SC 2014 - day 1

Day 1 at Sigma2014 was definitely a busy, but fun day. The campers arrived en masse, and we needed to have them moved in, and their medical information sorted. In turn, the aforementioned mass needed to feel out the new location, find which team the returning friends were assigned to, and bond with their new teammates and counselors a bit. Particularly for this last purpose, the second half of the day was dedicated to a high ropes / team station course, where the campers had to work together in their teams to solve a series of problems and perform difficult-for-humans tasks, and in the process, of course - get to know each other. There is a lot written about the course in our blog already (http://sigmacamp.org/node/257). The opening day was concluded, appropriately, with an opening ceremony, where the campers were introduced properly to the staff, the camp rules, and the activities for the next six days, and most importantly - to the meaning of our camp and the hopes we had for the kids to entertain themselves to scientific discovery. We are sad to say that we have no photos from the opening ceremony, including the brilliant lecture by Dr. Sergei Maslov about systems that make up everything from our protein networks, to our hiring practices. Nonetheless, at the end of the ceremony, the Sigma Spirit was reluctantly coerced from its yearly rest, and with the camp officially open, the counselors took the their teams out for the first milk and cookies and team time of Sigma 2014.