This past week marks the beginning of my summer internship with the Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS) as an intern for their Education Department. As an education intern my main work will revolve around the summer learning institute that the museum host for kids ages 4 to 13. The camps cover a wide variety of subjects (art, paleontology, history and other natural sciences) and as such it reflect the extensive scope of MOAS own collections.
For the most part, the week consisted of become acquainted with the facilities and the different members of the museum but, mainly those in the education department. On Monday, the other education intern and I met with the main director of the Education Department to discuss projects and the collections that we would have to become familiar with. Apart from aiding teachers in the classrooms we will also be giving tours to the children so, it is essential that we become comfortable and knowledgeable in terms of the diverse collections. We were given the opportunity to explore the museum and begin our research on the collections.
The follow days we shadowed different members of the education department to get an idea of how they presented material and interacted with a younger audience. In par with that, we began to setup and arrange the three classrooms that would be used throughout the summer. Amongst all these activities, we also began the completion of an ongoing project that would eventually be placed in the Charles and Linda Williams Children’s Museum.
While this week was the calm before the storm, I really look forward to the beginning of the summer camps. The educational aspect of children within a museum setting is one that I haven’t had the ability to actually participant in and I think it will be a great addition to my experiences as an Studio Art major and gallery assistant at the Hand Art Center.