In performing my practicum project I was granted the opportunity to take advantage of an experience I had long wanted to have: working "behind the scenes" of a museum. My practicum site was a small local museum in Morristown, New Jersey, the Morris Museum. The Morris Museum has both Geology and Paleontology galleries, as well as galleries devoted to other natural and biological sciences and a newly instituted permanent collection, the ÒGuinness Collection,Ó comprised of an assortment of music boxes and wind-up dolls. The main mission of the Morris Museum is to help educate children by getting them interested and involved in the sciences. It is because of this mission that I was able to develop a project that benefited my own needs as well as those of the museum. Although the museum seeks to reach out to children, it is remarkably lacking with regards to how Òkid-friendlyÓ it actually is. Working in conjunction with my site supervisor and the head curator of the Morris Museum, I was charged with updating the Geology gallery and the ÒDinosaur Den,Ó ensuring that the two met the standards all museums are required to meet in terms of artifact labels, and making descriptions more interesting for the children.

I had visited this site with my family when I was younger, so when I was searching for a practicum site it seemed like an obvious answer. During my second semester of freshman year I began looking at the Morris Museum website to determine if it was an adequate site for my project. It contained ample information about volunteering in the different departments and about contacting the volunteer coordinator. After calling the volunteer coordinator and submitting an application, she put me into contact with the head of the Geology department, and my site supervisor, Mr. Dave Nalven, who was conveniently in search of a summer intern. After going through the application formalities, I was offered an internship position, effective July through August in order to avoid conflict with the ELT Summer Study Abroad to the Galapagos Islands.

While working in the museum I updated the two previously mentioned galleries, correcting mislabeled artifacts and restructuring the display cases to make them safer and more kid friendly. Some of the display cases in the geology gallery had specimens that were labeled incorrectly, either in terms of the actual specimen name or its location. There were also some radioactive specimens that had been at the front of the display cases. Having these specimens placed at the front of the case conflicted with museum guidelines, so changing the set up, as well as reformatting the overall gallery, not only helped the gallery conform to guidelines but also made it more interesting to children. I also had the chance to directly interact with children when camp groups came to tour the depths of the museum Òbehind the scenes.Ó When they made their way to the Geology Lab I greeted the children, showing them around the lab and explaining what kind of work is done there. I showed the kids where all the non-display specimens are kept and explained to them how the lab is organized. Each of these tours culminated in the most exciting part: each child was allowed to pick out their very own fossilized dinosaur bone fragment to take home as a souvenir! This was always my favorite task to perform while working because it allowed me to see the museumÕs mission in action, engaging children in science.

By working in the museum I learned more about caring for and displaying museum pieces, as well as how to best organize galleries of geological artifacts. I was able to gain valuable information both about museum curation and about geology in general, learning how to identify specimens and how to classify them for display purposes. Taking on this internship let me experience the Morris MuseumÕs mission by showing me how they reach out to the community, bringing science wherever they can. One of the most important things that I learned while working at the museum was not directly related to my practicum but rather concerned the children of the community. Seeing how excited the children were when they were granted the opportunity for more hands-on learning was a lot of fun and, if possible, I would like to return to the Morris Museum in the future to help develop their outreach programs, focusing on engaging the children more and making museums more fun. Although I still wish to continue on my current career path in anthropology in the future, I can apply my knowledge of anthropology to other departments of the museum, making those departments as interesting and kid friendly as the newly modified Geology and Paleontology departments.