It has been a great first week here at the OEDK and its great to be back in Houston for the summer. I’ve been looking forward to this internship for the better part of three months, and it feels great to finally get started, though Houston summer weather may be a challenge for me. Born and raised in New Jersey, I can’t say I’m used to rain four times a week, or temperatures above 100 degrees, but its all part of the experience, and thankfully the OEDK has powerful air conditioning.
Our first week of work started off on Tuesday and we finally got to meet the interns from Malawi we would be working with. I knew this was an important part of the program, and I was happy to get to know five wonderful, outstanding people that I would have the privilege to work with all summer. The first day was a great opportunity to get to know each other through team exercises and a fun trip to the zoo. I’m happy to brag that my team, along with Zach and Mary, won the scavenger hunt and became close friends through the activity.
Wednesday we learned more about the SEED program itself and our home at the OEDK through presentations and group exercises. Even though some of us have some experience here already, we want to make sure everyone is caught up and on the same track moving forward as a team. That’s what we spent some time going over internet uses and made presentations on different aspects of our native cultures. I learned a lot about Malawi and Brazil, and I look forward to learning more about their cultures over the course of the summer.
Thursday and Friday began our “engineering boot camp” go teach and review the engineering design process so that we all could move forward on the same base. We use the flipped classroom format by watching videos and taking quizzes at night, and then doing exercises as a group during the day. As small teams, we are working on a real design problem to learn the engineering design process. Our task is the create a new enrichment device for the anteaters at the Houston zoo so that visitors can more readily see them and their unique features. Thursday afternoon was a second trip to the zoo so we could interview a zookeeper and gain a better understanding of the design problem. Since then we have been chugging along such that we just finished brainstorming Friday afternoon.
I’ve had a great first week in the SEED program both getting to know the other interns and working on the anteater project. I look forward to getting started on our real full-time projects, and I’m sure the summer will be a great experience.