Week One… Wow!
That first day was jam packed with tours, badges, meetings, discussions, strengths finder, and the perks of being at a big business. After a full day, I was exhausted, but eager for the next. We spent the second and third days at the Innovation Center. This place is lab after lab, plant incubator after plant incubator. I was shocked that they let us jump right in! We were splitting seeds and looking at the different parts of the seed to set them up for the Plant Genome Engineering team. After spending time with Amanda and her team, I have a new appreciation for the Lepidoptera/Coleoptera (the piercers and the sucker bugs). It was really exciting to see the technology that is in place in these labs helping to move science forward. However, even they sometimes have to engineer solutions with household items to make their job easier! Our last afternoon was spend going back to chemistry/biology class. We were using a pipette to set up a Western Blot test. Although we weren’t naturals, I think we made our high school teachers proud.
After that, I’ll admit, was the part I was hoping for! The Bee Care Center — what’s the buzz about the bees you ask? (forewarning: this may get punny). Hive been waiting to learn about bees for quite some time. It is my goal to find a way to bring bees onto campus to have a demonstration hive that students can learn from. The bee community is incredible and I would love to show my little worker bees what their life cycle and job is all about. I learned more about bees in a conversation (sorry for all the questions Morgan) and a tour, than I ever imagined. On the second day, we suited up for a Hive Assessment, and I’ve never BEEn so excited for a day at “work.” The connections to the classroom are endless. Maybe if I can get a lot of support on here WCPSS will let us have bees on campus, what do you think? I’ll post more on bees later.
We wrapped up the week back in the main offices meeting with someone about Agvocating and all the challenges that are facing our human population (PBL to come!). Then we sat down with a team of Sales Reps — one of which turned out to be a Nebraska farmer. Hearing about how he grew up and how that influenced what he does now, and his educational career, was very interesting. He shared a lot about what goes in to be a farmer, and how he manages. Sadly, I’ll admit, I had never had a conversation with a larger scale farmer. A big take-away from that conversation is Bayer’s emphasis on their sales people being knowledgeable and trusted. These gentlemen mentioned that they don’t just blindly sell, they have an ed background in agronomy or horticulture.
Overall, a great start! I am shocked and so excited at how hands-on we have been this week. It’s not just telling us about what they do, but really putting us into the science, the research, and the agvocating of Bayer.
