Objectives are to provide students with extensive practical 
experience in basic curational activities in a particular area 
of natural history and to introduce them to occupations in 
natural history museums.  Students will identify and prepare 
specimens, record scientific data for each specimen, and learn 
other forms of data management.  Interns will participate in 
the routine activities encountered in natural history collection 
management and research, including field trips and other 
opportunities which may be of an unusual or non-recurring nature.  
The exact tasks will depend upon the projects underway in the 
collection at the time of the internship.  They will have a 
unique opportunity to associate informally with University 
faculty and behind-the-scenes operations in University 
laboratories.  Students must demonstrate the professional 
attitude toward collection management expected of an entry-level 
collection manager such as high levels of skill, accuracy, 
punctuality, depedability and team work.  At the end of the 
course students will prepare a brief report describing what they 
did during their internship, what they learned during their 
internship, and where they think this experience might direct 
their careers in the future.

Students employed by environmental consulting firms, private, 
state and federal natural resource management agencies, and 
museums are asked to perform basic curational tasks for which 
they are seldom trained.  This course provides them prolonged 
training in the fundamental skills required to begin a career 
this course should be preferred applicants for positions where
the demonstration of such abilities and experience are part of 
the job requirement.

This is a non-traditional unstructured course in which students 
work directly with faculty members and other Natural History 
Museum collection personnel on materials which provide the 
student with hands-on experience in curating natural history 
specimens and conducting natural history research.  Students 
will maintain regular, weekly work hours with the collection.  
Faculty and other personnel will supervise interns, assisting 
them in new procedures, and directing them towards areas of 
special interest.  A weekly work schedule of seven hours will 
be arranged for the convenience of the interns and supervisor.  
Students will choose to work in one of twelve natural history 
collections: Archaeology, Arthropods, Botany, Geology, 
Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrates, Mammalogy, Ornithology, 
Plant Microfossils, and Zooarchaeology.  The exact curational 
activities and characteristics of each internship will vary 
depending on the projects underway in the collection at the time 
of the internship.