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Day 10: The Last Day

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Today I arrived a bit early so I was able to take a brief look at the touch cart again before going right into presenting.  After I felt pretty confident, I went to get ready in front of the malacology exhibit. Luckily, there were a lot of visitors, including numerous tours for school field trips, so there was no problem in presenting today.  I am happy to say that this time I was able to get some images of me presenting, and not just pictures of the cart. Ms. Leap helped me in doing this: she stood in front of me, so she was able to get pictures of me and the backs of the visitors watching.  When there were groups of younger children, having also the teachers present meant that there was a more in-depth explanation for the specimens I was showing. I tried my best to make each presentation as interactive and coherent as possible.  I decided to put in the left-handed whelk , the Texas state shell, instead of the tiger cowrie . I think that was a good call since it seemed that it was a s
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Day 9: Independent Research

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Today went very well. Unfortunately, I did not present... but I definitely plan to do so tomorrow, so I spent today getting ready for that. The first thing I did was spend time practicing with the paleo cart, going through the usual processes of research and note-taking. Hopefully, I'll be able to move on to other paleo carts soon. In the meantime, I am satisfied with how the presentations are going for the malacology hall, so I'll definitely continue with those.  Then, about halfway today, I also went to get the malacology touch cart, to get more comfortable with more specimens so I could present them tomorrow. As I established yesterday, having pretty but durable specimens on display is an approach I prefer, especially with how lively the younger visitors can get. So I tried to apply this logic to those that I chose today.  While I had the malacology cart, I spent some time exploring what different specimens I could use while still keeping the pattern of "one class each&
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Day 8: Presenting... part 2!

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Today, I was able to present! I am happy I was able to get some practical work done today, and that the research I've been doing has paid off. To sum it up, the presentations went very well, and I aim to do more of them throughout the rest of the individual study. Unfortunately, I didn't present the paleo touch cart, but rather I had presented more with the malacology one.  I started by working with the "hammer oyster," "left handed whelk" and "chambered nautilus." Again, it is very much encouraged for docents to only have up to three specimens at once on display; this is for the very simple reason that they are easier to keep an eye on. I wanted to start with one specimen for all three of the classes, something that I did not do the last time I presented. Another thing I made sure I did was to choose items which were smoother and less fragile. Last time, I picked some specimens which were beautiful but had very fine features. Today I was nervous t
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Day 7: Independent Work

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Today, I got to work on my end product throughout most of the time at the museum, which was a nice change from the usual activeness during more crowded days. Also, as Ms. Leap had to leave early today, I had a chance to work a little more on my own, which also went smoothly.  To sum it up again, my end product for this independent study will be an overview of the malacology touch-cart, including some information on the specimens, and some examples of how a docent could structure a presentation. I've seen some of the other touch carts around the museum, most of them from the paleo hall, and they all have a flexible outline someone can use to practice with before presenting. Since the malacology one does not, I think it would be beneficial both to me and future volunteers.  One of the first things I set to doing was taking note of the specimens this cart had. I plan to give some basic information on what they are, and divide them according to class. Out of the eight classes of mollus
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Day 6: The Permian Cart

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Returning from the weekend, today was pretty calm in comparison to some of last week's days. I did not feel ready to present with the cart I had briefly seen at the end of Friday, so I decided to focus on getting more familiar with that today.  I signed out the Permian touch cart in the paleo exhibit and took it to the same spare room that I spent the majority of last week. This past weekend I revised the research papers Ms. Leap gave me for this specific cart and although it was pretty clear and detailed, I still wanted to see if I could apply what I had learned to the actual casts and models this cart offered. So, I set to looking through the objects it contained, and had a more practical approach to the research.  Below are two of my favourite pieces that I worked with today: Dimetrodon Coracoid Cast & Mold The first box contained a model of a mold and cast. So, obviously these are not fossils and rather replicas. A docent might use these during a presentation to demonstrate
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Day 5: Presenting!

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Today was really exciting! I am pleased to say that I got to officially present today in front of the malacology exhibit.  This morning, I got to signing in and leaving my bags, then got to extracting the touch cart from its original space, and briefly brought it to another empty classroom on the lower floors. I took a bit of time to briefly review the specimens again, seeing the research papers for those for more information, and did some mock presentations before I went up again.  Ms. Leap had, yesterday, showed me a place she recommended I set up with the touch cart in order to get the most flow of visitors. That spot is the junction between the malacology exhibit and the hall of gems and minerals. Since the stairs were in the immediate vicinity when it began nearing 10, it started getting pretty crowded ...  There were groups of younger students coming and going for the majority of my set-up, and I discovered pretty quickly that small children will want to touch the "up for gr
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Day 4: Introducing the Touch Cart

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      Today, I was able to work with the malacology touch cart! This was my plan for today, so I'm really happy I was able to get that done.  It was the first thing we got to do this morning, after the usual routine. Ms. Leap brought me to the "George W. Strake Hall of Malacology," where, under one of the glass exhibits, was an opening which showed a large cart specific to this exhibit. When it was closed, all you could see on the top were a bunch of gastropod shells showcased behind a glass panel. We then moved the cart to a spare room on the Ground Floor, and I got the chance to work with and study the objects the cart held inside. Here is what I was working with today: The cart's contents are all property of the museum and they are (almost) all available for being physically held by visitors; only some are the exception, and can only be held by the docent because of how fragile they are.  All of the specimens were arranged in specific boxes according to their class
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