Witte Museum - Xochitl Aguero, Week 4
Introduction: It is the final week of the internship and I continued to facilitate at camp with my supervisor since this is also the last week of camp at the Witte Museum. On my fourth week, I got to supervise the older 9-12 year old campers who are focusing on "Astronaut Academy." At this camp, they will get to learn on how astronauts travel, eat and sleep in space, inspired by the Witte's Surviving Space exhibition. They will also get to see what it takes to be a space explorer as they get to embark on many explorations and activities that will test their teamwork, communication, and cooperation skills.
On Sunday, I came in this day to make up July 8th, so I got to help with public programs and visitor experience. I watched over at the shark exhibit for some times and then went to the people of the Pecos/Fiesta Art gallery to watch over there for a couple of more hours and then spent the remaining time guarding the rides at the space exhibit. I wasn't able to do much since my supervisor is only here during the weekdays, but I did my best to help out with managers at public programs since we were starting to get a lot of visitors coming in. I took more pictures of the Fiesta Dresses as I spent a lot of time in this gallery.
On Monday, this was the start of the last Witte Camp for this summer and we always start the day with an icebreaker to get to know each and every camper. Since this camp is space themed, we first explored the Space gallery for an hour in order to learn more about space and dive deep into the history of NASA and their explorations throughout the years After that, we headed back to the memorial stadium room (camp room) to start our first activity of the day which is to make galaxy slime! I helped my supervisor prep the materials and gave instructions to all the campers on how to make the slime. It was a fun and slimy project for the campers and they all had a wonderful time. We then had a lunch break and had a short presentation on what is the International Space Station and focused on today's theme which is "What is space?" We followed along with some pop quizzes and played space related games.
Photo of NASA Flight Suit worn by Dr. Ellen Ochoa; the first Hispanic Woman to travel to Space
On Tuesday, our main focus for today was learning on "Preparing for space," where they saw a presentation and watched a short video on how to prepare for space with the essentials necessary for a successful takeoff. After this and our icebreaker, they got to vote on exploring any gallery at the museum today and they chose to explore the shark gallery, so I supervised them there for a bit until we headed back to the camp room to start our first activity of the day. This activity connects to the main focus of today in which the campers get to make their own NASA suitcase and pack what they want to bring with them if they were to go to space. They had the option to pack food, clothes, space ice cream, pre-packaged food, healthcare items, pets, plants, communication, research items, and so much more. Since yesterday they learned what the International Space Station is in space, today they got to make their very own International Space Station out of construction paper! I got to be an awesome instructor and teach the campers everything they learned about space today along with my supervisor.
Photo of their NASA suitcases and International Space Station being made
On Wednesday, we started the morning with another icebreaker and a would you rather: live on the moon or live on mars and explain why. It was interesting to hear all the responses as most of them said to live on the moon since we have more knowledge on the moon while mars is still unknown to us. They then voted to explore the space gallery again for an hour and we then explored the live lab gallery where they got to see live animals such as quails, snakes, tarantulas, turtles, and a scorpion. Yesterday they had packed their NASA suitcase to prepare them for space travel, and today they get to create their very own moon base to store their items inside. They used cardboard, paper, strings, wooden sticks, balls, and so many other materials to make their moon base. I helped many of the campers create their moon bases and it was amazing to see the final looks at all of them. I had so much fun designing and helping them out and they also appreciated my help too.
Photos of me helping campers with their moon bases and camper's results
(Photo of campers accepted by Witte Camp Staff and their Guardians)
On Thursday, The campers voted to explore the Texas History gallery first, where they got to learn more about the history and culture of how Texas came to be, as well as some background information on the culture development of Texas. Today was one of my favorite days so far during my internship because I got to teach the campers how to make corn tortillas! This became our first activity of the day and when I heard that we were going to teach them how to make corn tortillas by scratch, I got really excited because it reminded me when I got to make corn tortillas during YAP Washington week! I used my skills and knowledge during Washington week to guide the campers on making their very own corn tortillas, which came out really good and tasty. Even though this activity wasn't really space related, we we wanted the campers to try out something fun and different that would get them hyped up to make food. Continuing with food, some space related that we did end up doing was taste testing space food. I helped set up cups of space food consisting of space strawberries, pears, apples, rice, and bananas for the campers to try. Once they tried each sample, they have to rate from 10 being the highest of each space food they tried and which one they liked the most. As a reward for helping my supervisor, I also got to try some of the food and the space food was extremely lightweight and had the texture of chips.
Photo of making corn tortillas and taste testing space food
On Friday, I continued to supervise and instruct the campers on space explorations and activities. We started the day voting to explore the Dino and wild exhibit galleries at the Witte. After this, we then headed back to the camp room and I gave them time to continue working on any other previous activities that they wanted to finish this week as there were still some campers needed to complete their moon bases, international space stations, etc. For the campers that did finish with all of their activities from this week, I opened up another station for them to make necklaces and bracelets inspired by our solar system. I continued to help the campers with their projects and their solar system necklaces/bracelets. For the last day of space camp, we let them all try space ice cream, which ended up being a light, powdery ice cream sandwich that tasted very "airy" and not so much like ice cream, but most of them ended up loving the taste anyways. There was a lot of free time for the campers to decide what they want to do on their last day, so they ended up wanting more recess time and exploring the outside garden of the HEB Body adventure area. During this time, I supervised them and played tennis with some of the campers too. Once it was time to check them all out for the day, I said my final goodbyes to the Camp Staff Members and then to my Supervisors.
Photo of a space Bracelet made by one of the campers
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