Alex Hadgis of Kelseyville, Calif., runs the Solar System Slalom. Photo courtesy of Nancy Brier.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A lucky handful of Lake County elementary students ended summer with a blast this year at Camp Walla Walla Hoo Ha, a hands-on science exploration camp where science and art collide.
Fifteen young campers were greeted with puzzling questions: If the sun were the size of a front door, how big would earth be? If the sun were the size of a grapefruit, how far away would Pluto be?
Campers explored these questions and dozens more of their own in a fast-paced, action-packed week of science, crafts, physical fitness and performing arts.
On day one, campers built a model of the solar system. It was massive, the huge globular sun dangling from a sturdy tree limb, and it stayed on display at camp all week to serve as a fun artistic centerpiece and an excellent point of reference for space related questions.
An 8-foot sphere, the sun glowed red, yellow and orange with flickers of purples and blues. Planets were built to scale, with Jupiter being about the size of a basketball and Saturn stealing all the glory with its magnificent rings.
Building this giant system helped put the incomprehensible nature of space into a more down to earth realm, and it made the campers hungry.
After a fortifying snack and a spirited round of rocket relay races, campers created individual 3-D solar system models of their own to take home.
“I want to live at space camp,” said 6-year-old Aiden Hall, a particularly ardent fan of science.
Camp Walla Walla Hoo Ha, whose mission is to bring science to life and inspire school age children to improve skills in science, technology, engineering, and math, debuted this summer in Lake County. Plans to expand the program are under way.
“Six months ago, I heard a Silicon Valley executive literally pleading for more science education in California,” said camp founder Nancy Brier, a Lake County entrepreneur with a strong interest in education.
According to STEM, a Silicon Valley foundation that encourages education in science and technology, California ranks second to the bottom nationally in science education among eighth graders, but Brier said she believes that small steps can turn these numbers around.
“I’d like to see Lake County take a leadership role in the shift,” she said.
Space camp instructor Nancy Brier demonstrates a model of the inner planets at Camp Walla Walla Hoo Ha. Photo courtesy of Nancy Brier.
By day two, campers were ready to explore in depth the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt.
They learned that the inner planets are mostly made up of rock, that they are relatively close to the sun and that they orbit faster than the outer planets.
Each camper made his own replica of the inner planets, and their replicas actually revolve on their own orbital paths, an artistic keepsake and a scientifically accurate representative of the day’s theme at camp.
“It was so much fun,” said an exuberant Michael Wiser of Kelseyville, just as day two ended.
His mother, Meredith Wiser, said she couldn’t believe how much Michael was learning. “It's all he talks about, and the knowledge he’s acquiring is amazing,” she said.
On day two, each camper also selected a role to play in a performance called “The Living Solar System,” presented by the Milky Way Players at week’s end. Campers made their own costumes and rehearsed all week to portray their best interpretation of the planets, the asteroid belt, space explorers and other roles which reinforced the core learning of the week.
The third day of camp offered a closeup look at the sun, the moon and the earth. Campers split up and visited stations all over the campground to discuss specifics and conduct experiments.
At the moon station, campers studied NASA photos of craters on the surface of the moon. Campers then recreated the moon surface, and using various sized “asteroids” projected at differing angles and speeds, made their own craters and discussed them.
They also looked at photos showing shadows cast on the earth by the moon and learned about the how our view of the moon changes during its various phases. Many campers were shocked to learn that the earth is actually larger than the moon.
At the earth station, campers learned about polar ice caps, the earth’s axis and equator, and how the earth moves relative to the sun.
At the last station, campers visited the sun itself, where a 3-D poster showed in amazing detail what the surface of the sun actually looks like.
They compared that poster to the flame of a candle and discussed the impact of heat on earth and other planets.
Campers tossed pebbles into a plastic container decorated with the sun’s image. If those pebbles represent earth, it would take a million to fill the sun.
That afternoon, campers recreated the view of earth from space with a 3-D craft that included topographical land masses, the equator and the earth’s axis.
For 5-year-old Audrey Dierssen of Kelseyville, the earth project was a favorite. “I liked making the land and mixing them with paint, and I loved getting the earth tattoo from NASA.”
Contributions and consultations from professionals at Jet Propulsion Labs in Los Angeles helped furnish the camp with educational materials, cool tattoos and stickers.
Day four shifted the focus to the outer planets, which are mostly gas.
“Making our own gas planet was cool,” reported Miles Mattina of Lakeport.
Campers discussed how the outer planets, other than Pluto, are generally large, made of gas and orbit slowly. At craft time, they replicated Saturn in a craft that mimics Saturn’s glamorous rings of ice and dust.
Lots of physical activity punctuated the science activities at camp. Six-year-old Lauren Trippeer especially liked the Solar System Slalom, an obstacle course in which campers made timed runs around the planets in order.
Starting at the sun, each camper had to make a complete orbit around each planet and race back to the finish line while another camper documented the score. “It was awesome,” Lauren exclaimed, panting and red faced.
By Friday, campers were eager to show off their knowledge, and parents and family members were invited to join the fun.
As a warmup to the performance, campers challenged parents to a game of space trivia, a match that put the parents to shame. Campers eagerly raised their hands to each and every space related question, while parents, mostly mystified, could only guess at the answers they may have known long ago.
To answer the opening questions: if the sun were the size of your front door, Earth would be about the size of a nickel. And if the sun were the size of a grapefruit, Pluto would be about a half a mile away.
Camp Walla Walla Hoo Ha culminated just as the school year gets under way.
Perhaps the most promising moment of the action-packed week came at the very end when 6-year-old camper Clara Andre was overheard to say, “This year, I’m going to ask my teacher for more science.”
For more information about the camp, contact Nancy Brier at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
Participants in the inaugural Camp Walla Walla Hoo Ha included, back row, left to right
A color composite image of the June 3, 2010, Jupiter impact flash. Credit: Anthony Wesley observing from Broken Hill, Australia.
In a paper published Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a group of professional and amateur astronomers announced that Jupiter is getting hit surprisingly often by small asteroids, lighting up the giant planet's atmosphere with frequent fireballs.
"Jupiter is a big gravitational vacuum cleaner," said co-author and JPL astronomer Glenn Orton. "It is clear now that relatively small objects left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago still hit Jupiter frequently."
The impacts are bright enough to see through backyard telescopes on Earth. Indeed, amateur astronomers were the first to detect them, recording two fireballs in 2010 alone – one on June 3 and another on Aug. 20.
Professional astronomers at NASA and elsewhere have followed up on the amateur observations, hoping to learn more about the impacting bodies.
According to Thursday's Letter, first-authored by Ricardo Hueso of the Universidad del País Vasco in Spain, the June 3 fireball was caused by an object some 10 meters in diameter. When it hit Jupiter, the impact released about one thousand million million (10^15) Joules of energy.
For comparison, that's five to 10 times less energy than the "Tunguska event" of 1908, when a meteoroid exploded in Earth's atmosphere and leveled millions of trees in a remote area of Russia. Scientists continue to analyze the Aug. 20 fireball, but think it was comparable in scale to the June 3 event.
Before amateurs spotted these fireballs, scientists were unaware collisions so small could be observed.
The first hint of their easy visibility came in July 2009 when Anthony Wesley, an amateur astronomer from Australia, discovered a dark spot on Jupiter. It was clearly the swirling debris of an impact event that he had only just missed.
Next time, however, his luck would improve. On June 3, 2010, he caught a fireball in action.
"I was watching real-time video from my telescope when I saw a 2.5-second-long flash of light near the edge of Jupiter's disk," said Wesley. "It was clear to me straight away it had to be an event on Jupiter."
Another amateur astronomer, Christopher Go of the Philippines, confirmed that the flash also appeared in his recordings.
Professional astronomers, alerted by email, looked for signs of the impact in images from larger telescopes, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, and Gemini Observatory telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.
Scientists saw no thermal disruptions or typical chemical signatures of debris, which allowed them to put a limit on the size of the object.
The second fireball on Aug. 20 was first detected by Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city and quickly confirmed by another Japanese amateur, Aoki Kazuo of Tokyo. This one flashed for about 1.5 seconds and, like the June 3rd fireball, left no debris observable by large telescopes.
"It is interesting to note that while Earth gets smacked by a 10-meter-sized object about every 10 years on average, it looks as though Jupiter gets hit with the same-sized object [as much as] a few times each month," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL, who was not directly involved in the study.
Learning how often Jupiter is hit can tell astronomers something about the meteoroid population throughout the solar system – a matter of considerable interest right here on Earth.
Just this past week, on Sept. 8, a 10-meter class asteroid named 2010 RF12 flew past our planet without hitting. A somewhat smaller space rock, 2008 TC3, actually burned up in the atmosphere above Sudan two years ago.
"The Jupiter impact rate is still being refined," added Yeomans, "and studies like this one help to do just that."
To learn more about the original research, read "First Earth-based Detection of a Superbolide on Jupiter" by R. Hueso et al, in the Ap J Letters, 2010, 721, L129.
For additional information and videos, visit http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/09sep_jovianfireballs/.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
The Aug. 20, 2010, fireball recorded by Aoki Kazuo of Tokyo, Japan.
Volunteer workers at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport, Calif., include, from left to right, Marc Spillman, Kelseyville Lumber Truss Division;; Jim Plank, Soper-Reese Theatre, facilities; John Ross, Soper-Reese Theatre, theatre manager; Mike Beale, Guido
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST – The 15th annual 100-mile Nome Cult Trail walk traces the forced relocation of Indians from Chico across what is now the Mendocino National Forest to Round Valley in 1863.
The walk will take place from Sunday, Sept. 12, through Saturday, Sept. 18.
Descendants of American Indians who took part in the original relocation and other supporters will walk from Chico to Covelo to commemorate the 147th anniversary of the trail, camping each night along the way.
Participants will descend into Round Valley the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 18, to participate in a gathering sponsored by the Round Valley Indian Tribes at the Round Valley Reservation in Covelo.
The theme for the walk and gatherings is “Honor Their Memory … A Path Not Forgotten.”
The Mendocino National Forest asks that people traveling on forest roads along the trail route be aware of the event and careful of the walkers to ensure their safety.
This year, the walkers will begin at Bidwell River Road at 7 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 12. They will walk west on State Highway 32 and camp at the Buckhorn Campground at Black Butte Lake the first night. For the remainder of the week, they will walk across the Mendocino National Forest, following the Nome Cult Trail.
Their planned schedule is:
Monday, Sept. 13, Orland to Newville Cemetery, camp at Grindstone, Buckhorn Campground or Paskenta;
Tuesday, Sept. 14, Newville Cemetery to camp at Black Bear Campground;
Wednesday, Sept. 15, Black Bear Campground to camp at Log Springs;
Thursday, Sept. 16, Log Springs to camp at Wells Cabin;
Friday, Sept. 17, Wells Cabin to camp at Eel River Ranger Station;
Saturday, Sept. 18, walk into Round Valley.
The removal of Indians from Chico to the Round Valley Reservation in 1863 is one of the many forced relocations following the establishment of reservations in northern California in the 1850s.
At least eight different tribes were moved to the reservation after it was initially established as the Nome Cult Farm in 1856. It became a full-fledged reservation in 1958 and eventually was named Round Valley Reservation.
In September 1863, 461 Indians were marched under guard from Chico to the Round Valley Reservation nearly 100 miles across the Sacramento Valley and rugged North Coast Ranges.
Only 277 Indians completed the journey. Some were killed, a few escaped, and others were left behind, too sick to go on.
The route is now called the Nome Cult Trail.
The original path has largely disappeared as a result of road construction and maintenance. The most grueling part of the trail passed through what is now the Mendocino National Forest.
The Forest Service has placed interpretive signs along the route to mark places where the Indians and their military escorts camped.
A free brochure and trail map produced by the Forest Service is available from Mendocino National Forest offices for those interested in the route.
For further information on the event, please contact Sandra Knight, Chico Mechoopda Tribe at 530-899-8922, Extension 213, or Alberta Azbill, Round Valley Indian Tribes at 707-983-6126, Extension 11.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
