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.

Snow Day

We had so much snow this week! Ryleigh and Sutter had a snow day on Tuesday. We had about 18 inches of snowfall here at camp and FEET at our house in Truckee. It is nice to finally see winter. We were all starting to worry about the fire season. Lornie is not so excited about winter. She wishes it was spring. She misses riding when we have this much snow. In fact, she and Sutter spent part of last weekend with Kalli in Elk Grove riding horses and enjoying NO SNOW. I thought you'd all appreciate this photo of Craig and Roscoe. Roscoe loves playing in the snow, but gets so FULL of snow balls, he has to have a bath just to be able to walk.
Have a great Wednesday!
Becky

Looks Like Winter...Finally

What did the groundhog say a couple weeks ago? Well old man winter must have heard him and got upset. Nothing like the day after the storm passes. I'm not sure why I'm running around taking pictures of camp when I should be out on the slopes enjoying the first blue bird powder day of the ski season. I guess I can't have everything. We are all excited to finally have some snow on the ground. Even our cat Chuckie was out playing in it this morning. Of course a layer of snow on the ground always reminds me of all the things that are so easy to put off while the weather is nice. Maybe I should just go ride my motorcycle.
Looking toward summer program ideas. I (this is Craig by the way)have sketched a couple of ideas for new elements on the ropes course- see if I can maybe get one built for this summer. I'm also on the lookout for trap/skeet shooting program outline that would be appropriate for us to use this year- I've set up a thrower down by the shop and would love to try it as a camp activity.
Hope you've all been enjoying the holiday week or long weekends whichever you had!

Craig

PS- the photo is looking up toward the pond from the bottom of the meadow.

Winter Riding!

Sutter and Ryleigh are out of school this week, so in addition to relaxing, reading, watching movies and really silly TV shows, Ryleigh also found some time to take a riding lesson. Here she is with Tulip. Lornie has also spend the early part of this week riding as much as she could between potential staff interviews. We are expecting terrible weather for the next several days, and since we'll be stuck indoors, we definitely tried to get our outdoor time in early :)!
Happy Wednesday.
Becky

Veteran's Day

This is a very late post, but we struggled with photos and text on our main site!
We took this on Veteran's Day, and wanted to take a moment to thank the men and women who have made such incredible sacrifices. Regardless of our political and social viewpoint, our soldiers are in our thoughts and prayers, today and every day!

Becky

Our crazy lives

It has been a hectic winter at Coppercreek Camp. Ryleigh is in Kindergarten, Sutter is in high school, and Lornie, Craig and I are just trying to keep up. I am spending several days each week at Northstar as the Ticket and Pass Manager and Lornie starts coaching Junior High Volleyball next week. PHEW!!! We thought we were busy in the summer. This winter, it's taking Google calendars to keep track of all of our schedules. If you are in the Tahoe area, please stop by the pass office at Northstar and say hello. If you are attending any volleyball tournaments for your junior high kid, look out for Lornie and her Greenville team! Sutter is playing Club Volleyball and planning for a trip to Mongolia this May. Her Dad is going there for research and Sutter gets to go along! It is definitely a huge opportunity for her. Ryleigh's loving school. She gets to go to the first grade class for reading and is starting to read everything she can, including road signs and just last week, she picked up Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman!
We need camp to start so we can justify Rest Hour every day!

Becky