Young Ambassadors 2018 Internship Blog

Dear YAP Familia, As the third week of my internship draws to a close, I’ve noticed something about myself. I realized that I wake up every morning actually excited for work. I think this is because working at the Witte Museum has been one of the most intellectually freeing experiences I’ve had in a while. It’s reignited that same spark of curiosity and desire to learn that drew me here when I was a kid. When I started my internship, I told my supervisors that I was trying to learn everything I could about how museums function. They’ve help me run with that goal, and facilitated my involvement with many different topics. I’ve been able to meet with the curators in charge of Anthropology, Wildlife, Texas Heritage, and Texas Culture in the exhibits they run. I’ve gotten to ask them about everything and anything related to their work; what drew them to working in a museum, the process of creating an exhibit, how they appeal to a diverse audience, and how they update exhibits to reflec...

I was once again left with an amazing experience to hold on to and a week of genuine laughs with the kids and my co-workers. As I continue to create great memories at the museum, I also continue to create a foundation of trust with my co-workers, as well as a friendship. The kids began working on a special activity that was chosen because of the kids love for the Netflix original show, Nailed It . After watching numerous episodes of Nailed It during lunch, the kids were told that they were to create their own cakes made out of styrofoam. Although it may have not been real, it still allowed the kids to put their creativity and artistic skills to the challenge. And not to my surprise, they once again managed to leave me amazed of how well they were able to represent their ideas through different figures and designs made by model magic and a special paint paste. This has allowed me to deepen my understanding of the museums abilities to create an activity out of a something as simple a...

With only two days left interning at the Children's Discovery Museum, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. So much has happened since my first day working, and each week somehow managed to take both a second and an eternity to pass.  For my last full week here, I traveled with a woman in the Educational Department, Vera, along with another staff member, Gianna, and helped host story times at the local libraries. Some of these story times were bilingual, so as we read "Pete the Cat", colors, numbers, and more were translated into Spanish to help incorporate native languages of both parents and kids present. The three of us even made an effort to learn numbers in three other languages to create a better community for the families that attend these outreaches. Conducting story times this week was perfect practice seeing as I had my own to host through the library working in collaboration with the Latino Center. Working with Vera, I was able to learn h...

View from Bill Baggs State Park Lighthouse Bill Baggs State Park Light On top of the Bill Baggs State Park Lighthouse Top View from Frost Museum   To think the span of four whole weeks has gone by in the blink of eye. My experience here in the HistoryMiami Museum has taught me a new world of knowledge. The fact that I had a project throughout the entire internship gave me a sense of purpose and gave me a goal to aim for. What feels like just yesterday I arrived into the doors of the HistoryMiami Museum only to be welcomed into one of their morning meetings and to be incorporated into them as part of the staff. Learning the inner workings of the Museum was not the only thing I learned but rather the history of Miami from over 12,000 years ago to present times and folk cultures. This week I got to visit a different Museum, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, that was not about history but rather it was about science. It was...

This week at the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art can be summed up on a single word; surprise. As the week unfolded the word took multiple meanings as the surprise varied between from the arrival of a bigger group of visitors to the one expected, to learning the ways museum ensure every visitor enjoys the exhibit, an aspect I will explain as the blog continues. It started on Sunday, where I helped organize and execute the "Libro Alterado" workshop, it’s an activity where individuals modify a book either by drawing, writing, folding or just cutting one of the pages. At first, I couldn't understand the appeal until I saw the devotion of the participants, the workshop allowed them to tell a story (either the book's or their own) with a different approach. In addition to this wonderful revelation, my first lesson of the week was when the number of participants predicted double in a matter of seconds! Although being a good thing, it was a challenge reorganizing ...

This week was not much different from last week. I am still working in the library, sorting everything and adding to my inventory sheet. Our library includes a collection of magazines that focus on the latino experience and issues within the U.S. You can browse through magazines from the 1960’s all the way to the present. I started sorting the magazines last week and I am just barely about to finish them. I also have had the task of looking through them and finding key information for our new exhibit, and they are all so interesting. One thing I learned when looking through them was that most of the ideas present within them, about chicano activism and the latino identity, were the ideas that my programming and content development team and I discussed during Washington week. Next week will be more busy as the museum opens back up next Thursday and I have my community outreach activity on Monday. Until next week!

Bits and bots week! This week we learned to build and create code for robots. With the 6-8 group, we built two robots: a mouse robot and a sumo robot. The mouse robot, which we tried to make look like a mouse, was able to detect objects ahead of it and turn around to avoid them. The sumo robot, however, would be used to see which robot could push the other one off of the “ring”. Despite the difficulty of the task, they all did exceptionally well and were able to build and code the robots each in one week! Despite how exciting it was to build the robots, being inside for so long along with rainy days that didn’t let us go outside too much, many of our campers became restless. It was understandable because there’s only so much kids could tolerate being in the same room sitting for more than two hours and still be attentive. To try and combat this we had mini dance parties to keep them energized. Regardless of the restlessness, it was incredible seeing all the kids so invested and de...

This week at Explora I was trying new things. That seems to be a theme for me during my internship, trying new things, exploring, etc. This week I realized how much I love working in the classroom setting. On Monday I helped with two camps. Again, camps at Explora are classes parents can sign their kids up for to learn a certain fun subject. I helped with a class called "Amazing Shapes." This class is to show kids the importance of shapes in everyday life. Look up from your computer screen right now and look around the room. Do you notice different shapes? The door is a rectangle, the fan is a circle, the light switch is probably a square. Pretty interesting when you think about how our world is shaped using shapes. After that camp I helped in another camp called "Mysterious Matter," which was all about solids, liquids, and gases! Tuesday I was helping in the same classes. Unlike outreaches and tour groups, I am able to get to know the kids in the classroom ...

          This week was very interesting as always! I had the pleasure of doing research for the week on a specific kind of sundial called the Cube sundial. Not only did I conduct research, I also held a presentation / informal discussion in space where visitors were welcome. This space is called the Space Visualization Lab (SVL). I answered questions from the guests and handed them the objects to touch. I also helped set up some educational objects that guests were allowed to handle. This was a nerve wracking experience as I had to present on something that I did research but was not an expert on. There were also other objects on the cart that I did not know much about. The curator of the collections department helped me answer any question that was beyond my knowledge. I was glad to see so many people interested and get visited by other teen interns. I even had the opportunity to meet a young girl that wants to be an astronaut! Through my research I wa...

This week at HCC was a little more work orientated, but still just as interesting. HCC has these "Grandmother" trunks full of artifacts that they send to kids, and I was in charge of taking inventory and relabeling all the artifacts. As monotonous as it got, it was interesting seeing all these objects. There were sets of trunks from Hispanic, Japanese, African, and Nativa American cultures. Sometimes I'd stop re-organizing all together and just look at what was in the trunks, this made it a slow process to inventory them. Re-bagging Objects The Trunks A small wooden rabbit  But these trunks weren't the only objects I got to see, I also got to tour the collections here at HCC. They store tons of individual objects relating to Colorado history. These objects range from early human pottery, to modern doll collections and everything in between. They also archive newspaper publishing. I wish I was still in highschool, I would have loved to use all ...