Phew! We are nearly there. It’s a quarter to midnight and I’m just now getting to share the day’s events with you! We had quite the day, let me tell you! I am sure this will be the part of the camp that the girls will remember forever. Today we went to a cadaver lab! It was fascinating, to say the least. There were three rotations between embryology, organs and the body, and the brain. Unfortunately, out of respect for the cadavers and California law, we were unable to take any photographs. The rest of the day was spent preparing for our presentations for you tomorrow. Then we ended the evening with a popcorn party!

Thank you for such a fun-filled and eventful week with your daughter! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow promptly at 9.

***Parents, your daughter may call you before 9 if she is packed and ready to go- please be prompt with your arrival as the sooner you get here, the sooner we can present, and the sooner we can release your daughter back to you! I know you have missed them and they have missed you!

6/30/16

Pictures: http://albumizr.com/a/69w

We are fortunate enough to have one of our teachers who worked with NASA on the engineering and construction of the Endeavor Space Shuttle. Her husband (who also worked on the shuttle) is now a docent for the California Science Museum in Los Angeles. We were given private tours and insider information on what went on in the construction of the space shuttle and got to see it first hand! It was incredible!

Then, the JCs put on a little entertainment for us with some songs-it was great! All the girls started singing and it was so wonderful to see them all caught up in the moment- I got chills, it was beautiful.

Afterward, we had the honor of speaking with 6 different professional women in the field of STEM. We had a Disney Imagineer, Executive Producer for Awestruck on YouTube, Microbiologist, Director of Clinical Operations on Eye Devices, Business Consultant, and a Senior Aquarist. They were all fascinating and extremely informative! What an inspiration.

The rest of our evening has been spent working on writing thank you letters to the branches that sent them here for this experience. Now it’s light’s out and let me tell you- that is one time of the day that ALL of us look forward to- everyone of the girls crash after such fun-filled days. Tomorrow will be another great day and we are so excited to share our week with you come this Saturday. I can’t believe the week is already almost over- it just flew by!

We’ll see you soon!

P.S. Once again, apologies for so few pictures-you will have more on the DVD you receive at your branch meeting in the fall. But at least you can see what we’ve been up to. I’m sorry if your daughter was not captured in these pictures- they are unedited and not sifted through– we save that for the final product on the DVD. Thank you for your understanding.

6/29/16

Pictures: http://albumizr.com/a/iQM

Core Classes were fun-filled with campers creating and delving even deeper into their expertise. After Core Class and a delicious lunch -the ice cream is a HUGE hit here (I especially enjoyed the strawberry shortcake myself), the girls rotated through three workshops.

1. Chemistry of Makeup
2. Roller Coaster Physics
3. Rube Goldberg Machine Construction

All were a hit! The girls got to walk away with having created their own cosmetic line of lotion, a successful roller coaster that met strict constraints, and got real creative with their Rube Goldberg machine that they started last night. Don’t worry, we’re taking videos and pictures that will be included on the DVD that will be available with the branch that sent your amazing daughter in the fall. You will hear more details in their experiences on Saturday during their presentations.

We are wrapping up the evening with a comedy math hour, thanks to our resident mathematician and dorm mom, Virginia Seaton. The girls are full of belly laughs-it’s just wonderful to these girls breaking out of their shells and enjoying themselves and the experiences thus far. We will finish perfecting the Rube Goldberg machines (they are SO creative and these things are IMPRESSIVE!) and then head back to the dorms to work on the final presentation until we can all finally crash and rest up for tomorrow’s adventures (yes, the girls are sleeping just fine)! This really is an incredible group of girls- thank you again for sharing them with us for this week!

6/28/16:

Pictures (more pictures to come tomorrow): http://albumizr.com/a/FTU
What a busy, messy, sweaty day we had today!!! The girls literally played in the mud and found all sorts of ecological systems living within the mud. We found crabs, plants, shells, and much more. The girls went for a 1.5 mile hike learning all about the surrounding nature in our local coastal wetlands. From there they got to visit even more wildlife in the exhibit hall-they even pet some snakes!

Since we were up so early today (ate breakfast at 6:30am-which means most of us were up around 5:30ish) we took a nice long recess to just kick our feet up, hydrate, and relax before going to core class. The girls really got to delve in deeper in their classes (picture to come-probably tomorrow, the day got away from us today). Every class continues to build upon the previous day’s lesson and the girls are really enjoying the exposure to such new knowledge and experiences.

Finally, we ended the day by starting our Rube Goldberg Machines. The girls had to select a simple goal that their machine would accomplish (for example, setting off a mouse trap, turning on/off a light, throwing away trash, etc.) and then design an overly complicated machine to fulfill that task. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist that illustrated these overly complicated inventions for simple tasks. For example, the automatic napkin:

See this video of another example of a Rube Goldberg machine: Example of Rube Goldberg Machine