As the Museum's science education specialist, I am often called upon to bridge the worlds of scientific research and education. By joining our curators on a field expedition, it was my chance to gain a better understanding of this little seen aspect of their job in order to share it with our visitors. This Web site is the first step in bringing their research alive for our visitors.

In preparation, I not only had to be ready to work in rugged conditions and gather all the necessary camping equipment together, I also had to prepare to document the trip. That meant plenty of waterproof field journals for taking notes, waterproof bags for my camera, rolls and rolls of both print and slide film, and a plan for bringing in a video camera with no place to charge the batteries. In order to document the trip completely, I needed to have this variety of tools at my disposal -- no matter how challenging it was to gather them.

I also had to work hard at getting just the right shot each time without driving the rest of the team crazy. In the field, everyone gets very tired and dirty -- not exactly the time you want people taking lots of pictures of you! I did get plenty of good shots however, as you can see on this Web site and even had lots of opportunities to help out with the research -- setting traps, taking tissue samples, and of course hauling gear!

I learned how to collect samples for later DNA analysis while on the trip. This is one way scientists can learn how animals are related to each other.