I Scream, You Scream...

Pilar Alvarez, Colter Fellows, and Luke Rodarte
enjoy their ice cream

This is the kind of experiential learning that motivates: make your own ice cream, then eat it!  

On our first snow day of the 2011-2012 school year, Physical Science students did just that. 

The following report comes from Physical Science teacher Izaak Eberst: 

In physical science, we've been talking about states of matter and phase changes. To see it in action, our class created a liquid cream mixture, then cooled it off into ice cream. To achieve this phase change without a freezer [even the snow outside was not quite cold enough], we surrounded the cream with ice and salt. Ice is cold, and the salt keeps the ice colder, even though it turns it into a liquid. This is also the reason we put salt on the roads, as it keeps the water from freezing, even as temperatures drop below 0C. Eventually, the liquid cream solidified into the tasty treat we all know and love, and it tasted almost as good in the snow as it does on a summer afternoon!

Luke Rodarte, loving his home-made ice cream

Orientation 2011, Day 2

Fighting Marmot family:


More news follows from both our first night afield and from our Field Day events at Orientation 2011:


* The snorers of our community are now no longer anonymous. Everybody knows who we are, but fortunately the persecution has been pretty mild and good natured. One of my cabin mates - who will remain unnamed - told me that he tried to awaken me in the middle of the night to stop my chainsawing. He actually slept OUTSIDE with the bugs and the bears last night.


* There are now two "Jefes" on the SBA coaching staff, a Nordic "Jefe" - Schloss - and an Alpine "Jefe" - Kai - (both coaches noted that their understudies in the past have given them these affectionate monikers, which are also - from the perspective of Marmot Man - a tribute to the popularity of the Spanish language).


* Colter Fellows set the standard by which all future SBA volleyball players will be judged, leading his team to a 3-2 victory over a talented squad that featured the volleyball starpower of new SBA student/athlete Joelle Romo.


* New faculty member Izaak Eberst was sidelined due to an ankle injury he sustained in a game of Capture the Flag and has been hobbling around camp. The injury doesn't seem to have dampened his good nature.


* New SBA student/athlete Taylor Elicegui, a second-year J2 alpine racer from Reno, became the first student to correctly name each and every SBA community member present at Orientation 2011.


* Around the firepit, students, staff, and faculty shared their hopes and dreams for the 2011-2012 school year. The String of Hopes, an SBA tradition, will hang in the dining room of the SBA boarding house. Students may add or amend hopes at any point in the school year. Augie apparently still hopes to get huge.


* We watched the international space station fly over us at approximately 8:45 p.m. and learned, thanks to the space savvy of Steve Ascher, that it moves at about 17,000 miles per hour and houses about six astronauts.


Day 3 features a hike and swim on the North Fork of the American River, followed by the short return trip to campus with a schedule arrival of 3 p.m.


-Marmot Man, powered by Blogpress and iPhone