Day 4,2012

By Wednesday most of the girls are running around like they've been friends for years, instead of only days.  They seem to get more energy as the week goes on, while the staff to get less.  But that might be due to the fact that many of us don't go to bed until about 2 am. - Becca

Today the gold group went canoeing, while the red group went to the tech lab and the blue group went to mathemagic and the art lab.  The tech lab is pretty fun.  In it you're with Becca and you learn about computer programming.  You learn how to make a figure move across the screen by setting up a plan for the script.... it's super fun!!! The math and are labs are where you are shown how there is art and magic in math.

Today at camp it was the third day of core classes.  In Murder Mystery with Mrs. Nelson, we are closer to solving the mystery!  In motion coasters, we finished our cars and got to test our engineering skills.  In construction, we learned that art of building bridgrs.... with popsicle!

It was a long walk to the planetarium, but it was worth it.  One group did team building outside and the other went inside the building to watch an educational video.  The three activities were the Human Knot, people in a lanyard, hoolahoop around a circle, and the blindfolded line.  In the video (it was actually a planetarium show), they discussed famous women in astronomy, like Sally Ride and Carolyn Shoemaker, and their impact on history.  We also looked at different star formations.  In the end, this was one of the funnest days at Tech Trek.

Day 3, 2012

I promise that tomorrow I will post some pictures that we have from this week so far.  - Becca

Today in core classes we did a ton of exciting things.  In Art of Construction, we built a two-story structure of straws, pins, paper clips, and cardboard.  We did tests in Murder Mystery and learned about boiling water.  In Motion Coasters, we got to learn about Newton's 2nd and 3rd laws, and we got to start building our balloon cars.  We made posters about Women Rock in Mathematics.  There was even robot programming in Lego.  Classes were amazing.

At career night 2.0, we had special guests like a physical therapist, an accountant, and a structural engineer.  The physical therapist showed us a stretch band and let us test a muscle contractor.  The accountant talked about how she handles a lot of money and helps with people's finances.  We learned about how to make buildings safe, and she emphasized how huge the plans for buildings are. The nature researcher explained her hopes of cleaning the San Joaquin River, and told us how to not get carsick.  It was a fantastic experience.

After career night, we played Trivia Night.  We had questions about chemistry, food, movie characters, history, language arts, and lots of other things.  We also had a large debate on most of the topics.  We had one round with clickers and the next we had to write down.

Day 2, 2012

Sorry for the late post, but as you can probably imagine, things can get hectic around here.  Monday is when things really get into swing here at camp.  We have a full day of labs, classes, and other activities, plus, by this time all the girls are best friends and running around causing a ruckus (which is good).  But I'll let them tell you more about it. My comments to help clarify what they're saying are in parentheses. - Becca

This morning in our lab we did a flower designed with string along with mathemagic (fun math tricks).  We (different group) also learned how to animate and move an image around the screen in many unique ways (with computer programming).  We (another group) also went canoeing!  It was so much fun, because we kept running into trees and tipping over!  We also made foot prints with plaster.  It was amazing.

In our core classes (this one is chemistry), we made missles out of matches and aluminum foil.  It was so much fun.  In CSI class we took inventory of the crime scene.  We also went over the suspects and their motives.  We need to keep investigating. In Art of Construction we talked about building materials and structural foundations.  In Women Rock in Math we got to make a huge poster of famous people like Ada Lovelace and Galileo.  In Robotics we learned how to build a Lego robot and learned how to program the robot to do really cool things.  We also learned why robots are important and the different kinds of robots that we use today.  Also, we learned that Legos aren't just for little boys, but for everybody.

(This is about evening activities.)  With Jenny, one of the career night speakers, we learned about how the San Joaquin Valley is so polluted and it is affecting every single person in the community.  We also heard from Erica, who works for the California Department of Water Resources, and Margaret who is a nurse.  Becca talked about economics and getting a PhD, and Marty talked about how you can do one thing, and then retire and do something different, but related, if you want to.

Outside, we played two awesome games called Tarzan, Jane, Ape and Ultimate Duck Duck Goose.  It was really fun because we kept running around.

Day 1, 2012

Things are still crazy tonight, so I'll post some pictures tomorrow evening.  For now, some of the girls wrote a bit on the first day of camp.  - Becca

The food:  Food was delicious. From the spaghetti to the red velvet cake, we were all in awe of its deliciousness.  Beverages ranged anywhere from Sprite to a cherry slushy.  They even had super sweet ice cream!  Overall, on a scale of 1-10, the food ranked a nine!  We wish we could eat like college students every day.

Roommates:  They were nice and welcoming.  It is scary at first, but when you see your roommate you see that they are nice and in the same position as you.  All of the form groups are the same way, nice and welcoming.  After the first day you realize you have nothing to worry about.

Games:  Our first day was more fun than we could have imagined!  7:00 was the activity time, and it was a blast.  We played games to help us connect with the other campers and had contests to spark rivalry between the dorm groups.  The main competition was a game about team work where we had to lie down and work with each other to fill a bucket with water without moving anything but our arms.  We then came inside, pretty wet from the fun game, and started naming our dorm groups.  It was awesome and everyone had a great time.