Week 4: Archives, Astronomy, and Anxiety

I last left you on Friday, after the boat trip. Of course much has happened since. Saturday was Astronomy on the Mall, though unfortunately the mall was rained out and we had to go into a local school instead. Many people still came and we all had a wonderful time. I got to touch of a piece of the moon, and learn about the Chandra Space Telescope. My boyfriend Shawn joined in and helped teach kids about how gravity works with a gravitational well.

One thing that happened though made me sad, and think about some goals for the future. Many children in DC are of minority status. Many of them are bilingual, though grow up learning Spanish as their primary language. I have had some Spanish classes in school, and it was always something I was meaning to get better at, in theory, but never worked towards. One little girl came up to my demo and was speaking Spanish, and I realized at though i could explain astronomy to a 4-year-old, I had done it all night, but I had no idea how to do it in Spanish. Thankfully her mom was there and could help translate, but this really affected me. I love doing outreach events, and being an educator in general, and it has become clear that not know Spanish has limited me. Not only that, but it limits the children found about some programs they were working on creating with Bell laboratories in increase minority participation, as well as a program initiated by Fred Young ( also known as Fred Begay and Clever Fox) with Los Alamos Laboratory help me practice and learn. This also made me think of how my younger sister is deaf, and I know ASL, but I have never gone out of my way to learn the signs to explain what I do in school to her. Partly because she has never been interested or asked, but still, I want to be ready when one day she does. I hope that by the next time someone asks me to explain how the universe works, I can respond in at least 3 different languages.

Monday I had another meeting with my mentor about the work I have in front of me for the next couple of weeks. I am working on developing a few more teaching guides and preparing to do a couple of Oral history interviews. I was researching a physicist name J.V. Martinez. He created the "Directory of Spanish Surnamed and Native Americans in Physics", and in the course have found the files on the creation of the Committee on Minorities of APS. I have developed some interview questions for him, and in the process have uncovered some ..... interesting interactions to say the least. I have learned that the start of any committee is wrought with disagreements. people don't get along, people don't like who is in charge, and everyone thinks they can do it better. That being said, it was interesting to find that Martinez was the second chair of the Committee. I found about some programs they were working on creating with Bell laboratories in increase minority participation, as well as a program initiated by Fred Young ( also known as Fred Begay and Clever Fox) with Los Alamos Laboratory. Young, the first Navajo Ph.D. physicist, was working to create a training program with LANL and the local Navajo college to increase Native American participation in physics. Running through all these archives was the first really archival experience I have had in this internship and it has been very exciting. It is amazing how much detail you can learn about people from their letters. Who they like, who they didn't like, what they wanted out of life, how they spoke. Every document had an important piece of information to share, even if when the author had no intention for it to be saved. Some of the letters are labeled confidential, which makes me feel almost like a spy, digging into the secrets of the past. I can see what plans were proposed, which worked and which didn't, and why, Who was opposing this committee, who cared about it? I really have enjoyed learning more about the history of the American Physical Society and what made it into the organization it is today. What people did to make them care about women and minorities.

Wednesday We had our intern dinner with the CEO of SPS. We all had a great time and it was nice getting to catch up with people outside ACP about their internship work. Jesus and Daniel both seem to be enjoying their work and positions and it is interesting to see how their personalities seem to be tailored to the work they are doing. Nathan and I, while at ACP, don't get a chance to talk to a lot. He recently published his first article in FYI about the NASA budget meeting in the Senate which was really exciting! We then shared baby pictures of ourselves for some reason,  but it was really fun to see how everyone looked when they were young.

Thursday was very slow. I felt pretty sick, and still do, with a head cold, so getting work done was very difficult. 

I am feeling a bit better today, and am hoping to get a teaching guide done about Wanda Diaz-Merced. I have talked about her a lot to the interns and think she is a truly inspirational person. I hope my lesson plan does her work justice.  I am excited for Bridgette's birthday which we are celebrating with a small party in the dorms.

We also got out SPS T-Shirts today with the spherical zoo on them, and they look really cute!