newsminer.com

Photo by Eric Engman

Photo by Eric Engman

Photo by Eric Engman

With a fur pelt wrapped around her arm, Gathoni Egger and Marceline Post make their way through the crowded main exhibit hall at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

They plan to use the fur and their friendly attitudes to draw museum visitors into the Education Center, an area of the museum where people are allowed to, and even encouraged, to touch things. There are four tables set up inside, each with a different theme: winter in Alaska, Alaskan animals, the aurora and fossils. Lynx and fox pelts share a table with a jar of krill; blue foam, snow shoes and bunny boots help visitors understand Fairbanks life; at table full of magnets takes some mystery out of the Northern Lights by explaining the Earth’s magnetic field and souvenir-making tools of corn starch, molds and crayons sit on the fossil table.

Egger and Post are part of the first-ever youth volunteer summer program at the museum. Jen Arseneau, education program leader at the museum, said the program was created to bring in and engage more young people. Because the program is in its first year, it is changing and evolving to better accommodate the volunteers, she said.

Arseneau and Tumi Traustason, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a fellow with the Task GK12 program, drop into the center from time to time, but for the most part, the center is the domain of the volunteers.

“They’re the ones in charge now,” Arseneau said.

Traustason, as part of the Task GK-12 program, is focused on science outreach and works with the volunteers on a daily basis. He developed the center’s four stations and prepared fact sheets and information for the volunteers.

Nine volunteers are split into three groups and are in the Education Center from 2-4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

There are also bi-weekly meetings where all of the volunteers gather to share funny stories and find out answers to questions they or the visitors had. The meetings also give the volunteers a sneak peak into the museum’s nooks and crannies not usually seen by the public. Arseneau said volunteers also learn about different careers such as paleontology.

Talking to the museum’s paleontologist and seeing the museum’s vast collection of specimens were some of the perks of the job for Egger, Post and Quinn Evenson.

“They took us to the basement and they had all of this cool stuff like thousands and thousands of voles,” Post said.

The three 13-year-olds work in the center on Wednesdays and they encounter a wide variety of people.

Evenson said one of the most common odd questions they get about the center’s exhibits is “Is this on sale?”

Evenson said a tourist who didn’t know what blue foam was used for, tried to put the museum’s sample on his head and promptly returned it to the table when Evenson told him when Alaskans use it.

Egger said the job is fun but there are some downsides. “There are annoying people who can be kind of rude but you just have to deal with it,” she said.

While Eggers and Post are roaming the museum, Tuesday volunteer Kathryn Richarson, 14, takes a different approach. She stands outside of the center behind a display of interesting Alaska artifacts and a smile on her face.

Richardson said she has always loved American history and meeting new people. She especially likes knowing she is helping teach others about Alaskan life.

Arseneau said the volunteers can provide textbook knowledge, but they are more valuable as ambassadors of Alaska. They are ones who can provide a personal experience and give tourists a true Alaskan point of view.

“We wanted to focus more on interaction because the museum is filled with information,” Arseneau said.