implies that I have a problem with camp, I'm actually very happy that it happened. Seeing new and old faces alike is always a good experience, and I found that many campers and JV's remember me from last year.
The Guest Speaker turnout was fantastic, we almost had a dog come in every day! Also, today we had Salamanders which the campers loved.

This week was a lot of fun. Almost no problems, everything went smoothly, and I finally got my project. I'll be working on the EDEP again like last year, but instead of Surf's Up! I'll be doing it on Sue, our lovely T-Rex. Unfortunately we weren't able to tag along with Taylor and Ashley to Jacksonville to see Megalodon, but that's okay because we might go anyway.
In other news, I got certified to drive the 15-passenger van, which sounds intimidating but I think I can handle this.

Officer Sexton and Officer Rocky!

Week Five - Or, the last week before Camp!

This week was pretty stable. I was able to contact so many people for the first couple weeks of Summer Camp, we've already got quite a few Guest Speakers set up. UF PD was supposed to call me back yesterday, but unfortunately they never did. I guess that's fine, we already have quite a few dog speakers for our "Wolf to Woof" exhibit.
Other than guest speaker emails, I've been working on the rest of supplies. This Thursday Brooke and I went with our supervisor, Amanda, to Wal-Mart to grab everything. I must have looked crazy with a shopping cart full of pretzels, popcorn, animal crackers, cheeze-its, skittles, etc. Then we went to Jo-Ann, but they left me to hold down the fort while they went inside. The lovely end to that day was a boot on my car, but I suppose I deserved it so it's all good.

I'm just excited for Camp to start this week. It's gonna be intense, but we have this.

Cal's Week Four

This week has been pretty slow. I finished up another curriculum guide, I started contacting professionals about guest speaking during camps, and I've been helping sort out the inventory at the museum.

During camp, we try and get people who work in that field to come in and talk to the campers. For example, during our "Wolf to Woof" camp next week, I invited some of UF's Psychology grad students to come out with their dogs and show the campers how they train them and such. This really helps the campers see what they're learning in a real life scenario, and also lets the teachers get a little break in their lesson plans.

The inventory of art and science stuff at the museum in the classrooms is exhausting. We have so much stuff, enough that we're having to throw out stuff from eight years ago. It's really gross and I'm glad it's being done, but it can be exhausting.

Other than that, we're just gearing up for next week. Next week is the first two camps, so that'll be exhausting.

P.S: As you saw on Max's blog, the kitten was outside the museum. After work, Amanda dragged me and Brooke to come try and find others. Fortunately there were none, but we hope they're all okay.

Cal's Week Three

This has been an interesting week. Not much has happened, more curriculum guides have had to be written and the Discovery Room has had to be cleaned.
The Discovery Room is a place in the museum for smaller children to have fun and learn at the same time, it gets very messy very quickly, so from time to time we stop by and help out whenever possible. The museum is also building/renovating a new and improved Discovery Room, but that won't be here for awhile so we won't get to see that anytime soon.

Personally, I've been having a blast at work. Not much has happened, today we had hotdogs because of Memorial Day, but other than that it's just been working in the office. As soon as Summer Camps start, things will pick up, but that comes with a lot of rushing about and stress.

This Saturday I might help with the Junior Volunteer training, that should be a lot of fun.

I hope everyone has had a fantastic time at their internships! In other news, if anyone wants to come to Salsa it's a load of fun, practice at the Reitz Union breezeway every Tuesday and Thursday 6pm-8pm.

Training Day! Or, "It Takes a Wolf to Catch a Wolf."

Hi everyone, I'm Callum Ellison. I'm a geology student here at UF and I've been working in education or with kids for a very long time. I always wanted to be a teacher or work with children in some capacity, and I realized over the course of my internship at the Florida Museum of Natural History that I would love to work in a museum, or a similar place of informal learning.
I imagine that I'll work on another EDEP project this summer, this Fall's program will be around Megalodon, so I'm super excited to get my hands on that one. If not, there's about a hundred different things that are open for us to do around here, the museum is always in need of driven students. 


This week has been slow, finishing up the Spring semester stuff at the museum. I have finished another curriculum guide, this one about insects. Camp is approaching fast so we need to get these guides out to the teachers in order for them to get their lesson plans in for us ASAP. 
On Saturday we had training. I had done it last year, but that was more than fine since they provided us with some snacks. All in all, I'd call it a wonderful day and I'm ready to begin my Summer work at the museum tomorrow!

P.S. The image to the right is from when we opened the exhibit "Wolf to Woof," and I figured it's relevant. Her name was Penelope and she is adorable. 
The quote is from a movie, I promise I'm not just randomly talking about wolves.