Due to the recent government shutdown, internship sites such as NASA and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center were closed for several weeks. This left 19 Eleanor Roosevelt High School interns who had already been assigned to the sites without any means of obtaining research for their projects during those 34 days. These projects are a required component of student graduation requirements.
Over the course of the year, interns work under the supervision of mentors in a variety of venues ranging from NASA to the National Zoo to collect data for a Research Practicum (RP). The RP is a culmination of their senior year and integral for anyone enlisted in an internship. The data collected halfway through the year is also presented during the ERHS Science Fair, scheduled for February 13.
Interns spend half of each school day working in their respective internship sites, with the other half devoted to usual courses. The shutdown, however, left many students with a hole in their schedule spanning several hours.
Yau-Jong Twu, internship coordinator and physics teacher, said she let many of the interns stay in her class while they had nowhere else to go.
She explained that “The interns are just doing whatever they can over here, mostly their course work. At this point, I’m hoping the government reopens soon so that they can get more research done before the science fair. However, I’m thankful that many of the mentors keep in touch with students even when they’re not at work.”
Read more of this story in the January 31 News Review.
