California Science Center Week 4

Hola amigos!

Last week was my final week at the California Science Center, and it was hectic. The week started off with me getting really sick and having to leave home halfway through the day, and I thought it might have been a bad omen for what was going to come my way that week. Fortunately, things looked up after that Monday, and my last week was truly amazing.

A lot of my week was spent in the office where I finished up the last of my tasks while training another volunteer on how to do the data entry. This kept me busy up until Wednesday, but once I was finished,  it opened up plenty of time for me to experience the last few things on my science center bucket list, which was long with activities I hadn’t had a chance to check out yet.

The first thing on this list was to go on the flight simulator in the science center’s Creative World exhibit. I love rollercoasters, and the feeling of twisting and turning around in a little box sounded like a lot of fun for me. On this flight simulator, you first have to go through a demo where you learn how to properly control the aircraft you will be “flying.” Once you complete the demo, you get strapped into the simulator where you have to follow a certain path as you race other planes. While doing the demo, I thought I was doing a relatively good job, but it was a different story once I was on the inside. The whole box moves in the same way you pilot the plane, so when I accidentally started flying upside-down, I had to do my best to try and pilot myself back to an upright position all while my hair was hanging in my face. I didn’t do the best job to say the least, but it was so much fun regardless. My only regret would be that I didn’t buy my pictures from inside.

This is the flight simulator. You go inside the box and the screen outside
of it shows you how the people inside are flying.

After that, the next item I crossed off my list was the earthquake simulator. With this interactive activity, ten to fifteen people go step onto a platform and watch a video about the ways in which the science center and other buildings have taken steps to be safer if and when an earthquake happens. At some point during the video, there is an “earthquake” and it cuts off entirely. The platform everyone stands on starts shaking, and when it stops, the video comes back on again to talk about how to be safe during an earthquake. Although it differed from what I had originally thought it was going to be, I still enjoyed it a lot and found it to be very entertaining.

The last thing on my bucket list was something I had been dying to see for a while was one of the dog demonstrations that pairs along with the science center’s Dogs exhibit. Luckily I finally got to see one during my last week. The day I went, the LAPD was there with a bloodhound, and they talked about how their noses differ from ours and how they pick up scents. I was so excited to see this after watching the Superhero Dogs movie because they talked about two bloodhounds on a conservation preserve in Kenya and how they helped to catch poachers, so I felt that this demo complimented that nicely. On top of that, I just love dogs so much so it would have been nearly impossible for me to not enjoy the demo.

There were a lot of mixed emotions I had as my time came to an end. On one hand, I was happy to finally get to go home after a long month, but I really grew to love the science center in its entirety. The teen interns, the volunteers, the ScienceLive supervisors, and everyone else I met along the way left an impact on me in the best of ways, and I was sad to have to say goodbye to all these amazing people that I felt I didn’t have enough time with. I am extremely grateful that this is an opportunity I got to have because it opened me up to new ideas, knowledge, people, and experiences that I would have never gotten to know otherwise. My moon jelly lecture, sea urchin knowledge, slime-making abilities, and every other thing I learned will forever be engrained in my mind along with this amazing place of learning. It has only been a week and I already miss it so much, which speaks volumes to me. This internship was truly incredible, and I thank the Smithsonian Latino Center for letting me be a part of it.

And finally, some final details from my last week that I wanted to share: I got a goodie bag and a thank you card from my supervisor (which totally  didn’t make me super emotional in case you were wondering), it was volunteer appreciation week so I got three free snacks from the IMAX theater on my last week, and someone from guest services let me try an extremely spicy hot sauce called Mad Dog 357 and I was naive to think I would be able to handle something that spicy with no consequences. 

I hope all of you had equally amazing experiences throughout your internships! Missing you all!

With lots of love,

Emely