Welcome To MY (New) World!

SHELLEY BULLARD - WEEK ONE, DAY ONE:

Hi! I'm Shelley Bullard, a sixth grade science teacher, and I just started this exciting new experience as a Teacher-In-Residence in a university physics department (UCF, the University of Central Florida) with people that are concentrating on astrophysics. As in, their experiments actually go into Space! (!!)

I love going to trainings to learn more about science, and as trainings go, this one is Extraordinaire! Especially as, it's not really a training. It's more like, let's give you an opportunity and see what you do. The beginning was pretty interesting to me, and quite a learning curve. As an Elementary Ed major, I"ve never really done research beyond reading articles for a paper. So what do I do with myself? What do I want to accomplish? What can I accomplish? It was like having one of those swimming lessons where the instructor throws you in the deep end and sees what you can do. And I was going to need a life preserver!

SHELLEY BULLARD - WEEK ONE, DAY TWO:

So, we went on a tour of the physics labs where the work is done. These are interesting places that look a bit like a mechanics shop. There were grad students here and there, looking up from their projects with looks of surprised welcome, as if they'd been informed of the hopes of our presence but not sure we'd actually appear. I plan to interview them later to learn about their projects; they are utterly incomprehensible at first glance.

SHELLEY BULLARD - WEEK ONE, DAY THREE:

One guy I think is going to be a buddy here is Jared. Jared was very helpful introducing me to aspects of the project, and he's also sending us helpful articles. :)

Join me in the tour! :)

SHELLEY BULLARD - WEEK ONE, DAY FOUR:

I'm going to seek out one of the grad students today, to find out about what they're doing for their projects in more depth. I feel like an explorer scoping out creatures in the jungle and pouncing on them when they least expect it, lol.

My first catch was a friendly panther named Richard. He is a mechanical engineer, which is really interesting. What is he doing in the physics department? And is this a career I can palm off as desirable to my science students?

So Richard takes me through his life as a mechanical engineer within the physics department. So funny that he carries drill bits around with him like other people carry pencils! lol

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