Week 12

I had my last day at Dickinson yesterday, so the next few days will be dedicated to finishing up my lesson plans. I'm having trouble getting the poster together but I hope to contact my mentor about that right away. I can't believe summer is almost over, I had a lot of fun at my internship and learning so much about informal STEM learning.

Week 11

This week we spent our time finishing up picking out the coal from bags of sediment Dr. Steadman had for us. We also spent a great deal of our time working on our projects so that's coming along quite nicely. I'd say that the highlight of my week was on Monday. Monday was Sharon's birthday, so Shane and I decided to take Sharon out to Ginnie Springs. I sort of learned how to swim! During our stay there, we saw a lot of families just swimming in the springs and I'd hear children asking their parents all kinds of questions about fish and wildlife, which reminded me of some of the things we learn in class. It's been a pretty fun week, I plan on finishing my project within the next couple of days or so.

Week 10

Things at Dickinson Hall have been pretty slow. We've got a routine now where we pick out any identifiable fossils from the day before's screen-washes or pick out coal for Dave and in the afternoon we screen wash. I chose to do a poster for my project because technology is always a struggle for me, although I wouldn't consider powerpoint to be hi-tech or anything. A couple weeks ago Shane was asked to measure a screen-washing station at Thomas Farm. Once the budget is approved and we are able to buy wood, we'll be creating another screen-washing station at Dickinson which I'm looking forward to.

Week 9

Nothing out of the ordinary during the past week. I spent some afternoons screen-washing while my mornings consisted of coal picking. Dr. Steadman allotted us sometime to work on our projects. My fossil module is coming quite nicely, my first lesson will introduce paleontology and some of the things paleontologists do. I'm really tempted to start off the lesson with a Bill Nye video because he's pretty awesome and I loved watching him when I was in grade school. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.

Week 8?

The past week Sharon has been away and we worked under Dr. Steadman. Apart from the usual, screen-washing and identifying of fossils, we took another trip down to Thomas farm to grab more bags for us to wash. Dr. Steadman had us spend some time picking out pieces of coal from bags to carbon-date. We took the challenge on not knowing how long and tedious would be, It took me and Shane about 4 hours to go through one bag. All in all, it wasn't too bad because Dr. Steadman always had really great stories to pass the time. The next project we have is creating a screen-washing station at Dickinson hall.