“What did I do to deserve that?”
Ever ask yourself that question?
I have every day for the past week as a reflect on my time in the fishbowl of the Biodiversity Lab of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences Nature Research Center. Working alongside Dr. Stephanie Schuttler has forever changed my idea of what real science is and what real scientists look like, think and do. The glass walls of the labs in the NRC let passersby see what really goes on, but to step inside the lab is to immerse yourself into a world of never-ending question-asking and answer-seeking nirvana.
Welcome to the fishbowl!
“But this isn’t what I thought a laboratory would look like!”
On our first day at the museum, all four Students Discover teams toured the labs that we would be using throughout our three week externship. Over the next couple of weeks, we talked over breakfast, shared stories over dinner, and expressed wonder during late night game playing as we discussed our latest discoveries. Even though we had spent so much time together and knew a lot about each other’s projects, we found out during the Daily Planet Talks that we really had only scraped the surface of all the learning that had taken place. In our planning for the eMammal talk, I learned new things from my own team that I had somehow missed. The Daily Planet Talks turned out to be an amazing reflective tool for us.
Dr. Stephanie Schuttler takes the stage for Q & A
Now that our time at the museum is over, we are still faced with our biggest challenge…curriculum development. We were able to build upon the lesson that the first cohort created, but we are still faced with developing curriculum pieces that are relevant, engaging and scalable. My focus has been on how to use the eMammal data that we collect to engage students with authentic data analysis that supports the 7th grade mathematics NC Standard Course of Study. Being a former art teacher, I’m also creating an integrated science and art lesson using eMammal camera traps as the catalyst. My greatest hope is that other teachers will find the curriculum pieces that I write to be useful and that students will be turned on to Citizen Science in the process.
Where are the white lab coats? Real scientists here…no white lab coats needed!
Teacher-Scientist?! Awesome!
The name tag I received on my first day at the museum serves as a reminder of my biggest takeaway from my time in the fishbowl….Teacher-Scientist. Everyone who is interested in the world around them and wants to learn about it can participate in real science. Citizen Science projects are plentiful and almost everyone can find something that interests them. I am so thankful for my time on the eMammal team and for being given the time to explore ways to blur the lines between science and math.