Course Description
Supervised work experience with a natural history collection. Students will learn techniques and other procedures for curating materials in a collection of their choice under the direction of collection personnel.
Athena Title
Museum Natural History Intern
Non-Traditional Format
Students will maintain regular, weekly work schedules totaling 7 hours per week under the supervision of faculty and other collection personnel associated with the Museum of Natural History.
Prerequisite
Permission of department and permission of Museum of Natural History
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall, spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
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.
Topical Outline
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.