As I went through this ethnography experience, I had some struggles. The biggest one for me was the interview. Every time I thought I had an interview with someone I would either not get a response back or in one case the individual never showed up for my interview. After finally getting my interview questions answered and making it past those struggles, I found the process to be exciting. It was a new way of researching for me to experience. I think I found this project fascinating because I was able to research a field of study that I’m actually interested in. The museum was a beautiful place to me, but it might be considered “boring” for others who are not interested in the Natural Sciences. I also learned that the museum is always looking for volunteers or interns, so hopefully I could intern there someday.

 

When I went to observe at the museum, I was certain I would be able to find a discourse community. It turns out I was focused more on everyone at the museum rather than the individual groups that make up the museum’s population. If I were to perform this ethnography again, I would observe only one group. I learned that even though you may think a community is a discourse community you must observe the people first before making any conclusions. This was a surprising realization, but it will be beneficial to me if I ever conduct ethnographic research again.

 

Overall, I can conclude that the people at the Museum of Natural Sciences do not make up a discourse community, but rather the population is made up of different groups of people. Even though the Museum of Natural Sciences was not a discourse community, it does not take away from my interest in the subject. If anything, doing this study has increased my fascination with the subject. I was able to witness people enjoying their job and others learning about science and becoming more involved. Seeing small children become excited about exhibits reminds me of myself when I was little. This itself has enhanced my interest on the subject I wish to pursue.