Daniel Benitez Blog Post 3
Hi all,
Miami, Florida has been an adventure lately. The commute to and from the Museum has been an adventure.
On Saturday of last week, a fellow Ambassador, Maria, and I toured Little Havana that was facilitated by the History of Miami Museum, of which she is an intern for. I was amazed to learn that a lot of the history that was discussed I was not aware of. I did not know that a Santeria tree was in the middle of Little Havana or that the locals (current practicers) left chicken heads in Sedanos bags at the foot of the tree. We also got the wonderful opportunity to partake in a one on one painting session with a renowon artist. Below is a drawing/painting of Elvis Presley that I created:
This was very eventful. The theme for this weeks activities was Engineering and I was with the 2nd graders, the youngest of group of all the campers. Everyday, the very beginning of the day is to explore. The summer camp goes to a designated exhibit and explores. Monday was Feathers to the Stars. Tuesday was MeLaβ, where the campers learn about how the mind and body work together and how daily choices can make it work better. The image below is of the campers on the motion-sensor mat where they did some exercises and the mat told them individually how many calories they lost.
That very same day we created comets or meteorites. With very simple ingredients, like ammonium and liquid nitrogen lol. Extremely fun to make and exciting. The kids had a great time.
One of the days, sadly i forgot which one, the kids had an activity where they drew the same picture with minor alternations to it on different squares, the strip of paper would later be played and the pictures would look like they were moving. It reminded me a lot of the Stop Motion app that we used with Patssi Valdez from Washington Week.
On Wednesday, I learned how to make scabs. It's so unusual of an activity to do with kids but we like made the kids scabs and taught them about it. So basically the process to making scabs is to dye vasaline with red food coloring then apply to body part. When the vasaline has been applied add coca powder and then add a piece of tissue paper (those used for gifts) and then add more vaseline and coca powder to give it that sort of realistic view. Pictured below.
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The process |
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The result 1 |
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The result 2 |
Thursday, we explored the Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience exhibit. What I found so interesting about that exhibit is this mirror that if positioned correctly you can seem as if you're actually floating like how someone would in space. Example below, me in my uniform pictured. Also pictured in the same exhibit is an Ambassador from 2016, Francesca.
Interning at the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science has shown me that kids can bring so much joy to someone. When dealing with difficult kids patience is key. It also amazed me how quickly young kids can have issues with another camper yet 10 minutes later they are best friends again. Working with kids is so fun and they have SO MUCH energy at 8 in the MORNING it's amazing.
Please enjoy the last 3 pictures I have of this week.
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PE time in Museum Park (everyday after lunch) |
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Campers engineering tracks #futureengineers |
Thank You all!
Daniel :)
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