Math Up Yours

Today has been very interesting at the museum. Early this morning, I was able to explain my Math in the Museum project to a possible donor to the project--and she seemed very receptive to the program.

However, a little while later, Dale (who works in our back office) visited Ashleigh and I and decided to give us some serious blog material:
1. We learned about zombie fungus that grows on ants (Google it, or just look at Ashleigh's blog).
2. We were debating the use of the word "create" in science (I guess you guys discussed it in class) and she showed us the use of the word in many science state standards. She then gave us useful insight into other words that should be controversial, such as "genes" which makes people think of Genesis, and "moon" which may make people think of butts.
3. She showed us some caterpillar poop, which may not seem interesting BUT did you know that ALL caterpillars have geometric shaped, well, holes to excrete their feces, so their poop looks like this:

Geometry in action, people.

4. Finally, we learned about some wasps that lay their eggs in caterpillars and then the larvae eats the inside of the caterpillar until there is an empty shell left, and then it's like a scene from alien when the wasp bursts out.

Crazy right? My last week at the museum and I'm learning so much in one day.

Week 11

So I counted this morning, and I only have (counting today) 8 more 4-5 hour shifts left at the museum this summer! That's both a good thing and a stressful thing. It is very stressful because Dr. Ellis gets back sometime this week or next, and I'm sure she has not looked over our guides that much, so in the last 38 hours I'll be in the office, I'll be correcting them and finishing any other project that she needs me to complete. Last year I stayed on at the museum after my summer internship to get class credit, but I don't think I'll be doing it this year because I'm graduating in December. So basically that means I need to have the guides 100% completed with all corrections by August 5th!

Anyways, this week Ashleigh and I are FINALLY going to be testing the activities. This has been postponed for the last week or so because the shark teeth took longer to paint than anticipated and we had issues getting all of the materials we need to test them. Honestly, the activities are pretty simple and straightforward (except for Ashleigh's "Dinosaur Density" activity), so hopefully we get good feedback!

There's not much going on other than that, so enjoy your week and see you all in class!

Week 10

This week has been very laid back--getting those museum activities ready to test out has taken a lot longer than anticipated. I did get done drawing all three posters to hang on the table (free handed, I might add -- stepping it up from the usual stick figures). Ashleigh posted pics of the posters in her Week 10 blog here: http://tuckeram.blogspot.com/2014/07/week-10.html.

Also, we painted shark teeth again this past Wednesday. I think we finally got the hang of it, so they look nice and will be a great addition to the museum activities that will go along with the docent tour this Fall when the Meg exhibit comes back to town.

I finished my poster for my project this morning--so that's a relief andddd I believe that is it. This next week I'm going to be finishing up everything because we have less than a month left!

See you in class!

Week 9: Pictures, Posters, and Peace

So this week has been pretty interesting. The guy came this morning to get pictures of Deanna, Max, Ashleigh, and I working at the museum. This ended up being a lot tougher than envisioned. First, because he came at 9am and the museum was not fully open to visitors yet, he got the third degree about why he was there. And secondly, there was major confusion over what exactly he was to take pictures of, with several museum staff interfering in the process, making the poor picture guy become less and less excited about his job.

When those were done, I've mainly had  some pretty peaceful time to work on my final project poster as well as a poster [pictured below] that will be hanging on a table where Ashleigh and I will be testing out some of our museum guide activities, hopefully later on this week. 

Hope everyone else is having a fantastic week!

Week 8

So, this week has probably been one of the least productive weeks all summer. Dr. Ellis is going out of town for THREE WEEKS, so she's been assigning us three weeks of work. This means that we have to ask her any questions we may have about these projects because she won't be able to be reached, but it is really difficult to predict any questions we may have, so Ashleigh and I have been staring at computer screens lately, trying to finish our projects as much as we can. Thus, there is really nothing new to update.

Hope you guys are having productive weeks!

Week 7

Really have very little to post this week, as I went in to work Monday for a couple of hours but took today off. I had to accept a scholarship this morning (yay!) and then finish unpacking from last week, finish my director duties for the Honors Camp this weekend, and of course catch up on sleep!

Basically Dr. Ellis is going to be out of town for about 3 weeks, so I believe the rest of this week is just going to be getting everything lined up so that we have stuff to complete the entire time. Shouldn't be anything too hard, but glad to be back!

See you all in class!

Week 6: ONE DAY WEEK!

Hey guys!

I know I said I'd post PART 2 of our Jax visit and answer the big question: why is there a deer on the ceiling? Unfortunately, this will have to wait, as I have temporarily lost the SD card that those pictures were on (aka I'm too lazy to post it this week).

I have finished ALL of my guides, except the 6-8 grade guide, but that's halfway done, so I'm getting excited about the other jobs Dr. Ellis will have me do, other than revisions. For example, today I had to zoom some instructions for a Discovery Room game on the copier, so that was fun, but today is the only day that I work, because tomorrow I'm getting ready to go to UNF for a RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp, where we each have a group of high school students from all over Florida sponsored by Rotary Clubs to go to presentations and do community service with. It's all about teaching leadership and is my fifth year being involved with it. I'm pretty excited about this, as it lasts from this Wednesday to Sunday.

So, that's all I have for an extremely short week. I'll miss you guys in class!

Taylor Whitley
Intern at FLMNH
License to Math