Week 3.~₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊ ᡣ𐭩
~.Conservation.~
Hi! For this week, I thought I'd place a bit more emphasis on content rather than visuals, which is why this blog will feel just a tad bit different and perhaps a bit longer :-) I hope you enjoy nonetheless.
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MONDAY
To start off this wonderful week, I almost got lost.. again... One thing about the Frost is that there are about fifty different entrances, and none of them are connected. Not only that, but when you start accounting for all the secret staff entrances.. lets just say that I never stood a chance. Once I made it upstairs, I was told I'd be in our Marine Conservation Wet Lab. The only problem is that I had arrived at 9:00 AM, and the Lab opened at 10:00....
So for my first hour I was back with the Investigators! AKA the 8-11 year old campers! How fun! But, in all seriousness, I enjoyed being able to help out and engage with the children. After all, they are our future, and from what I can tell, the future is going to be hilarious.
After an entire hour of shenanigans and tomfoolery, I made my way to the Wet Lab! There I met with Caitlynne who gave me the grand tour, and some papers to read to educate me on the Corals being Researched.
Some things I learned->
1. Corals are animals :-o They eat, sleep, and get stressed just like us.
2. They reproduce sexually & asexually
3. Algae can suffocate them when babies, but it is also what they feed on.
(They have zooxanthellae, a type of algae, living in their tissues. It's their food and gives them their color. )
So, with this information, I was sent to interact with guests and give them a brief tour of everything being done. At first, I was scared because last week I tried this and was SERIOUSLY rejected, but this time it went better, and more people were actually interested in what I had to say.
MOVING ON..
This was my least favorite part of the week. (except Pumpkin, the kitty to the right) ... I learned how to use Excel. Now, inherently, Excel is not a bad thing, rather, a useful skill to have. However.. I was given FIVE YEARS of information to handle at once. You can imagine how me, a novice, felt at that moment. Luckily! I was with Caitlynne, the person in charge of the Wet Lab, and she just so happened to be an Excel WARRIOR!!! She showed me the ropes before leaving, and I conquered the week's biggest challenge. BTW, the lady to the right with Pumpkin is called Juliana, and she will make an appearance again soon :-)
The dreaded Excel charts..
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝
TUESDAY
So, Tuesday definitely took a different turn and set the tone for the rest of the week.
I started the morning with Juliana as she showed me what I was meant to do- promote the Museums' volunteer organization and provide information about them.
It was alright. My confidence in speaking to guests was slightly increased because of yesterday, but to be honest, I was still somewhat scared.. I mainly spoke to kids, but I hit the goal of 30 interactions, so that was cool :-)
After this, Juliana came to check on me and she showed me yet again MORE secret staff entrances, which was great, but also makes me wonder why there are so many things hidden in plain sight...
Anyways, the end goal of all this exploring was to find the washers & dryers to be able to wash used gardening gloves and the MUVE tablecloth. Once this was done and my tasks completed, I went to the Camp's after-care room to interact with the kids.
I have now become a professional at Connect 4.
Juliana and I after our long, arduous quest :-)
𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
We did it!! We are already essentially halfway through the week! I'm combining Wednesday and Thursday due to a lack of pictures + overlap from previous days.
Okay soooo, Wednesday I started my morning with the camp because I came early again, but it's alright. I love not knowing what's coming next when I'm with the kids haha, it definitely keeps you on your toes.
Once the Wet Lab opened, I met with Caitlynnes intern, Sam, who the Frost shares with the University of Miami. She's studying Marine Biology and is super sweet :-)
We all went to the roof to plant Sea Oats for MUVE's upcoming dune restoration project.
After that I spent the rest of my afternoon in the Wet Lab interacting with guests, who challenged me to learn more and more with their intricate questions about corals haha.
Luckily, I had a super cool buddy (shoutout to Sebastian!) who helped me out and made sure to make me feel included the entire time, both Wednesday and Thursday.
Left to Right: Me, Sam, and Caitlynne, planting Sea Oats
For Thursday, Juliana invited me out to Virginia Key to remove weeds and invasive plants from the dunes with some of the other Conservation members. It was oddly soothing, though the sun was insane, and it wasn't even noon yet.
I learned how to identify weeds and non-natives through comparison and an app called 'iNaturalist'
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
FRIDAY
Woah.. Conservation week is finally over. I'm glad it's over, but also.. I'm kind of sad about it.
This week has been the one where I have felt most accepted in the Museum, not only with the people from this department, or the Guest Experience workers, but just overall. Even with the camp teachers, I've felt more of a sense of belonging that I didn't used to feel before.
I guess that's how you know that this is coming to an end. How bittersweet :,-)
So, as I've done the rest of the week, I started my morning with the campers before making my way to the Marine Wet Lab.
Today, we worked on making "Cave Paintings" using Turmeric, Paprika, and Charcoal along with a bit of oil to pretend we were Cavemen. I think that they all came out of that activity with a newfound appreciation for Cave Art haha.
Here's Sam and I after potting over 100 Sea Oats
After heading to the Wet Lab, we met with Juliana, who tasked us with potting some more Sea Oats.
She gave us a quota of one tray to pot, but we went above and beyond (as we should) and finished over 2 trays. Overall, this week we have potted ~250 Sea Oats between us and Caitlynne on Wednesday.
Although it doesn't seem like much, I think that the smallest things we do to help our Earth end up having the biggest impacts. Slowly but surely, we can help change the world :-)
LASTLY...
Pic of Sam and I's army of Sea Oats ( ◡̀ ᴗ ◡́)و
Thank You for Reading!!
(if you made it this far)
We'll be back to our regular blog format for our last post :,-)
(maybe)
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