Today we went on a field trip! Because of this, unlike the usual three hours of Dr. D Lecturing and three hours of Dr. Fallscheer Lecturing, we only had one and a half hours with Dr. D and one and a half hours with Dr. Fallscheer. We started off the day with a lecture on circular trigonometry which was explained very well by Dr. D and I definitely understood most of the information, but some of the new information was a bit challenging to understand. Dr. D’s lecture was followed by a lecture on the wonderful world of integrals by Dr. Fallscheer. This was much more simple, especially since I had already learned about integrals this past school year. We did learn a little bit about Multivariable Calculus during our lecture which I found fascinating. Unfortunately we did not finish solving the problems on Multivariable, but rather switched to rotating a curve around an axis.
After lunch, we started walking to Chautauqua Park but during the walk, we started to feel a little bit of rain. Because everyone was ready for a break from working on Problem Sets, we decided to keep going, even if we got a little wet. At the park, a very large group of SSP-ers started hiking up the mountain. I was in the leading group with Gustavo and Alyssa who were running, however, I decided that I would just walk up quickly because I didn’t really want to run, and there was not enough time to make it to the top of the mountain if I didn’t hurry up. During the hike up, the rain started to pick up and we started to get soaked. Even though it was raining, we decided to go to the top and see the view. Gustavo, Alyssa and I made it to the top with lots of time to spare. We had a photoshoot and decided that it was a good idea to walk back so that we wouldn’t be left behind. A few minutes into the walk back, we met up with the group who had been walking slower than us. They still wanted to make it to the top, even if they were going to make it back late (don’t worry, a mentor was there with us so it was ok) so I decided to walk up, again.
By the time we all ran down the mountain, everyone had already left and had already started to head home. I thankfully got a drive back to campus by Ms. Bana which gave me time to change out of my soggy clothes and get warm for dinner. After dinner, we also got the chance to go to the planetarium show! (I know, two great things in one day!). The planetarium show was awesome, I found the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that was explained really interesting. To end the day, we worked for a few hours on our problem sets which, as always, was a lot of fun.
Hello, my name is Andreas! I live in Santa Barbara, California and I will be going into my Senior year at Laguna Blanca School. In my free time, I play cello and guitar, like to volunteer, and like to hike and backpack. In college, I would like to study Mechanical or Aerospace engineering and I am so excited to have another five weeks to find our asteroids at SSP!!
