It’s the first day and there’s lots of excitement and nervousness as old friends connect and meet new friends over an assortment of games including rush hour, human feline puzzles and huge 10 person rounds of Set.
In Computer Science, our teacher Yulia pretended to be a Robot and challenged the campers to right specific instructions that would lead her to draw a square onto the board. We divided up into groups of three and our biggest challenge was to write instructions as specific as possible otherwise our robot had a lot of room for misinterpretation. The goal was to demonstrate how coding requires precision in wording, efficiency and thoroughness so that Yulia would follow their exact directions and draw a vertical line up instead of drawing a vertical line down. We then shifted to the computers and focused on the basics of computer science and how it compares to mathematics. After a brief review, we began exploring NetLogo, where we hope to be able to make our variables, turtles, draw a square like we did our Robot Yulia.
In Mathematics, we started with listening to Michael Frame’s Yale TedX talk. We learned about fractals, which are patterns made from infinite repeats, but do not exist in real life since there are a finite number of repeats. After the video, we moved on to creating the fractals. To create the fractals:
- Draw a large Square on Graph Paper, labeling the x and y coordinates up to 1
- Mark the coordinates(0,0),(0,1),(1,0),(1,1),20 other points within the square and three points on the edges
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- To each point: Halve the x, and y and lightly plot in a new color and connect the two points
- Add 1/2 in the x direction to the shrunken value from step 1 and plot in this same new color
- Add 1/2 in the y direction to the shrunken value from step 1 and plot in this same new color
- Take a new color and apply the same rules to these new points . Repeat. Observe the movement of the point as it forms a fractal.
In Art, we explored centuries old puzzles including Tangrams, T puzzles, Mysto Squares and so much more. We collaborated with friends new and old to 
defeat the mystery behind each game.
The students ended their first day at CAMP with an intense games of 4 corners, sharks and minnows while also having the option to hike to Blithewood to view the lawn razing goats, or practice the lost art of paper folding: Origami.
-Tsitsi