Did you know that your zodiac sign is determined by the sun’s position in the constellation at the time and date of your birth? Find out on the Stellarium planetarium computer app! I learned that I was a Capricorn and not an Aquarius (for reference: my birthday is in February) :0 . Zodiac signs are just a teeny-tiny piece of what we learn about every day.
To start our day, we had a short morning lecture on the mean anomaly and time of perihelion passage, followed by time to work on the corresponding PSET. After gobbling up our lunches at Chase Dining Hall, my friends and I walked to Phillips Hall to attend the speech of our guest speaker, Dr. Collin Wallace. I found his topic of active learning very engaging. It was cool how Dr. Wallace, a professor at UNC, not only shared his own experiences with the class but also encouraged hands-on voting. He gave us a sheet labeled A, B, C, and D to poll our answers to interactive questions. (We used the paper to make origami afterward :)). After an intense round of Q&A with our guest speaker, we were met with our reward: cookies and fruit punch at the green lounge.
The rest of the afternoon time whirred by in a flurry of PSETS, origami making, and dinner. We had a little break afterward so being the smart people that we were, my friend and I painted our nails 30 minutes before dinner. Note to self: tie your shoes before painting your nails before a formal dinner. Or use a spoon-either way works. During dinner, my friend received a Morehead Observatory Keychain for making a design for the T-shirt. It almost made me regret not designing one… After dinner, my friend and I ran out of the dining hall because exercise is super important!! (or because we were slow walkers and the shower stalls didn’t wait for the weak). Again, exercise is important!
Anyways, all in all, it was a pretty cool day.
-Emily
