Day 7: OOBLECK!!!!!

Today started off in the computer lab with our campers taking an "Implicit Associations Test". Developed at Harvard by researchers, this test measures how much we associate the liberal arts or the sciences with men or women. Our results were very interesting (there's a picture of our results on our Facebook page if you're interested)! We then moved back upstairs to our room where we had a quick discussion about women in science. We then welcomed a guest speaker-- Cosima Schunk, a PhD student at Brown. She gave us an invigorating talk about her research with bats and the fluid mechanics of bats in flight. After answering our questions, she took us downstairs into Prince Labs to see her laboratory space--complete with a wind tunnel that the bats fly through! After answering our many questions, we went back upstairs for a lunch of sandwiches, veggies and hummus. After we were finished eating, we played a rousing game of Mafia (with an unexpected twist at the end!). Then Sophia led a lesson on non-Newtonian fluids, a new concept for most of us! After the lesson we went outside to enjoy the beautiful (albeit hot) weather and did our afternoon activity-- making Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid! We all got to color our Oobleck different colors and had a ton of fun playing around with it. For some great photos of the fun we had, see our Facebook page (Spira Engineering Camp)! We cleaned off our hands and went back inside to wrap up the day with a Nova episode about Smart Materials and the emerging science of materials. We had SO much fun today with all the campers, and are excited to spend the rest of the week with them!