Campers
This year we have a good batch of campers.
They are divided onto five "color groups" and get to learn about five
different subjects as you will see below.
Astronomy On Monday they learned about the phases of the moon and made
books showing them.
On Tuesday campers finished their moon
phase calendars and made spectroscopes to look at the spectra of
elements
And on Wednesday they built missiles
powered by air pressure and then tested their accuracy.
Computers
Here they learned about programming in the language Scratch.
They made an animated cat perform.
On Tuesday they continued learning to
program.
Wednesday they finished their
programming projects which are available on the MIT web site.
Biology On Monday campers tested their senses: taste, touch, sight,
smell, and hearing.
They used a game to study population
dynamics and how it is influenced by limited resources.
Another game modeled predator prey relationships.
In both they collected data and plotted the results.
The numbers on the board in the last picture are the data from one of
the games.
Wednesday in biology they dissected owl
pellets and tried to identify
what animal the owl had eaten by examining the bones the pellets
contained.
Chemistry
Campers made safety glasses that they will need for classes during the
rest of the week.
Tuesday in chemistry the campers started
growing crystals.
In chemistry on Wednesday they got to
see how the crystals they started on Tuesday turned out and built
conductivity testers.
Physics
We studied bubbleology on Monday and managed to put everyone into a
bubble if they wanted to.
We even managed to get two in one bubble on occasion.
A couple of the helpers tried it too.
We made round bubbles, long ones, square ones, caught a few on our
head, and made flat ones that had windows that you could put your head
through.
We talked about some of the ways bubbles ares used in science and how
to tell the thickness by the color of the bubble.
We started making hot air balloons on
Tuesday in physics.
Helpers working on materials for the hot
air balloons
Wednesday we finished the balloons and
tried to solve some puzzles.
On Thursday we flew the balloons.
Hot air supplied by a propane burner provided the lift.
Some had strings attached so that they could be recovered for another
flight.
Others were just released and with some luck came down close enough
that they could be flown again.
Others disappeared over the buildings and trees never to be seen again.
Occasionally an unfortunate gust of wind
pushed a balloon into the
direct heat from the burner.
Always exciting. Here are some of the results.
Some made a brief flight before they
were reduce to ash.
For those all that remained was the wire
ring that had shaped the bottom of the balloon.
Some of the helpers built their own
balloon and launched it.
Showing off some of the things they
made in camp.
Some of the prizes for the contests on Thursday.
The Physics Olympics competition this year included firing a water
balloon with points for accuracy.
Build a bridge out of paper and glue. How much weight will it
hold?
What is the highest tower that can be made using a single sheet of
paper?
And build an aluminum foil boat that can hold the most marbles without
sinking.
What shape is in each of the containers?
You have to figure it out by rattling and tipping them so that the
balls inside slide around and give you clues.
Make the most words from the letter combinations for the elements on
the periodic table to win this part of the contest.
A helper explaned the rules, kept the time and checked the results.
Build a paper airplane that you fly out of the classrrom door.
To score in this event it has to turn left and go down the hall.
The Who Wants to Win a Million Dollars game tests the campers science
knowledge, but not for real money.
Just like the TV game show there is a fastest finger round and then
questions that start easy but get harder in each round.
If you want to try your hand at it there is a link at the bottom of the
page.
Solving a computer maze when your only information about which way to
go is instructions from your teammates can be interesting.
You get exchanges like this. "Go up, up, left, down, over,
OVER!", "Which WAY!!!"
The big contest this year was to design and build a device that could
catch a steel ball dropped on it from up to 2 meters.
The winner
was the catcher that was the shortest, weighed least, and caught
the ball from the greatest height.
Here are some of the entries.
The catchers are carefully positioned over a hole in the bottom
of the drop tower.
And the ball is released.
The Winners.
On Friday we went to Bays Mountain Park in Tennesee.
The naturalist told us about the wolves they have and got the whole
pack to howl in response to his howl.
Play the video to hear them.
The naturalist told us about when the wolves escaped because a tree
fell on the fence.
Then it happened again when a big branch fell.
In front of the viewing area you can see very strong barriers that they
hope will prevent that from happening again.
They had other animals and birds as well. Deer, a bobcat, otters,
racoons, raptors, turtles, snakes.
We saw an informative presentation on snakes and had a chance to touch
one if we wanted to.
A few more of the animals we saw.
We all had a great time at camp this year. I plan to see many of them
again next year.
The
www.mrtc.com/anvk/ web site by Alan
Kuehner is licensed under a Creative
Commons License.
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