This was a busy week at summer camp - lots to see around campus. Mine was not the only camp going on. The police department ran an
Explorer camp for older teenagers who were interested in the police academy for a potential career. They started every morning with calisthenics (the grueling kind like they do in the marines), but during the day they participated in lots of activities just like real police do, like investigating crime scenes. One day, they even brought out the bomb robot (the machine they use to investigate suspicious packages), but I missed getting a picture of that. On Friday, the police helicopter landed on the university lawn and gave everyone a demonstration of their surveillance and rescue techniques. Interesting, but very noisy.
They were also doing some demolition this summer on campus to make way for a new building. I thought the machine they were using looked like a scary creature eating the building like you used to see in old 50's movies. I took my kids on several "field trips" to see the progress of the demolition, but I don't think they were as fascinated by it as I was.
The Physics of Toys camp was pretty successful. On Thursday we made balancing toys - crazy asymmetrical shapes that can balance on one finger. Our last activity on Friday was making Ziploc Ice Cream - homemade ice cream made in a plastic sandwich bag. Judging by the redness in everyone's cold hands, I think they got the lesson that salt significantly lowers the temperature of ice.
The robotics kids had their final competition. Their robots were supposed to rescue the astronauts (LEGO mini-figs), collect the dead batteries, find the magnetic rocks, and clean the dust off the solar panels. Some robots were better than others, but a few ran over the astronauts rather than pick them up. These two boys were the winners. They look very calm in this photo, but they were the wildest, most hyperactive pair I've ever seen. But on the positive side, they taught me how to use the countdown timer on my new phone.
