Internship week 5:

Gained more experience with presenting in front of the class. Also met up with Sarah later in the week to check the trails and water levels for the next weeks Swamp Walk and to discuss more details concerning the campus trail map. My homework was to research evolutionary plant adaptations for wetlands plants, in order to discuss my findings with the class on Monday. 

Internship week 4:

     This week I received a crash coarse in guiding a class to an off-campus field site (CREW trails) and attempting not to loose anyone in the process....Once at CREW, I assisted with the field labs and plant identification. I am finding that getting the students to physically handle or interact with the plants, significantly improves name recognition. This is particularly true of edible plants, such as wild grape or sour orange:)
       I also received some experience with teaching students on a one on one basis. I had to lead a girl through the previous weeks Soil Analysis Lab (due to an excused absence). It was definitely much easier to explain the concepts and make certain she understood what I was saying, before moving on to the next issue.
     Outside of the classroom I have started helping Sarah with mapping the campus nature trails and ultimately creating a flier for the entire trail system.

Hours: 11   

Week 3: Bio of SW FL internship

Learned just how whiny college students can be if you make them get their feet wet :)....
    Guided the class through a "Soils Analysis Lab" identifying sediment in three different ecosystems. I am starting to get better at writing up preliminary notes about things to quiz students about during class. I am also becoming more confident with speaking in front of the group from a teaching position. Later in the week I met with Sarah outside of class and discussed ways of completing a map detailing all of the campus nature trails, including the various habitats they go through.
Time: 8 hours

Internship week 2:

Met with Susan J Cooper and learned about several different types of teaching strategies; with particular emphasis placed on making a class think about the issue being discussed, before telling them the hard facts. My job for this week, was to scout out areas on campus for field work for the next weeks Soils Lab. In one day I explored and learned more about the ecosystems on the front of campus, than I had in all my time at FGCU. It was excellent, I found tracks from a baby bobcat, spotted a bald eagle and explored a beautiful old cypress dome.

Week 1: Bio of SW FL internship

Internship working as a TA for Sarah Davis with her Bio of SW FL class: (Jan, 16, 2011)

Not too much to report for the first week of my internship. On Monday I introduced myself to the class, and assisted Sarah with coordinating a class project. The project was an excellent demonstration of the motivating power, free food has on sleep deprived college students.

The goal of the activity was to simulate sustainable and unsustainable fishing practices; though the capture of goldfish crackers. I found it surprising how well this simple demonstration modeled real world fishing policy. Some groups carefully calculating their max sustainable yield, while others simply grabbed as much as they could in the first go.

The main thing I took away from this first week, was that I definitely need to brush up on my public speaking skills, as I tend to be soft spoken and must remind myself to project.

Other internship activities: involved writing lots of emails, and meeting with mike Savarese to discuss my thoughts for the internship, as well as his hopes regarding setting up similar undergraduate TA internships.

Total time spent: 7 hours