Camp and High School Chemistry

I received an e-mail from my Uncle Bruce the other day with a link to an article in the LA Times about my high school Chemistry teacher. Mr. Boomer, or the Boom, as everyone called him, has been at the same high school in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 50 years teaching Chemistry and Physics. I have attached a link to the article if you'd like to check it out. http://home.comcast.net/%7epqshop/latimes/latimes.html

To tell this story, I must first admit that as a teenager, I was not only a bit of a know it all, but also had moments where I was down right snotty. I know you are all surprised :). I can remember telling the Boom very early on in my Chemistry career that I did not "need" Chemistry, because I was going to law school, and obviously attorneys had no need for hard science. Now, having been raised by a smart alec, I should have known better than to give someone THAT much ammunition. For the rest of my years in high school, I was called "the lawyer" anytime I opened my mouth in Boom's class. So, after receiving and reading the article last week, I talked to my husband Craig about Mr. Boomer and my memories of Chemistry and Physics. I was astounded to find out that Craig's Chemistry teacher NEVER blew anything up. Not only that, but he never even got to light the bunsen burners, never got to experience BIG QUAL (qualitative analysis) where you actually cooked and added chemicals to discover what compound you had been given, and didn't remember much of anything. I STILL remember some of the elements on the periodic table, the formula for Sulphuric Acid and many other obscure facts from my BIG CHEM & MIGHTY PHYSICS career. I'm 36 years old and haven't taken a single Chemistry or Physics class since High School. Even with Boom's influence, I chose Intro to Oceanography as my college science requirement. One of the labs involved going to the beach and counting waves, totally my kind of science, but I digress.

You may wonder what in the world my high school science career has to do with camp! Quite a lot, actually. About the same time, I was taking this walk down memory lane, I was also putting together a banner for the Expo we attended this weekend. I was trying to figure out how to crystallize the camp experience for potential camp families. Why is camp important? What lessons are learned here?
Interestingly, what I came up with was Experiential Learning, and learning through play. Which of course, led me right back to Boom's classroom. Mr. Boomer always took so much pleasure from teaching and we learned through play! WE BLEW STUFF UP AND LIT THINGS ON FIRE! And, those lessons are still with me. The lessons we teach at camp are obviously quite different from the ones taught in a science classroom (I am still way more into the social science part of life :), but they are as enduring. When we learn through experience and play, those lessons stay with us far longer and can change who we are and how we see the world. So, maybe "the lawyer" did need Chemistry after all! Much thanks to you Boom! And, to everyone else, GO PLAY!

Dog's Life- by Roscoe

Boy, it sure does seem like its getting busy around here all of the sudden. Lornie has actually been able to play with her horses, which is fine with be becuse that means there is fresh manure in places I can get to without getting yelled at. I don't know what the big deal is, the big dumb beasts don't care that I'm running around at their feet. I don't even think they can see me. Of course there was that one grey one that seemed to be chasing me the other day... Craig (I would call him daddy, but he would probably get angry and then want to know why I was playing on his computer)Has be spending a lot of time working at the maintenance shop. He keeps crawling under tractors and other stuff and making them leak. He usually has a big dish under where they are leaking. I don't know why he would want to put that gunk in a dish, it tastes horrible. He geeps getting up and going to his other shed where he keeps the yummy oily stuff that tastes like french fries. I like that stuff. I don't understand what he does in there. the stuff is perfectly delicious and then he mixes it with the other smelly stuff; he puts water in and takes it out over and over again (I don't like the taste of it) and then he pours it in his pickup! What a waste of good, yummy oily stuff. Anyways, I try to help him as best as I can. I clean up after he spills the yummy oil, I bring him pine cones to throw for me, because that is what he REALLY wants to do, and I keep close watch when he makes the tractors leak the yucky stuff (see my ear, I got too close I guess.)
The snow is going away fast. I guess its ok though, it gets stuck all over me and slows me down. Plus now there are lots of birds to chase. I don't like the birds, they don't play fair. When I am just about to catch them, the go up in trees and yell mean things at me. Dumb birds. I hope the kids come back soon, I like all the stuff they leave on the dining deck for me plus that's when the nice ladies that work in the big kitchen will be back and they think I'm sooo cute.