Sunday, June 11, 2023
By:
This week was eventful; on Monday I went to the ACP building and worked on some tasks that were given to me, that aftyernoon I played frisbee at the National mall with my fellow interns. On Tuesday I attended a play with Jack and my roomate Emily. We went to the Arena Stage and watched the play, "Exclusion". It was a very entertaining play full of satire as well as real life situations that depict the art of Hollywood, and staying true to the story rather than to what sells, the play is based off, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Wednesday, I had the opportunity to visit the high school where Mark teaches, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Fairfax Virginia. Mark gave me a tour of the school and I was amazed at the resources and quality education a high school can offer when the resources are unlimited. This high school is incredibly special and incredibly privaliged all the teachers here have a Ph.D in their field of content, to be admitted to this school thee is an admission exam. Once there I saw extensive workshops and research laboratories such as a bio-tech lab, Quantum/Optics lab, a green house, a carpentry workshop, a Planetarium, world language courses, super computers to help aid the computer science lab, an oceanography lab etc. That day there was a symposium where 9th graders presented their posters of the research they were working on all school year. I believe every high school in the nation should be funded and supported with unlimited resources so that both teachers and students can reach their full potential academically, just imagine how much further you could achieve and dream!
Thursday I went to the ACP building to attend the Wikipedia-edit-a-thon where all the interns edited Wikipedia pages about current and former Physicists. We also got a tour of the Niels Bohn library.
My birthday was this past Saturday, I did a variety of activities to celebrate. First, I visited the Zoo where my favorite exihibit was the Elephant trails. Afterwards I attended Artechouse where its a visual, interactive, submerging experience combining science, art and technology. This season's theme was butterflies, it was lovely. After that I had dinner at the Cheesecake factory, it was my first time there, for dessert I had an Oreo cheesecake that came with confetti sprinkles and a candle since it was my birthday. I closed my eyes, made a wish and blew out the candle. The night ended in D.C.'s Dupont circle, in a club full of music, lights, and everyone around me singing my favorite songs. It was an amazing Birthday! Cheers!
Melissa Cano