Sunday, July 27, 2014
By:
I can't believe I'm on my last few days here in D.C.! This past week has been absolutely great, with tours of the Capitol and the Pentagon as well as our final presentations this past Friday. On Monday, Ben Preis and Ashley organized some very fun Capitol and Pentagon tours. We started bright and early with a Pentagon tour at 9am. Unfortunately (but understandably) there were no photos allowed on that tour, but it was a very informative and enjoyable tour. We learned about the history of the different branches of the armed forces and afterwards had a chance to explore the 9/11 Memorial directly outside of the building.
After a trip back to the Capitol area, we had lunch in one of the Congressional cafeterias. Without a doubt, the representatives and congressional staff eat very well! Ben then gave a great tour of the Capitol building and the highlights there were the view from the backside of the building, facing the Washington Monument and spending some time in the gallery of the House of Representatives. It's amazing how so many people fit into that room during the State of the Union address. Ashley took over after that and we visited the room where the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology convenes as well as the office where she works with committee staff.
This past week at work culminated in the SPS Intern Symposium where I gave my final presentation on the teacher's guide. Jake and I volunteered to go first and to say the least, we had an eventful (and well-received) presentation. A few slides in the power cut to the whole building, so we had to take a short pause. After that everything ran smoothly and we even managed to not overshoot the time limit. It's a lot harder to give a short presentation than I imagined! Following our presentation we enjoyed a delicious lunch of Lebanese food. A chemistry professor and researcher interested in the teacher's guide to African-Americans in the physical sciences joined us during lunch and for the afternoon. All in all, it's was a great week!
Simon Patane