junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	Jacob from New Jersey (7/17) Jacob is going into the 7th grade and is finishing up his third year at the Junior Program. Deep into physics, he's busy building a variety of flying contraptions in "Explo Air Show", and is reworking old medieval catapults and trebuchets in "Medieval Mayhem". When he's not busy in those classes, Jacob can be found hanging out on the quad, or playing board games on the hall with his friends! What classes did you take this session? I took “Medieval Mayhem” which is about all of the different battle contraptions that were used in medieval times, and the physics of how they work. We built and fired trebuchets and catapults and other things like that. My other class was called “Explo Air Show”, where we learned about various principles of aerodynamics and how to build machines that incorporate that. So what goes into making those machines? Well in “Medieval Mayhem” we started by building little catapults out of popsicle sticks and milk cartons that would launch small ping-pong balls or super-balls. Then we sort of built up and up until we were launching huge catapults. Then in aerodynamics we started by building small planes out of paper and other materials. Right now, we're working on containers for an egg drop. We have to protect it and build parachutes for the egg so that when it drops it won't crack. What makes the classes at Explo different from the classes you take at school? They're a lot more hands-on. You actually get to do the things that you're learning rather than just listening to the teacher and what they're telling you. Also, because you get to choose what you're doing, that's a lot better. You can learn what you want and you don't have to do things that you don't want to do. My teachers are really nice. They'll help you if you need help, but they'll also just let you try to figure things out for yourself, which is awesome. What activities have been your favorites this session? I really liked this activity that we did a few days ago where we built paper airplanes and then had competitions for how far they could fly and things like that. That was really cool, and I got to use the things that I learned in “Explo Air Show” while we did it. What's your hall like? I live on West Campus since I'm in 7th grade and that's awesome. The other kids on my hall are really nice. They're a lot of fun. We do a lot of cool activities together during our free time and hall time. A lot of the times we'll just hang out and play board games or stuff in the hall or in our lounge. We have a lot of different games that we keep around, like chess, Monopoly and Sorry. You get to meet people from different places, which is nice. One of the other boys on my hall is from France, and one of my RAs, Z, is from Ethiopia. My other RA is Sam, and they're both a lot of fun. They can be really funny, and we've also had a lot of interesting discussions with them. It's also cool because Z is really into physics, and I like physics a lot, so we can talk about it. What does the word "Explo" mean to you? It means having choices, having fun, and creating experiences. All sorts of great stuff! You can try things here that you wouldn't ever get to do otherwise. Like, in my class “Medieval Mayhem”, when else would I ever get a chance to build catapults or trebuchets? If Explo was a type of dessert, what would it be and why? That's hard! If I were to make an Explo dessert, it would definitely have a ton of toppings so you could choose what it tastes like. It would be really sweet, and really big! more conversations > first session \| second session