Days 14 and 15: Reading, Math, Polymer Spheres and Field Trip!

Thursday and Friday of Week 3 were excellent.  We spent our time practicing our math on Sumdog.  We placed 6th out of 94 schools in the US Math Competition and several of our students placed in the top 100 students. Congratulations to Kevin Botbol, Sergio Paez and Johnny Walker for their excellent work.  Ten campers completed the 1000 questions, and our campers as a group answered over 17,000 math problems over five days.  The Dragons worked on some math problems from our Critical Thinking Co. books and excelled at combining their arithmetic and critical thinking skills. The Tigers tested their critical thinking skills trying to solve several difficult toothpick problems.  Both groups spent time reading and several students managed to finish their summer reading assignments from school.

During science we looked at polymer spheres, also known as super absorbent jelly marbles, that absorb over 300 times their weight.  We did an experiment with them to see how they would respond if placed in chocolate syrup, yogurt, Gatorade, and laundry detergent as compared to our control set that was soaked in tap water.  The ones soaked in Gatorade and laundry detergent increased substantially in size but far less than those soaked in water.  The ones in the chocolate syrup expanded the least, followed by the ones soaked in yogurt.

Physical fun with Master Sky is always a camper favorite.  The Tigers got a great workout with a new medicine ball drill and both groups had plenty of time to run around.  Roses Are Red/Violets Are Blue, Four Corners and Jail Break continue to be the most requested free time games, along with box ball.

On Friday, we went to Matheson Hammock armed with nets to explore the marine environment.  Unfortunately, high tide and excess seaweed and debris forced us from our normal location for catching marine life, but a we still managed to have fun exploring in the lagoon.  Afterwards, we had a picnic lunch and then played soccer and football before returning to the taekwondo school.

We are off next week as Master Choi, Master Sky and Ms. Dana will be in San Jose, California for the 2014 USAT National Championship.  Master Sky, Gabriel Mora, Michael Mora, Sergio Paez, and Camila Perez will representing Florida and Team Taekwondo at Nationals.  Go Team!