Today was the first full day of camp - and what a busy day it was! Today, the campers started their semilabs. This is the core of our academic program; each semilab runs for five days, 1.5 hours every day, covering a variety of STEM topics - from Radioactivity to Machine Learning to the study of Planaria worms to “how to deceive with statistics.” Each student attends two of these semilabs, learning new material from our talented instructors - and judging by the feedback from the students, they were very enthusiastic, even if some of them found the material challenging. You can find some photos from the semilabs in our SmugMug.
But that was not all! After the semilabs, we had lectures by our visiting scientists. Today, our lecturers were Tatyana Sharpee, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Scott Aaronson, an expert on quantum computing. Unfortunately, campers could not attend both talks - they had to choose one of them.
But that's not all! Teams also had their first round of SigmaTournament, a problem-solving competition that will be running throughout the week; they could choose one of the many workshops, ranging from Board game design to bridge building to conlanging; they attended the evening club “Music Trivia”.
But it was not all academic. We had two long breaks between these activities, where the students could play games (we have a dedicated game room, stocked with games, from chess to Codenames), or try the climbing wall (this was a huge hit!), or just relax and chat to their new friends.
Not surprisingly, by nighttime, the campers were ready for bed - and after milk, cookies, and team time, they are now in bed, while their instructors work on the schedule for tomorrow, which will be just as exciting, if not more!