All posts by Amy Powers

Kenan Fellows Externship Day One

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Today was the first day that the Students Discover group was able to go to our externship sites and start working.  We are all working at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. I will be working on the eMammal project in the biodiversity lab with Kelsie and David and our mentors Dr. Stephanie Schuttler (@StephSchuttler) and Dr. Roland Kays (@RolandKays).

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RoboCat in the biodiversity lab
The biodiversity lab
The biodiversity lab

Our first item (of many) was visiting the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.  Who knew this was in the middle of Raleigh?? If you haven’t been you must go! I wish that we saw more of it while we were there (I think we’ll be going again when we do some small mammal trapping). While we were there we discussed our hopes, fears and expectations from this experience.  It was comforting to see that many of us had the same fears but by the end of the day; I think many of them were alleviated.  Later we then learned about a few dragon fly species and got a chance to run through one of the citizen science programs and collect data.

Proper way to hold a dragon fly
Proper way to hold a dragon fly
Teamlet eMammal
Teamlet eMammal, Photo credit: David Glenn

Before we left the ecostation we had an awesome lunch from Neomonde.

Later that afternoon we heard from Dr. Rob Dunn (@RobRDunn). It was very inspiring!

"You will affect thousands of classrooms." - Dr. Rob Dunn
“You will affect thousands of classrooms.” – Dr. Rob Dunn

We then toured the Nature Research Center and the Museum.  I guess a good way to distinguish the two different buildings would be the Museum showcases what we know and the Nature Research Center showcases how we know it.  Our labs are in the Nature Research Center. At the end of the day we were able to tour the Research Collections (not open to the public).10480688_10102089588829058_6747076749490201389_n 10492479_10102090075783198_5356133508314906995_n 10475594_10102090076172418_5478132235917669030_n 10367143_10102090076027708_1538841162201948653_n

 

So as you can see, we had an extremely busy day packed with awesome experiences.  Tomorrow we’re going to be heading back out into the field to download data from the camera traps …

Stay tuned.

My week at NCCAT

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So this week was pretty epic. Not the woah … epic, but the WOAH, what?, YEAH epic.  This was an amazing experience. One that will be hard to forget.

Overall, I found myself amazed by the opportunity to connect with excellent and passionate teachers.  That was the best part of this week. These connections made will have a long lasting effect on my thinking and teaching. I quickly had to get out of my comfort zone. If you hadn’t noticed I’m extremely introverted and it may take a while for me to warm up. Believe me, it’s not because I don’t want the interaction, it’s just something that I have to work up to do. I didn’t have that warm-up period and that was scary and exciting, but welcoming too.

Down the Nantahala

That was another highlight: new experiences. There was the rafting trip and the troll bridge, I think only made better by the boat crew (Kerrie, Kelsie, Michelle, and Maryann) and guide (Mia) that I was with. It was exhilarating and amazing … and cold.

Photo credit: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Photo credit: Nantahala Outdoor Center

So after this week of firsts, I will declare here and now, that I will begin to tackle my greatest fear: open air heights (I’m pretty okay on aircraft, but put me out on any ledge … different story).

Maybe my boat crew will help?

My last highlight was my opportunity to share. Some Fellows were asked to present on various topics. I was fortunate enough to be asked to share about gamification to the group as long as I did not present over five minutes. That was challenging! Also, sharing about Twitter and how it can will make you a better teacher. I got to meet (face-to-face) and work with Allison Stewart (@allisunrae) and Rachel Sniff (@Tchr_RachelM). Hopefully the three of us will get more Kenan Fellows connected with Twitter and get a #kenanchat going …

#kenanselfie2K14
#kenanselfie2K14

 

 

Kenan Fellows Make Connections and Open Doors

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I have a few friends and colleagues who are former Kenan Fellows and the two biggest thing that they say they got from Kenan Fellows were the connections they made and the opportunity that this experience provides.

I am a huge believer in connected educators. In our day and age we can no longer be isolated. We become better teachers when we surround ourselves with better teachers. Being connected with educators on Twitter has been great, but I am extremely excited about connecting with these excellent Fellows.

Opportunities are also something that I am looking forward to. Hearing what others have done post Kenan is inspiring. I just hope to get to do half of what I’ve seen and heard. I particularly have my eyes set on the Einstein Fellowship. I am very interested in science education policy and see this as a perfect opportunity to achieving that. I hope Kenan Fellows will bring me one step closer.

*Photo credit: Kerrie Albright