I have not been getting in a blog every day as literally there is so much to do! I am still trying to count two or three microscope slides each day, at about two hours each, while also doing the reading and writing as I build up posrtions of the initial article. There are literally about twenty pieces of the article that I want to work on at once. The day flies by, and I am working long days – typically coming in about 9AM and leaving about 9PM, with only brief lunch and dinner breaks, taking an evening off every third night, more or less (last night watching the Nebraska – Missouri football game on the TV, probably the first full football game I have seen in a bunch of years).
Yesterday I took a half-day off to assist my colleague in doig an educational program for 84 (!) middle schooler from Lexington, NE, which is about 3 1/2 hours drive from here. The kids were put into two groups, with Dave and some assistants showing them a geologic site where they could collect (mostly crinoid stem) fossils, while the other half took the tour of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Galleries at the Nebraska Museum of Natural History. This is a great museum, with a long history. Steve (another colleague) and I, with assistants, showed them the galleries and worked to show the context of time and environment in of the geologic site. It worked very well.
Many of the kids were hispanic and I think likely had never been to a museum like this, and there is always the thought that such a visit can influence their lives. Such a visit in second grade influenced mine, and the work that I have done with the Northern Maine Museum of Science is done with the hope to pass on that experience for others. I think that is the justificiation of many of use who work to support museums of any kind.
(Back to work)
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