Recording the Moments

I'm presenting at a workshop tomorrow night in Boston and spent some time last night working on my notes. The workshop is about things that the panelists wish they hadn't learned the hard way, but I wanted to end on a positive note. I'm constantly rediscovering how much fun museum work can be and I think it's important to record those rediscoveries. That's part of why I post my "Museum Dailies" so I don't forget those great moments when I'm bogged down in grant paperwork or Board squabbles.

This moment wasn't a huge, top-of-the-list moment, but worth recording nonetheless. One of my museums is hosting around two hundred seventh graders over the course of eight days in May. This is a new program for us, so I met with the teacher who's coordinating the visit to brainstorm some activities. She suggested an outdoor scavenger hunt, which I thought was a great idea.

Thus, I found myself wandering around the grounds of the museum this afternoon looking for scavenger hunt questions. I found this tag on the big copper beech by the door and it sparked an idea. I'm having the kids look for all of the tagged trees on the museum grounds and record their scientific names. As I said, not a top-of-the-list, "this is why I do what I do" moment, but a nice eureka moment anyway.