We woke up today to ponchos in the living rooms and rain drizzling on the pines at Silver Lake. It was the first rainy day of Sigma Camp 2014. After having some pancakes from breakfast, the campers had a choice of four interesting lectures. Two were repeats of well reviewed lectures from last year. Marina Polonskaya repeated her crowd favorite on parasitic infections, called "The Tail Wagging the Dog", while Dr. Igor Zaliznyak from Brookhaven National Laboratory gave an informative exposition of the methods of Archimedes of Syracuse, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Two lectures were new. Professor Sasha Kirillov from Stony Brook talked about Benford's Law, and Oxana Litvine gave a lecture on the reconsolidation of memory and searches for novel treatments for drug addiction.
Dinner was held on the waterfront of the lake and we were fortunate enough to avoid rain during this time. The always friendly Silver Lake staff served a dinner of burgers, sausages, and hot dogs by this beautiful location. It was nice to have an period of outdoor activity in nice weather in an otherwise indoor day.
As the weather was overcast, we ran workshops that were suited to classrooms. Alex Zaliznyak repeated his popular workshop on Mangoes and Newton, while Alan unlocked the mysteries of human perception and sensation with his interactive lesson. Alex's mother Tanya gave a workshop on baking, and students really loved it.
The highlight of the day was a mix of a talent show and concert put on by the campers during evening activities. Students shared their musical abilities with all the camp. Through the night, campers performed skits lampooning the counselors and staff. Phil Chen and Harrison Ku delighted the audience with piano and violin adaptations of "Let It Go" and of popular songs by Imagine Dragons, One Direction and others.
Arina, Grisha, and Vikram played a rock improvisation with voice, guitar, piano, and alto sax.
Counselors Danya and Jessica had a Chinese and Russian rendition of "Blue Wagon" from the iconic "Cheburashka" cartoons.
Gabe Gang played "Mad World" as a solo, "Get lucky" with counselor Jacob and also successfully impersonated his British counselor Josh.
Anthony Roitman played a jazz selection on piano. Michelle Roitgarts played on the piano while Marina Vostrova and Rita Abanova sang pieces from Les Miserables. Victoria Maslova and Elisa Mezhirov did the Cup Song-without the cups: only their hands!
Sophia Borovikova and Victoria Maslova sang "All of Me."
We are so proud of our talented campers!!