Isabel Bishop, 2019 APS Public Engagement Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Coe College

I’m a graduating student at Coe College, receiving a bachelors degree in Physics with a minor in Fine Arts. The last four years at Coe have taken me on a radically different path than I envisioned my freshman year. At the end of it all, I’m coming out an accomplished research student, a passionate artist, a wife, and a dog mom!

I’m excited to take this next step of my journey with the SPS! Ever since my first high school physics class, I’ve been enamored with science and education. Combine that with a lifelong love of art and design, and outreach is a natural next step for me. I can’t wait to get started!

Internship

Host: American Physical Society

Project

Abstract

With a growing demand for STEM education, there is a growing need to combat preconceived notions about what science is all about. Physics is a challenging subject which many people perceive as “too difficult” to even attempt. Incorporating the arts is an excellent way to address this disparity and help make science more accessible. We’re launching a virtual reality gallery project to showcase physics art and provide a different perspective on what physics is all about!

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1 - The Interning

Week one has come to a close, and I am a mix of excited and anxious about what the next nine weeks will look like.

My first week was a bit tougher than most, I think, because I saw my mentor, James Roche, for a total of two hours before being set loose into the world of interning. We met Tuesday after orientation. We talked mostly about the real important things for my internship, like where the coffee was located and how to use the fancy, industrial-looking Keurig. I asked a few questions about my internship, we discussed some expectations, timeline, and the scope of work document that we had talked about before I arrived in DC. By 4pm, I was dragged off by my peers to try and locate a grocery store that wasn’t as exorbitantly priced as the Whole Foods across the street from our accommodation. After that, James was out of town for the rest of the week and I was left to fend for myself.

The terms of my internship are also unique. Most of my peers have set projects that they have been assigned to work on. For the APS Public Engagement internship, I had the unique opportunity of proposing my own project to work on, along side the other duties as assigned. It’s a super exciting opportunity, but as someone who needs a lot of structure to be productive, it’s also very intimidating.

Some background you should know before I can tell you about my project: I’m a graduated senior from Coe College with a degree in Physics and Fine Arts. One of the requirements for graduating in Fine Arts is to put on a Senior Thesis Exhibit, which is a culmination of all 4 years of hard work and dedication. My Senior Thesis Exhibit focused on using art as a medium to make science more accessible (and fun!) for people who might not have otherwise been interested in scientific topics. I illustrated fun science facts that I had learned during my time at Coe, and titled them just vaguely enough to peak the interest of the viewer. Each piece had a QR code attached, which lead to an article or video talking about the topic that inspired the piece in a fun, interactive, and easy to understand way.

During my interview for the internship position, it surprised me to learn that this is exactly the kind of thing they wanted for the APS Public Engagement internship. The American Center for Physics has regular art shows focused on science topics, and displays a number of different artists work throughout the building. My show is going to be the test case for a new Virtual Reality Gallery, hosted on PhysicsCentral.com.

This project is being pieced together, even as I write this post. With James out of town, it was difficult to gauge the direction in which to take my project. Should I focus more on the work itself, and spend my time developing new art pieces to show? Or is the platform on which the user interacts a more important thing to focus on, and my work would just be one case study? These were just some of the questions I was trying to sort out during this last week. Most of my time was spent researching VR Software.

Now, reflecting on the week, I am a bit worried that I tried to bite off more than I can chew. There are tons of software out there that already exists for virtual gallery spaces, but they are pretty limited by how much work you can upload, the image quality, and the compatibility on multiple platforms (web, mobile, and VR). During my research, I dived deep down into the rabbit hole of VR and discovered Unreal Engine 4 – a game development software that met all the requirements I was looking for regarding the VR side of the gallery. It required some 3D modelling, but TinkerCAD would do the trick. I was excited, Unreal had all of the fully customizable elements that I wanted for the VR Gallery. The only problem is that it’s incredibly complicated to figure out. The learning curve is killer, and this project needs to be transferrable for future exhibits.

So, there’s two options going forward. I could really challenge myself by essentially developing my own VR Gallery software that has all the features I wanted, and the cross compatibility we need. Or, I could shift back and focus more on my own artistic practice and create engaging work, while sacrificing the quality of the user interaction.

On one hand, challenging myself would help me develop new skills and push myself out of my comfort zone. Developing a new software has long term benefits for APS because its expandable for future exhibits, and not reliant on a subscription service. On the other hand, using premade software and focusing on my own work is a safe bet that allows a lot more flexibility during the ten weeks I have to spend here.

To balance my desire to jump head first into something incredibly challenging and my paralyzing fear of crashing and burning, I decided to propose a 1 week test period using Unity. If I can pull together a proof of concept by next Friday, and it doesn’t seem like such an incredibly daunting task for ten weeks, then we can move forward with that. James and I are set to discuss this in person Monday, which will also help me get a better feel for the expectations and limitations for this internship. I guess I’ll have to let you all know what happens next week!

Week 2 - Say Yes to Opportunities, Say Yes to Yourself

Last week’s blog already seems like such a long time ago! This last week was packed full and kicking up into high gear. My mentor returned Tuesday, and we talked about the parameters of my project and what we wanted to focus on. I spent more time doing research on VR Gallery software and other platforms which we could host the exhibitions on, and found a couple that might meet more of our needs than what I had originally expected. After presenting my findings to my mentor, the question turned to, “what about 3D works?”

We both agreed that, if possible, we should present some of the sculptural pieces in the virtual galleries. Otherwise, what would be the point in having it all in 3D? A slideshow with a sidebar could accomplish the same goal for much less work.

3D modeling became my focus for the next week. What is the easiest and most cost efficient way to model a small piece of art? I looked a lot at 3D Scanners, but was ultimately led to the exciting world of photogrammetry!

Photogrammetry is when you take a multitude of photos from many different angles all around an object and then use specialized software to stitch a 3D model together. This process is used a lot in game design, as well as architecture and aerial photography. It requires no special hardware, and there are a multitude of different software to choose from.

As far as work went this week, it was ultimately a lot of the same as last week. Research, trial, compare, and repeat until I could narrow down to two or three potential programs. The real star of this week was extra curriculars! I haven’t been particularly extroverted since arriving in DC, largely due to the fact that I was just getting over a nasty cold and was extremely drained. Even though I really wanted to go out with my fellow interns, I stayed in a lot to recover. This week, though, I was so excited to be involved.

The biggest thing I did this week was say yes to things. Yoga in the cafeteria? Yes. Taco Tuesday? Yes. Farmers market? Count me in. And, at the end of the week, I even went out on my own to attend some DC Pride events before going to a small gathering at the Optical Society, where we all watched the parade from a balcony near DuPont Circle.

It was kind of weird, going to Pride as a sort-of work related event. All week, I was struggling to come to terms with DC Pride and what pride means to me. I also struggled with how much of my identity I need or want to share with my fellow interns or coworkers – all great people so far but really have only known for two weeks now. As I reflect on this week, I realize that the best thing I could have done was to just say yes, not just to opportunities, but to being myself. I don’t owe anyone anything but just being genuinely me. No explanations necessary!

I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out where I fit in to this great big group of amazing people. I’m used to being the most extroverted, most friendly, most assertive person in the room. Those roles are being filled by my peers, which leaves me trying to figure out where I fit into this big group of really genuinely amazing people. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I suspect it will all work out in the end.

I came here wanting to network, find a job, and do a job. It’s a fun job, getting to work on my art project and showcase my thesis exhibition, and I was very excited to be here. The longer I spend though, the more I realize that this internship is more than just the work. I’m here to connect, to learn, and to grow, not just my skills but myself as a person.

Happy Pride Month, everybody. See you next week!

Week 3 -The Days Start Coming and they Don’t Stop Coming

Did you happen to know that time moves forward in a linear fashion? I knew that, but somehow it continues to surprise me.

Week three is over already, everyone!

There are so many great things going on, I can’t even fit them all into one blog post. Here are my highlights for this week:

My project is on the waiting game right now. The modeling is going great! I’ve successfully modeled two test cases, one of a Bulbasaur planter with a cactus in it, and another Chewbacca pop figurine. I’ve also successfully modeled a sculptural piece from my own show, “Not to Scale”. The last thing we are waiting on here is the software! Then I can put my show up for display as a test case, and start contacting other artists to make sure they’re on board and I can start modeling their work.

To make the best use of my time, I decided to work in parallel on the secondary project of the summer: Physics Quest. Physics Quest is a teaching guide that the APS releases every year, targeted at middle school age kids. The past few years it has featured the comic book hero, Spectra, but this year we are returning to an older style guide which features a famous scientist and a small narrative to engage and guide the kids along.

I have the fun task of illustrating for the guide, as well as choosing a scientist and writing the narrative guide! I’m really excited about this as well. Past issues have featured Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, and Marie Curie. This time, though, I think we have an excellent opportunity to add some representation, so I’ve been doing a lot of research on women physicists of color. I’m starting to narrow down some choices, but I’m happy to get recommendations, too!

Phew, that’s it for work talk. On to the million and one social events we had this week!

Thursday night, we had the SPS Executive Committee dinner cruise. This was an absolutely amazing experience! The food was amazing, and everyone was dancing throughout the night. It was much less the networking experience I expected, and much more a real bonding experience with my fellow interns, as well as some more senior members of the SPS! I was completely exhausted afterwards, but there were no breaks this weekend.

My husband came in Thursday, too, to visit for the weekend. Friday night, a few of my fellow interns and us all went out to karaoke at the Punch Bowl Social in Arlington. This place is a decent metro ride away, but it is crazy cool. Not only do they have karaoke, they have darts, bowling, a bar, great food, and a million other activities I couldn’t even see! I’d recommend this place to any future interns, or anyone who just wants to visit the DC area!

Saturday, I finally got out and did some tourist-y things. Sam and I went to the National Zoo, which is huge! There was so much to see, it took us the whole day. The weather was perfect – sunny but not too hot and a great breeze. It was a bit crowded, but the exhibits were very cool. My favorite part was the electric eel exhibit, which featured a probe which picked up the eel’s electric bursts and translated them into sound! By pressing a button, you could hear the shock waves the eel sends out whenever it gets excited.

As if that wasn’t a packed enough day, all the Interns and I got to attend the National Orchestral Institute + Festival concert Saturday night. Normally, I’m not a big fan of orchestra. I love the music, but it is difficult to sit still through a two-hour concert of classical music. This concert, however, was a game changer. The music was more modern, and completely engaging throughout. Most of the musicians in the orchestra were around our age too! They brought such a great energy to the stage. The orchestra was Grammy nominated last year, and I can see why.

This week came to an end with a lovely lazy Sunday, and boy did I need it! With so many things going on, it is important to take breaks and recharge before doing it all again next week. That being said, I’m going to turn in and get an especially restful night’s sleep.

See y’all next week!

Week 4 - Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

I blinked and this last week was over! Here we are again, my dear blog readers.

At work this week, the waiting game ended Monday afternoon when I finally received a response from the vendors I had reached out to. It turns out, my preferred software just went into closed beta and won’t release until late this year. My second choice offered to include the features we wanted, but at a price tag that was just too much for the scope of this project.

We ended up going with a third option that is actually working out really well. There is a learning curve, which is especially difficult because their website doesn’t have great documentation or resources to figure out how to use the program. After getting used to it, though, I was able to make a great mock-up of my senior thesis exhibition and we’re just about ready to launch.

This week’s social activities were pretty casual up until Saturday. Saturday night we all went out to Astronomy on the Mall, which reminds me a lot of Coe College’s Playground of Science. Astronomy on the Mall, for those of you who don’t know, is a yearly outreach event that the SPS participates in. We all go out to the national mall and do astrophysics demos for a bunch of kids and their parents. It’s a great way to connect with the community and get kids engaged in learning about science!

I worked on science trivia during the event. I have never really done demos before, so I was slightly intimidated at first. After getting used to the crowds and getting my spiel down, it was a breeze. My favorite part was actually the adults who would come by with their kids and participate in trivia. They would give the most fun and creative answers to some of the trivia questions.

One strange thing I noticed is that a lot of the adults were more willing to play then the younger kids. The adults were more confident in their knowledge, so they were more willing to participate. On the other hand, the young kids knew they didn’t know all the answers and were unwilling to even try guessing because they didn’t want to be wrong. That made me a little sad, but I tried to encourage them the best I could.

I tried to ask everyone why they thought their answer was right, and have them think out and articulate their reasoning before giving them the answer. I think this was more productive than just saying they were right or wrong. When you let people talk out their questions, or ask guiding questions, they usually made it to the right answer or acknowledged that they simply didn’t know. At that point, whether they were right or wrong, it became a teaching moment instead of a moment of failure.

As I take some time to reflect on this week, I’ll close off with some words I think are fitting.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” - Robert Kiyosaki, 1997

Week 5 - It’s a short one!

It is officially half way through the summer!

This is going to be a pretty short post because this week was pretty chill. I’ve been working hard on the gallery exhibition, which should be ready to launch any day now! Other than that, I’ve been working on illustrations for PhysicsQuest and researching scientists for the guiding narrative.

Monday a few interns and I went down to check out a noodle shop off U Street, which was delicious, before going on to meet the rest of the group for Monday night Trivia at Tonic. Tonic is a great little restaurant and bar just two blocks down from Shenkman Hall. They’ve got a great happy hour special, and the most amazing tator tots! Unfortunately, after our jaunt down to DC Noodles, we were too late to snag a table for trivia, so we’re going to have to get there extra early next week! In lieu of trivia at Tonic, we went down and played jackbox games and just generally had a relaxing night.

Thursday, we did our weekly “family dinner” night. This week we did breakfast for dinner, and I think it was the best spread yet. We had French toast, bacon, eggs, crepes, hash browns and more. Thursday night was the Democratic Debate, so we all crowded around to hear what the candidates have to say. Ordinarily I would just watch the highlights reel, but it was nice to watch it with a bunch of different people from wildly different backgrounds.

Next week is going to be another short one, with the 4th of July weekend. I’m taking advantage of the long weekend and visiting home! I am a bit sad to be missing the 4th of July celebrations in DC, but I think it will be good to have some time to rest and recuperate. This last five weeks have been full of so much to do, I am ready for a break!

Week 6 - Home

Author’s Note: Sorry about the late post, everyone! I had written this post last week while at the airport and completely forgot to post. Thanks for your patience!

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Sometimes you just have to go home. It’s week six, over half way through the summer and I won’t lie to you – I’ve been really homesick. I love my work here, and my fellow interns are tons of fun. I’m having the time of my life in DC! But I also really miss home – my dog, my bed, my husband. A couple weeks ago I impulsively bought a flight home over the 4^th of July, and as I’m wrapping up my little mid-summer vacation, I’m really glad I did.

Coming home makes it harder to go back, but I can’t help but feel like I’m going back refreshed and ready to bounce back from the mid-internship slump!

Last week I was busy as ever before getting ready to go home. I tried to get a lot of extra work done and set myself up for this upcoming week because of the long weekend. Along with all the work though, we had a bunch of social stuff, too! A group of us finally got around to playing D&D on Monday night, and we garnered ourselves a pretty good audience, as well. I was worried that some of our more conflicting personalities might make it difficult to play, but once we all got into the groove, it flew by like we were all old pros. Shout out to Jerry O’Mahony for being an awesome DM!

Tuesday night we all went out to do Science Trivia at The Big Board. It was three rounds of crazy science-themed trivia questions with an engineering challenge to top it all off. This week’s challenge was to make ice cream in a bag! None of us managed to make anything but slightly cold-milk, but it was tons of fun nonetheless.

As if that wasn’t enough, we went to catch a late night showing of Spiderman: Far from Home at the Georgetown AMC. I haven’t been to the movies in forever! I forgot how much fun it is grabbing a movie with a big group of friends.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really get back home until around 3am, and still had to pack to come home for the 3th of July! I ended up taking a quick nap and getting up early to start packing, as to not disturb my roommate so much, which made Wednesday an exceptionally long day.

Luckily, the APS let everyone go 2 hours early to celebrate the 4^th, so work didn’t drag on too much. Shenkman is only a 10 minute metro ride from DCA, too, so that wasn’t too bad. The airport itself, though, was a mess. I kept getting notifications, one right after the other...

Your flight has been delayed 1 hour.

Your flight is no longer delayed.

Your flight has been delayed 2 hours.

Your flight has been delayed less than expected, only 30 minutes now.

Once it all settled, my flight ended up being delayed about 3 hours, making it impossible to make my connection!

Luck was on my side again, as well as the lovely customer service agents at the United gate, who were able to squeeze me into an earlier flight into Chicago, so I made in one go!

I slept a pretty solid 12 hours after arriving home around midnight, having been going nonstop on about two hours of sleep all day.

I’m a bit sad about missing out on some of the 4^th of July events in DC. With all of the GroupMe notifications from our intern group, I almost felt like I was there with everyone! It was nice to see the fireworks in Cedar Rapids, though. Less crowded, and still spectacular!

Week 7 - It’s politics, baby!

What can I tell you all about week 7? It was a blur!

Monday, I worked remotely as I traveled back from home for the 4^th of July Weekend.

Tuesday, I missed work in lieu of going to tour Capital Hill, courtesy of my fellow intern Gia Jadick. Gia gave us all an excellent tour of Capital Hill, including the Library of Congress, where I signed up for a library card. Having fun isn’t hard....when you’ve got your library card!

Wednesday, I finally made it back into the office to get some real work done. I’ve touched base with all the artists on my list for the 3D gallery, and worked on finalizing documents and guidelines for future shows. Now, all that’s left for me to work on is the PhysicsQuest Kits! I’ve got three out of the four activities worth of illustrations at least drafted out, if not about done and ready for submission. I’m waiting on feedback to pick our featured scientist, so be ready to hear about that sometime soon!

Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, Thursday comes along and we’re back out exploring with our NASA Tour, courtesy of the NASA interns Terry Schuh and Nolan Roth. We went on a fortunate day, the NASA Jamboree, which was day all the teams on different projects got together to share what they are working on. I learned a ton more about the James Webb Telescope, which was featured as part of “Hexagons Are the Closest Thing Science Gets to Magic” in my senior thesis show. I even got to meet some of the people working on James Webb, which was super cool!

As if NASA isn’t cool enough, we also had the SPS Intern Picnic back at the ACP Thursday night. It was a much chiller event than I was anticipating – we basically just ate great food and played games for a few hours! Ultimately, it was a pretty nice way to wind down after a long day’s tour.

This weekend blew by with tons more activities, but the real highlight was getting to play Dungeons and Dragons Sunday night. This was our second session, and I’m thrilled to be playing with a wild mix of people. It is interesting to see how people with otherwise conflicting personalities get along in game, and the difference between character motivation and player motivation. It is an excellent team building exercise, I think. Plus, it’s some good old-fashioned nerdy fun!

Next week, prepare yourselves! I’m heading out Tuesday afternoon for San Diego for some REAL nerdy fun! That’s right, it’s about to be SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!

Stay tuned. See y’all next week!

Week 8 - From One End of the Country to Another

SAN. DIEGO. COMIC. CON.

To give you all a little bit of perspective here, I went to my first comic convention all the way back in my freshman year of high school. As soon as I stepped foot into the downtown Phoenix convention center, I knew these were my people. I ended up volunteering or working for and with Phoenix Comicon (now Phoenix Fan Fusion) in one way or another for the next six years. Once I got into college, I was across the country and it was a lot harder to participate in stuff like this, so in a lot of ways I left that part of my life behind when I moved to Iowa.

Then, a few weeks before my internship started, my mentor asked if I would be interested in going to San Diego Comic Con. Uh, DUH! That’s only the DREAM!

I left for Comic Con on Tuesday afternoon and arrived late Tuesday night. I got to stay in the historic Grand Horton hotel, right in the Gaslamp district of downtown San Diego. Not only was the hotel gorgeous, but it was walking distance to some great restaurants and the convention center! It was fun to just walk around and see San Diego.

Wednesday I had a bit of free time before Preview night, and knew I wanted to go see the ocean. I happened to run into a few coworkers while walking downtown, and we decided to all check out the Sunset Cliffs park, about 20 minutes out from downtown. It was a beautiful area, but not well marked due to some construction and revitalization projects going on. We ended up walking around for about an hour before finding the beach access – and at that point it was high tide so there wasn’t much beach to access at the foot of the cliffs! We had a great time anyway, and it was a nice bonding exercise that helped me get more comfortable around my coworkers.

Preview night kicked off about 5pm and I got my first peek at the exhibitor’s hall. This place is MASSIVE, let me tell you! I have heard talk about SDCC struggling to have enough space in the downtown area because of the sheer amount of people attending, but the exhibitor hall alone at this convention center is huge! I cannot imagine what it would be like if it were any bigger. Even during preview night, where there wasn’t as many people, it took a decent 30 minutes to just walk around the perimeter without really looking at any of the booths.

The rest of the weekend settled into a nice routine – I’d work a few hours, then get a break to go see panels or check out other events, maybe work a few more hours and then we’d all meet up around 8pm to go catch dinner and drinks. As much as I love conventions and dressing up, my favorite parts of this weekend were getting to know everyone and hanging out over dinner.

I spent five days at San Diego Comic Con and I don’t think I was able to see half of what all was going on. Honestly, it was pretty overwhelming! Ultimately though, it was an amazing experience.

Now that I’m back in DC trying to reflect on all of this, all I can think is that this was probably the most amazing experience so far. My internship is coming to a close! I’m going home soon and all that’s left is to wrap up and finish what we started about nine weeks ago. Only two blog posts to go, folks!

See you all next week.

Week 9 - We’re nearly, almost, very close to being done

It’s all coming together.

My project website is ready to launch with only minor adjustments. Check it out here: http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/art/

I’ve spent most of my week just wrapping things up and spot checking to make sure my work is up to snuff. There are still some minor things to do for the art gallery project, but overall it’s finished! I’m finalizing my illustrations for Physics Quest, and spent a decent amount of time working on the scientist biography and narrative to drive the story along. I finally figure out what to do for the puzzle game at the end, which I’m very excited about and proud to show everyone.

Next week is our final presentations, and I’ve been working on my power point. I just wish I took more pictures, honestly!

I did realize, however, that in the last 9 weeks of working on my physics-art project, plus a few weeks prior of working with my mentor to write a proposal and scope of work document....we never named the project! A bit of brainstorming has given me a few options, which I’ll list for you all in no particular order.

1. PHYne Arts

2. Expressions in Art and Physics (or Expressions for short)

3. Virtual Art for Physics Engagement

4. ArtBridge

5. It’s Not That Scary (after my senior thesis exhibition)

All of these have their pros and cons. Number 3, for instance. Great, catchy name which accurately describes the projects, if not the goal. But the acronym....VAPE. Hilarious, but maybe not the most professional for PhysicsCentral, haha. 4 is probably my favorite, but ArtBridge is definately already trademarked by some other company. Personally, I’m leaning towards PHYne Arts, but it’s more likely that we’re just going to go with the standard naming conventions on Physics Central.

If you’ve clicked on the link above, you’ll see that the page is currently just listed as “Physics In Art”. Not the most fun name, but straightforward and gets the job done. I’ll have to tuck away the brainstorming session for future physicsy art things!

This being our last real weekend in DC, I also made it a point to see some of the more tourist-y things out here. I went to the Air and Space Museum, which was a m a z i n g! The planetarium show I went to, Journey To the Stars, was narrated by none other than Whoopie Goldberg. What a fun trip! I also really loved that it was evident that there was a real effort to show scientifically accurate illustrations of the cosmos. Though it didn’t exactly have a strong plot structure, it was structured enough to keep my attention throughout the whole show without just trying to dazzle me with a pretty light show. I love myself a good planetarium show, and this one checked all the boxes for me. Plus, the seats were comfortable, and the show was only 9 bucks! I only wish I had more time to go back and see the other shows!

Sunday, I also checked out the Spy Museum. It’s one of the few paid attractions in DC, but it was massive and super interactive! I kind of wish they stuck to the more fictional or historical aspects of spying, because some of the more modern stuff did make me a bit uncomfortable. In particular, there was a game that you could play called “Red Team” or something like that, where you were basically in the scenario of advising President Obama on whether or not to bomb the house that Osama Bin Laden was suspected to be in.

I think the point of the excersize was to show that even with a ton of good intel, it was a difficult decision to make with real consequences. However, they never really talked about what the negative consequences were, and (at least to me) it seemed like they presented all the questions in a way that it would be difficult to disagree with the historical decision.

Little stuff, like that, and another whole room dedicated to the Israli-Palestinian conflict which almost completely demonized the Palestinian people as suicide bombing terrorits, just generally kind of made me feel weird about the whole thing. This is a place for kids and families! If I didnt know anything about these events before visiting the museum, I might come away with a lot of one-sided opinions.

Having previously visited the Spy Museum in Berlin, it was especially interesting to compare and contrast the experiences. Instead of being a fun filled day of dodging lasers and playing spy, it ended up being a lot of heavy thinking about international conflicts, propaganda, and the state of our nation.

So yeah, was it worth the 23 bucks? Probably. The production quality was really great, and there was TONS of stuff to do. But if you do visit, try and remember that they aren’t necessarily giving you the whole story.

Anyway, so as not to leave you all on such a heavy note, let’s talk about next week!

It’s our final week together, and you’ll only be hearing from me one last time unless we connect somewhere else. I’ve got three more real days of work, and then Thursday and Friday I’ll be out doing preperation and wrap up stuff for SPS. My final presentation will be done on Friday, which I think should also be posted here for everyone to be able to take a peak through.

Then, Saturday, I’m on a plane home! I am so excited to go back home, guys. I love DC, I love this internship, and I love my fellow interns, but there is nothing like going home after being away for a long while. If you want to keep in contact, or just see what I’m going to be up to next, check out my website and give me a shout!

http://imbishop.com/

See y’all one final time, next week!