Children's Museum of Houston-Week One&Two

Hey yah!

Well I started the following Monday after we finished Washington Week, so this is my second week. Truth be told it kinda sucks due to the fact I am halfway done with my internship with this week coming to an end today.

On my first two days it consisted of really just being introduced to all the staff members and showing me around the museum. Going in I thought I would probably be doing paper work and work in an office cubical but I'm not. I am working only with the Maker Corps in the Maker Annex which is an exhibit that brings groups of kids ages 8 and up from local neighborhoods. Each week there is one assignment or project that they have to build. So it will be different groups on different days and time doing the same project for that one week. When I started the project of the week was to build a cardboard automata which is essentially teaching kids how gears (CAM) move, one gear moving makes another gear move which ends up making some kind of motion. It was really difficult for most of the kids to understand what was happening or why. I didn't get it at first either but something that helped was that we all in the Maker Corps prototype all of the projects before hand just so we understand and are able to help the kids better. Besides building the cardboard automata they also were able to build hydraulic bridges which was my favorite from the two. This showed the kids how hydraulic machinery worked whether it be do open/close a bridge or to move something. It amazed me how some kids took it even further than just building a bridge, some where creating other things like having a shark jump out of water to eat a fish another one that was really cool was a jack in the box. This is what my first week really consisted of, helping the groups of kids build these two projects and familiarizing me with the museum.

On my second week, this week we had the kids build their own game whether it be a board game, card game, trivia game anything really. It was to help them to understand how a computer works with the thought process of "if" this happens "then" this would happen but if this doesn't happen what "else" will. They had to create the board, the rule book, and the characters and everything had to be detailed to the point where anyone else could play with out their assistance. Another part of this project was they were able to create their own dice with an arduino board. Which is a computer with wires and 6 LED lights and when you press the button it randomizes the number and depending what the number is the same number of LED lights turn on. For the sake of time constraint we programmed the boards and just allowed them to set it up which is still time consuming on its own. This week I was also able to walk around the museum and do the activities because the whole museum is interactive which is AWESOME. I wrote down what worked, what didn't, if any of the instructions were unclear and confusing, what we can do to improve it, is it keeping the people in or just frustrating them and making them move on to the next activity.

These whole two weeks have been really weird for me just because what I'm doing is really STEM based and my interest are really on the other side of the spectrum. Yet it is so interesting because it's all new to me and I am learning something new everyday. My co-workers consist of four young adults 20-22 years old all studying to be engineers and they are willing to make time to teach me stuff that they really don't have to bother with. I'm learning how to use a 3-D printer, laser cutter, and how to sauder. Also working with the kids has been amazing seeing them at such a young age be able to understand and comprehend some of these ideas. The groups are also really diverse and even at that they all think so differently but have the same big picture idea. One thing I have enjoyed greatly is when I am explaining something to them and it clicks for them but they are still able to take it into more detail just because they finally understood it. Not going to lie and say it is all good and a stress free work, it is not easy working with kids just because it is hard to get their attention at times and some get frustrated and just quit and refuse to do any work. (Yo shout out if you really read this far and paying attention you real, comment AYE so I know, almost done don't worry)

One thing I have come to know that it really is about team work and communication to run a museum. Just like in Washington Week if we wanted to get that project done we all had to come together and communicate properly to get it done. Same here, they all have their own individual department but at the end they work together so everything can run smoothly.

I hope you all are having fun and learning something new. One last thing I have pictures but I was too lazy to upload them right now maybe next week, also I was told to go shoot some videos so yea. Have fun guys, I miss yah.