Blog 14 - Interview 3 Preparation

EQ: How can a wildlife educator most effectively spread awareness?

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?

• My goal is to hopefully get a worker from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. They have a section of animals that are taken care of and used for educational purposes, as well as another section where they are rehabilitating others.
• If the scheduling of the appointment doesn't seem to function, I'll interview my mentor. Since I've switched mentors three times, I think at some point or another I should officially interview him to get an insight of his opinions about certain topics.

2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview. What is the date and time of the interview?

• I do not currently have a set time and date for my interview, but I am waiting on an email that hopefully will be responded to soon.

3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ. 

• Do you have any articles or a book that you've come across that may be a good resource for this topic?
• Is there a specific author or organization that you read and have found valuable?
• Relating to Wildlife Care and Awareness

4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ.

• What is your daily goal when working in this organization? 
• Have you ever taught a group of kids about the types of animals at your center?
• If so what activities did you conduct and have found to be the most fun and effective for the children?
• Are there any other activities that you recommend?

5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

• What techniques or methods do you believe are one of the most effective when spreading awareness?
• Do you believe that teaching the public is important? Why or why not?
• How can a wildlife educator most effectively spread awareness?
• My essential question (so I can get feedback)

Blog 13 - 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?

• San Dimas Canyon Nature Center

2. Who is your contact? What makes this person an expert?

• Max. He has been employed at the nature center for more than five years. He knows almost everything about every animal at the nature center and is the teacher for the junior ranger programs that are held throughout the year. He's passionate about what he does and is interested in continuing to work with animals.

3. How many hours have you done during the school year?

• 65

4. Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

• If I volunteer during the week, I usually clean out the cages and feed the animals. Sometimes I interact with some of them so they aren't confined in one area. If there's a good amount of people, we take out one or two animals to show the kids. On Saturdays, I usually do the same thing. However, we do go down to the park and invite the public to the free presentations at 1. I think my mentor and I work pretty well with each other. He's not always at the nature center, but he's willing to help when I need anything. I've already completed my hours, but I will continue to volunteer because I enjoy helping out. I want to try volunteering at other nature centers to see what they might do differently.

Blog 12 - Holiday Project Update

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

• During the break, I wrapped up my independent component and I continued to volunteer. I also learned that there are other seniors volunteering at the nature center for a similar project and may help to contribute ideas.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why? What was the source of what you learned?

• I realized that I really like to interact with people. I love seeing their face expressions when we hold the reptiles. We walk around them within the museum and the kids are amazed. At times they share their own stories when they have experienced something with the animals at our nature center. These presentations is what I look forward to the most because it makes me learn new things about different animals so I can share them with the public.

3. Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

• My actual mentor. I've switched mentors at least three times, but he is very knowledgeable about the animals and is always the man to go to when one needs help. He has several years of experience in this profession. I'm curious to know how he came to this field and how he became so passionate about it.

Blog 11 - Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson and why?

• I was most proud of my hook activity because I had fun interacting with the audience and it created a path way towards my topic. I kind of incorporated some of my lesson plan with my hook activity by giving three key factors.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

• I would give myself an AP or a P. I could've executed my information in a much better way. I felt like I rushed through my lesson plan because I was thinking too much about the time limit. I missed some of the information I was hoping to share with the class due to that same issue.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson? How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

• I would slow down to fully present my information and organize some specific parts of it. For the next lesson I want to bring a prop that relates to my topic in an interesting way. I would also want to find a more efficient way to easily prepare my visuals for my presentation. 

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else? Are you shadowing? Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic? If so, what? Are there other people who are experts in the location? Etc...)

• I am doing my mentorship at a nature center that basically represents a workplace. The days I come in there's always staff members working around the nature center, making sure everything's clean and that the animals have what they need. They take me with them and have me help in whatever needs to be done. There's times where I mop the floors or clean the restrooms, but I'm also able to feed the animals and clean their cages.

2. How did you find your mentor? How did you convince this person to help you?

• At first I was looking for an animal rehabilitation facility, but it was hard to find one that was not far away. I had some help from Ms, Ortega and she recommended San Dimas Nature Center. I called and asked about their program and they gave me the information. I started volunteering and after a while I told her about my project. She was very interested in it and was glad to help.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with you mentor at this point in your relationship? How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

• From one to ten, I would say around a seven. She's always the one who guides me and tells me what needs to be done. I feel like we have a good relationship that's not overly comfortable, but not stiff either.

4. What went well in this interview? Why do you think so? What do you still need to improve? How do you know? How will you go about it?

• I thought that I had good questions to start off with because I was able to get some information about her background, as well as the nature center. What I feel like I lack on, is my expression of the question. I find myself stuttering a couple of times and it loses the meaning of the question. I think if I practice the questions a little more before hand, it should fix my situation.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person?

• I currently do have a mentor. He takes on the responsibilities for the nature center and makes sure everything is running smoothly. If there's ever a problem, he's the first person to address it. I will be going to the nature center this Thursday to interview him.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic. Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

• Communication is one of the most important concepts when taking care of wildlife animals. Communication allows them to have a lot more connections with other nature centers and rehabilitation organizations. If the rehabilitation centers have an animal that can no longer be returned to their natural habitat, they look for nature centers who will be willing to adopt it as an educational animal. These organizations help each other out.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth? Where will you go to get them?

• I've recently been to the library and checked out a couple of books. I've realized that some of these books touch up on topics that would have never occurred to me to research. I also feel like interviews would be a great source of information because you're able to talk to the staff members about their experiences when actually working with animals. I want to branch out to other facilities rather than staying at the San Dimas Nature Center. This way I'll be able to get different perspectives and maybe different information.

4. Write down a possible EQ. Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers. At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

• What component is essentially the most important to adequately nurture a wildlife animal?

Blog 8 - Independent Component 1 Proposal

. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• Every Saturday there's an animal presentation for the public. It mostly focuses on informing the children and their parents about the different types of animals they have in their nature center. This Saturday will be my first Saturday there. Before I'm able to present on a certain specie, I must know their information. Such as their diet, their age, their social skills, where they are most commonly found, specific information about the one that we currently have, and so forth. I plan to inform the people and answer any of the questions they might have. 

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• My mentor is usually in his office; working out the management for the nature center. Several times he'll walk around and converse with other people, but then he'll head back to continue his work. However, the staff members are constantly walking around to see if anyone needs assistance. They answer people's questions and make sure the animals are in good care. They help present the animals and they will be able to verify that I am completing my 30 hours of independent component. 

3. Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• Wildlife rehabilitators must be familiar with animals to be able to treat them. They tend to take classes and study about the different types of species to thoroughly learn more about the natural history and the particular needs of each one of them. This will help provide food, medical care, caging, environment, and so on. Learning and presenting about these animals will give me specific background information, helping me to interact with them.

4. Update your Senior Project Hours log.

• It is currently updated, but I will continue to add the hours as the days of my mentor-ship go by. I will be more active starting next week.