Today was my last day in Florence and I'm off to Paris tomorrow until Saturday when I'm back in the USA. The trip has been fantastic but I'm actually excited to head back to Gainesville! (I get homesick, weird I know.) I'm going into my final semester studying math this Fall and will be graduating in December. This summer I will be working with fellow classmate Taylor Whitley in the Florida Museum of Natural History and supervised by Dr. Shari Ellis.
Unfortunately, I have only been able to experience one day in the museum before I left but I did have a lot of fun with it. I was able to shadow Taylor on a tour through the fossil exhibits with two fourth grade classes in Alachua county. During the tours, Taylor was able to include many probing questions about math such as calculating a shark's length by the length of it's tooth or how museum workers could figure out the best possible way to layout an exhibit. The students loved answering all the questions Taylor asked and for the most part seemed to enjoy the tour. I thought it was fun!
After the tours were over we went to the office where I helped Taylor prepare the lesson she and Dr. Ellis (our supervisor) would be teaching to the same students in school the next day. The lesson was on measuring heights of specific exhibits such as the mammoth and comparing those to similar animals today.
This summer, Taylor and I will be working under Dr. Ellis to create guides for the Megalodon and Dinosaur named Sue exhibits that incorporate math. There will be a lot of research involved in creating these guides so Taylor and I will be on the computers A LOT, along with some Starbucks.
Once I'm back in the states and actually being able to attend work, I will have more information to share. So for right, I guess that's it!
Wow! The pictures are beautiful! I went to Italy a few years ago and visited Venice, Rome, and Milan...It was an amazing experience!
ReplyDeleteYour internship definitely sounds like it will contain a lot of research, but very interesting nonetheless. Do you think you will be able to incorporate mathematical information for different age groups, or will it be more generalized for most to understand? Do you have any example ideas yet?
Have a safe trip back, and hope to see you in class this week!
I AM SOOOOOO JEALOUS!!!!!! I have always wanted to go to Paris, ohmygosh, not even fair! but anyways, I know you will do great at the museum because you're awesome, and hurry back, we miss you in class!!
ReplyDeleteYou know…. I'm in Hawaii….. and I'm still jealous. Florence is my favorite city that I've ever been to. My friend's mom sold everything she owned and moved there after her undergrad… sounds tempting, I know. I'm glad your first day at the museum was fun! I am really interested to see how you guys manage to incorporate math into the shark exhibits.
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