Field Learning: Soundslides at the National Zoo

One of three National Zoo elephants.

The hippo never surfaced and the elephants  never left the fence  — not Bootcamp’s typical problems. Cheers erupted in the lab when Professor Olmsted announced we’d take our morning’s lecture on soundslides to the National Zoo. But students eager to leave the classroom didn’t expect the new breed of puzzles awaiting  in the field.

Given only the instruction to find a good story, pairs of students entered the zoo with audio recorders and still cameras. T Braunstein and I first attempted to follow a Christian camp group energetically pursuing a scavenger hunt. But when the campers’ concentration waned, so did ours.

We decided to pursue a story that could be heard all around us. Persistent sawing, humming and clanking of construction equipment mixed with the birds’ chirps and rustling leaves.

A worker explained the noise would eventually produce an expanded elephant breeding and living grounds. Our soundslide was born.

After a quick tutorial on Soundslides Plus from Professor Hatch, we were on our way. I learned the hard way that construction and loud indoor spaces do not make for good audio. Check back in a few days for my result.