Once again this morning, relatively early start to get up and dance! Today we learnt Gabi’s personal favourite, the Actura version of Waka Waka: at times it was hard to tell if we were out of breath from skipping or from laughing! Breakfast again was our new standard, fruit included, and we hurried back to the room for Expression zone. It was Ananya, Antonia, and Tess’ turn today and they all spoke very well.

 

This was followed with our next principle, Communication, in which we heard about Erik Weihenmayer who with the support of his team in 2001 was the first man to reach the peak of Mt Everest… blind. This was an incredibly inspiring example of just how vital communication can be, and we hope to take this learning through into our own teams in the future half as successfully as their incredible team managed to. Some more Challenge X time followed, and soon after it was time to head off to the Museum!

 

Troy (our favourite bus driver) drove us over to the Houston Museum of Natural History, and the museum was incredible. The exhibits, way in which information was presented, the tech and how engaging it was… it must be amazing to live with a museum of that magnitude on your doorstep. It made Auckland Museum pale in comparison. With so much to explore and so little time to do it in we all parted ways in our little groups of 3+, when our vision tunnelled as soon as we heard of a dinosaur section, a walk through the evolutionary timeline from Cambrian to now. This whole experience was enhanced with the interesting facts and explanations peppered in by Emma (SHOUT OUT)  for those of us too lazy to read the complicated placards on the exhibition.

 

Lunch was served in adorable blue boxes which we took into the garden to eat. We finally got to try the majestical American orange cheese, which was an interesting experience, in our sandwich/burger thing, which also had lettuce, tomato and roast beef. Alongside this, the box also featured a chocolate chip cookie, chips and typical waxy American apple- we continue to be very grateful for any fruit we can find!!

 

Next, we returned to the museum for our space glove engineering session. Our challenge was to create a glove that would withstand various tests, such as resistance to heat, radiation and physical wear from the impact of ‘micrometeorites’, as well as keeping dexterity allowing the wearer to screw on bolts and complete a reaction time test. We had a budget of $3000 with which we had to ‘buy’ our materials, such as felt, structural tape and mylar, in order to make our creation. There was a range of awesome designs, though the execution of construction had different levels of success, with the lunar-tics group panicking at the last minute to tape our glove together, having spent a bit too much time getting excited about our design, rather than the actual making- something to work on we think…

 

After this, we headed to the mall for some shopping. Splitting off into our groups of 3 or more for safety, we went out on our American shopping adventure. Though our bunch made considerably fewer purchases than some of the others, it was a very successful and enjoyable trip. It was fun to go around the various stores, many holding new experiences, checking out the American fashion and finding some treasures. A highlight was the visit to ‘Salata’, a salad bar somewhat like subway, which was cheap and delicious! We also journeyed to Cinnabon (cinnamon buns), Pinkberry (frozen yoghurt) and Sugarfina (boutique lolly shop) for dessert, which was very exciting.

 

We returned to the hotel with a lot fuller bus than we arrived with, ready for our next presentation- this time on this time on collaboration in which one of our group managers, Shana, wrote up the word ‘capybara’. People who knew what this word meant formed a group of ‘experts’ that were spread out among the groups whilst gradually more information is revealed e.g. large rodent, South American, animal etc. This caused the understanding of each group to in theory also increase as knowledge was spread, indicating the benefits of collaboration.

 

Finally, we had some time to work on our Challenge X projects, which is ever increasing in pressure and stress, before finally returning to our rooms for a well-needed sleep!

– Emma, Anneke and Jemima over and out