Marika Bierma
UW Class of 2022

The University of Washington has a plethora of resources. One fine Saturday morning, my friends Lauren, Taylor, and I decided to explore UW's Burke Museum. Upon arriving, we meandered through the natural history exhibit and the wonderful cultural/tribal exhibit downstairs. Our last stop was the temporary exhibit demonstrating the packing process that is being implemented to transfer exhibits to the newly renovated Burke Museum location. This exhibit was made up primarily of glass rooms where one could peek in to see volunteers and professionals cleaning and excavating new exhibits. As we looked through one of the windows, a volunteer approached us and took us behind the glass. She explained all of the projects they were currently working on and we were even able to scribe (chip rock away using a small tool) a real fossil! For the grand finale, she took us to the glass room containing one of only seventeen whole tyrannosaurus rex skulls in the world. She then did a crazy thing: she told us we could touch it! It's amazing how real something becomes when you actually place your fingers on it... My friends and I were too in awe to take any photographs with Rex, so here's a photo of me sitting in a cave made by a rotting rhinoceros carcass (also in the Burke Museum).