August 11 - 15, 2003 Thursday The Sun, Stars and Sounds Around Us
Astronomer Art Goss led off Thursday's sessions 93,000,000 miles away with a look at the sun and its storms in action from the roof of B Building. Great balls of fire! Next we became strangers in the night, using a stirring rendition of 2001 Space Odyssey (rather than Frank Sinatra) to take a planetarium tour of the night sky, including Art's cool explanation of Mars and the reasons for its current 15 minutes of fame. Next on the agenda was just the opposite of the sounds of silence as BCC's own "Maria" (Marvin?) filled the halls and labs of BCC with the sounds of music (and other assorted utterings). Physicist Robert Hobbs introduced the campers to the science of sound and especially the sound of the human voice in all its particulars. Students learned about frequencies and amplitude, noise, music and harmony, finishing the lab with a computer-generated analysis of each camper's voice ("Can you hear me now?" Actually no, after this cacophonous class). Kudos to Liz, Tiffany, and David.
