Sunday, June 16, 2024
By:
Three weeks into the summer, I can say with near certainty that I have settled into a good rhythm in DC. Although I love spontaneous plans as much as the next person, I am definitely a creature of habit and pattern. I love a schedule and a routine, so I am thrilled to have established mine for the summer! I am sure that this routine will be disrupted over the next few weeks with exciting opportunities, last minute plans, and much more (which I am quite excited for!), but I am happy to have created a good baseline for my summer in DC.
In the effort of establishing positive habits, I made an effort to go into ACP as much as I could this week. Not only does the office environment motivate me to stay productive, but I also really enjoy working around the other interns. It is always fun to hear what everyone else is working on, and I’ve even been able to pick their brains about some of my projects when I am stumped. For example, this past week I primarily worked on developing lesson extensions for the PhysicsQuest2024 lessons on plasma. Lesson extensions are optional activities that teachers can add to a lesson to deepen student engagement with the material. The extensions that I was working on had three categories: real world connections, creative expression, and engineering/design. Although I felt reasonably confident with the first two, I struggled to come up with middle school friendly engineering activities around plasma, so I decided to ask the other interns if they had any ideas. Immediately, Charles told me about an experiment that involves microwaving a grape to create plasma! I was absolutely enthralled by the idea, and we spent some time watching videos of the experiment and reading about how it works. Although my mentor and I ultimately decided that it would be irresponsible to tell a bunch of middle school students to create plasma in their microwaves, we had a lot of fun learning about the experiment!
On Friday, Jack Hehn took Jenna, Maia, and myself to a symphony performed by the students in the National Orchestral Institute. I had never been to a symphony before, and I was absolutely delighted! The piece they were playing was Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, and one of my favorite parts of the evening was the musicologist who explained the story of the symphony to the audience before the show. I can honestly say that I have never heard a more dramatic backstory to a piece of music! It involved unrequited love, execution, witches, and more. And the best part was that it was apparently semi autobiographical! We spent a lot of time learning about Berlioz, and even more time researching him after the talk. He had a fascinating life, and I would definitely recommend looking into him, and Symphonie fantastique. The music itself was absolutely incredible. All of the musicians in the National Orchestral Institute are under the age of 30, and most are between 18 and 23, and we were all amazed by how well they played. There is nothing quite like listening to music played by a large orchestra, and I definitely hope I can go to another one of their events this summer!
I was also able to continue my explorations around DC this week. On Sunday, I went with a friend from school to grab a coffee and stroll through the Dupont Farmers Market. We had so much fun looking at the different stands and trying all the fresh fruit samples. Because one of my childhood friends just moved to the Arlington area, and I had plans to help her plant her garden later that day, I decided to buy her a couple plants from the farmers market as a housewarming gift. I got her rosemary and spearmint, and then I bought myself a little basil plant! I absolutely love fresh basil, so I am excited to have it to cook with for the rest of the summer. Later that day I took the metro to meet up with my friend for our gardening plans. We planted spinach, beans, zucchini, squash, and kale. I love gardening but, because I live in the city year round, it is not often that I get to put my hands in the dirt. I really enjoyed helping her plant, even though I am now absolutely covered in mosquito bites! She also said that I can come back and help her tend the garden throughout the summer, which I absolutely will take her up on!
Overall, week three was really wonderful, especially because of the people I spent it with. I feel lucky to have so many of my friends in the area, as well as all of the other SPS interns. I really like my little community here, and I am excited to continue watching it grow over the next few weeks!
Amanda Maeglin