Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science- Amanda Saiz, Week 2
My second week at the Frost has been super exciting! I have continued to help Cory Keester- O'Mills, the exhibition developer, with future plans. This week the other interns and I had the privilege of conducting in-person surveys with the guests who attended the exhibit. After introducing ourselves and our goal, we asked questions like what they thought could be done to improve the exhibit and what they learned in the exhibit. Each person, from various age groups, had different things to contribute, which allowed us to gain insight on what the guests would want to take from the exhibit following the enhancement. Next week, we will be meeting with Cory to find out the key takeaways from the surveys we performed, as well as the similarities between the walk-through times we recorded (the time guests entered the exhibit and the time they left).
Following this project, which took place on Wednesday, I continued to help Sara Raposo, my internship supervisor and the director of educational programs, with the educational department of the museum. This consists of helping summer camp gather materials for future weeks and preparing weekly projects.
On Friday, I took part in another new and exciting project! Arriving at the museum at 7:30 AM, I anxiously waited to participate in the WetLab. At 8 AM, I was lucky enough to be able to look at all of the coral that is maintained in the WetLab, as well as a few jellyfish. Then, Chris Cain, the leader of the Aquarium Life Support team, allowed me to test the water collected from tanks all over the museum for their pH and salinity.
Following this activity, I went on to prepare food for the various marine species in the museum with a long-time volunteer. This included food preparation for an eel, a grouper (Clementine), a turtle, stingrays, fish, and even sharks!!! I never truly realized how much thought goes into feeding these animals (for example, the shark food is calculated to ensure that they do not eat the fish in the tank with them). I chopped things like silverside, squid, shrimp, clam, and capelin.
Watching a fellow team member (I believe his name was Aaron, but he referred to himself as "The Coral Guy") feed the eel and grouper, using target training techniques, amazed me, as I did not even realize these animals were target trained. All he had to do was present a fluorescent orange and white triangle into the water and the grouper and eel came right up, one after the other.
Last, but not least, I actually got to feed the sharks, turtle, and stingrays. The sharks were not very interested in eating so early in the morning, but the turtle and stingrays definitely were. In fact, the turtle kept stealing the shark food! For some reason, I had myself convinced turtles were herbivores, but I was definitely wrong! For the stingray feeding, I joined a team member on a floating platform and he taught me the feeding technique. The stingrays knew the metal bowl attached to the stick I was holding was their target. As soon as the bowl was near the water's surface, all the stingrays rapidly began swimming (with one stingray leading the group). It took a few times for me to get the hang of it because they were so fast, but luckily I did!
Lastly, I just want express my thanks to all the employees I have been working with over the past few weeks. They have been incredibly welcoming and have given me the opportunity to participate in various activities. I also want to thank the volunteer I worked with in the food preparations, who was amazing. His dedication to helping the museum is very inspirational and demonstrated to me the importance of maintaining your hobbies. I hope I get to work with the museum's marine life more in the future! Soon, I will be participating in a beach cleanup event, which I am incredibly excited for.
Catch you guys next week,
Amanda Saiz
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