Listen to a conversation between a student and the administrator in the Biology department(woman) Hi, can I help you? (man) Hope so. I was supposed to meet with Professor Simmons, but she’s not in her office.Do you know? (woman) Uh, I was just about to post a sign on her door.She was unexpectedly called into a meeting. She’ll have regular office hours tomorrow, though.(man) Oh, OK. It’s just that she was gonna give me information on some new internship that the Biology department’s planning to offer.(woman) You mean for our golden eagle project?(man) Yeah, that’s the one.(woman) I’m doing the administrative work for that project. I’m preparing a page about it right now for our Web site, in fact.(man) Cool! Well, Professor Simmons mentioned that in class yesterday. It seemed like a great opportunity.I mean, I’ve been a bird watcher for years. I especially like raptors.And I actually saw a golden eagle at a tree near the river last winter.I’ve lived here in Minnesota all my life and had never seen a golden eagle in the wild before.(woman) I know. Golden eagles didn’t use to visit our area on any regular basis.But according to winter wildlife surveys done over the past few years, around sixty had begun hanging out around the cliffs overlooking the upper Mississippi river during the month of January.(man) Wow! So, like, what’s the golden eagle project? I mean, what will the interns be doing?(woman) Assisting field researches mainly, uh, helping them capture some of the eagles and placing radio tracking devices on them.(man) Oh, I thought it was about, like, conserving their various seasonal habitats and breeding grounds.(woman) We don’t know where this particular population of birds breeds or anything about their migration route for that matter.(man) Hmm, wow, so how did the Bio department get involved?(woman) When the winter survey showed a pattern, Professor Simmons and some other faculty thought the first step of understanding these birds would be to track their movements.So they applied for a research grant and got it.The grant’s from a consortium of agencies interested in protecting wildlife and in case you’re interested, about thirty thousand dollars.(man) So the interns will get paid.(woman) Most of the money is allocated for the radio tracking technology.Whatever’s left over will go toward the researchers’ salaries.However, interns can earn one course credit for every 70 hours they volunteer.(man) That’s a lot of time, but the experience will look amazing on my resume.(woman) Absolutely! Uh, say, given your interest in raptors, were you planning to attend the Speaking of Science lecture next Monday?It’s on energy reserves in birds of prey. It’s scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Biology department lounge.(man) That lecture series, uh, I’ve heard that mostly graduate students and faculty go.(woman) Mostly, yes,(man) But wouldn’t everything go right over my head?(woman) Somethings maybe but it wouldn't hurt to go anyway, if this is a field you’re interested in.(man) OK, I’ll think about it.