Christopher Myers: Making Science for Everyone

Everyone took a step back. The children were quivering in fear, covering their faces to shield their eyes. The adults looked down at what was in my hands with fascination, tainted by a hint of uncertainty. I smiled and held my hands out further, cradling a tarantula molt, urging the visitors to touch it and reassuring them that it wasn’t going to jump up and bite them.

Over the summer, I interned in the Investigate lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS), mainly working with public science education. The main mission of NCMNS is to “illuminate the natural world and inspire its conservation” through unconventional teaching methods and educating the public in a more casual and engaging way than a traditional classroom setting. I interned in the Investigate Lab, a more interactive space compared to other areas in the museum. The lab was more hands-on, with several self-guided activities teaching about a variety of scientific topics.

In the beginning, I had some difficulty adjusting the way I talked to cater to a variety of different audiences. For instance, early on I was teaching a group of young children about ocean pollution. I caught myself before getting into microplastics since telling a bunch of children that their bodies are full of plastic may be a little scary for them. Even when talking with adults I had to remember that not everyone is as excited about science as I am. Being able to edit my teaching style on the fly was absolutely a challenge.

Most days in the lab were spent managing the space, talking to visitors, helping guests with different activities, and getting people interested to learn more independently. While it was my job to share my knowledge with the visitors, I ended up learning a lot from them. I heard many stories from visitors about encounters with jellyfish and tarantulas, both specimens we have in the lab. Working in the lab exposed me to so many people from so many backgrounds, helping me broaden my worldview. Aside from helping with the space and talking to people, my internship involved developing my own stand alone, self-guided activity for later use in the lab.

I decided to make an activity about water quality and bioindicators, teaching the public about the process of using bioindicator sampling to determine water quality. This activity had to involve a hands-on component, so I decided the best way to teach the public about bioindicator sampling was to have them do it themselves! I used the resources we had available in the lab to create two model bodies of water and make cutouts of various bioindicators that could be found in clean or polluted waters.In addition to bioindicators, the activity includes information about other ways water quality can be measured, such as through pH, conductivity, and turbidity.

The other interns in the lab also developed their own projects in areas that interested them; one did a project on building viruses while the other created a board game modeling neurons. It was nice having other interns in the same situation as me, being able to bounce ideas off each other and provide different perspectives to help see what would work best.

The more I interacted with people and worked on my project, the more I understood how different people learn in different ways. Using simplified comparisons (like saying hissing cockroaches fart as a defense mechanism) can sometimes be much more effective and engaging than trying to dump complicated details about a confusing topic. As the internship went on, my goal shifted slightly as well. I wasn’t as concerned with regurgitating facts to visitors as I was determined to get people excited about learning. One of my proudest moments was after teaching an elementary school group about water quality, one of the kids asked me how they could do water quality testing as a career. Museums are such a good environment to inspire people, especially young people, to get interested in science.

I really enjoyed my internship. I love the museum environment because I think it puts everyone on an even playing field, regardless of their age or background. Everyone from adults to children enjoy learning cool facts about our planet and getting to play with scientific equipment. Although some days were pretty slow, during the busy moments it was very satisfying to answer questions and assist visitors wherever needed.

This internship has taught me a lot about a career working in a museum. There are so many different departments, from collections management to programming to animal husbandry. I am definitely considering pursuing a career with museums, but this internship has also let me talk to many people in many different fields. There are several volunteers that help out in the Lab from different backgrounds. I had the opportunity to talk to them about their career paths and it has given me some ideas about what I want mine to look like. While there’s many ways my future career could go, this internship has given me more information about what options I have and what might work best for me.

Overall interning in the Investigate Lab was a fun and rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to educate the public about the natural world while also learning a lot from my supervisors, museum staff, and the visitors. I learned that I like a work environment that is collaborative, but maybe a public facing position is not the best fit for me. While it was fun interacting with the public at times, it was draining to be constantly in a public facing role and it would maybe be more enjoyable in smaller doses. This experience has given me a lot to think about when deciding where my career will go from here but if this internship did one thing, it helped further cement my love and appreciation for museums.