Week 2

This week my task was to consider a few questions that Keith sent me about my experience with the docents and write responses, some examples are:

"Did you see differences in the tours of docents with education backgrounds and those without and how did they compare in their ability to convey information?"

"Differences between the tours given by docents who had previous interest in Egypt and those who were assigned randomly to Egypt."

"How did the information given on the tours vary and do you think the docents were effective in teaching the subject?"

Considering these questions was  interesting and really got me thinking about museums as a source of education and how these docents may be the only link a person has to a certain subject and/ or inspire them to learn more. The overall impression I had was that docents are extremely important resources for the museum and that docents who aren't given a script (the Field does not give them a script) and don't create one for themselves tend to be more interesting because they keep the tour fresh and have more flexibility. I will continue working on questions this week and have just been told that Keith and I have been invited to participate in training for the new exhibit coming to the museum called "Opening the Vault: Mummies. February 17 - April 22, 2012 so we can observe what docents go through in order to become docents.

Shall we begin?

 My internship project began during the summer of 2011, a man in my grandfather's union was looking for someone to help him with a project at the Field Museum in Chicago and my grandfather suggested he meet with me to see if I would be a good fit. This man, Dr. Keith Johnson, was involved with the Field Museum's Education department working on the Egyptian exhibit. They were interested in updating the exhibit and were looking for suggestions at what needed to be done, Keith thought that the most important resource to look into was the docents who work in that exhibit every day. My interview with Keith went very well and I was excited to be a part of this project; Egypt has always been a subject of fascination for me and the chance to fully explore the exhibit and possibly be involved in the creation of an exhibit that would touch so many lives was an honor. We went to the Field museum several times and interviewed all of the docents who work in the Egypt exhibit, I think there were about 30, Keith focused on the sociological aspects of the project and I focused on the historical. I would sit in on the interviews and transcribe them, Keith also asked for my input on suggestions to make the museum about how to make the exhibit more educational and interesting. I also got to point out a couple of facts on the signs that were inaccurate. Keith then took this information and we turned in a paper about the findings to the museum and Keith presented it at the Illinois Sociological Association 2011 Annual Conference. This semester Keith asked for my help writing a book about museum docents and I thought it sounded like a great opportunity, he even suggested that I could write a chapter to be included which I think will be a great learning experience.