Alex+Dornburg's+Expedition

On Friday night, March 2, the Teen Science Cafe had guest speaker Alex Dornburg, the museum's Curator of Ichthyology. Dornburg had recently returned from an expedition to Antarctica, and he came excited to share all of his great stories. We started off the night with an Antarctica themed bingo, while he told us interesting facts about each term he called aloud. After the game, he finally Introduced himself and told us about his previous expedition. He taught the audience about the marine species inhabited in the Arctic, and how crucial they all are. Aside from the things I already knew they were valuable for, I learned that fish are very important for genome testing. The speaker enlightened us with new views on the Arctic seas and the severeness of global warming. He spoke about our world's issues while keeping us interested by telling us his personal experiences, like the bad weather and how one time it was so dark and cloudy that he couldn't see but 20 feet in front of the boat. Hearing his stories makes me interested in the career of an environmental scientist. This experience opened my eyes to the problems that we aren't aware of in our everyday lives. The Teen Cafe is a great place for young people to go and learn about the problems of our earth, in a positive way. I played fun games with my friends while gaining awareness and knowledge about our beloved earth, and the conditions required to maintain it.