Day #2 at Nuuksia

Campers were greeted by a beautiful morning on Thursday, as the mists lifted over the meadow where our Finnish army tents were pitched.  Each of these strange conical tents housed more than 10 people.  Girls slept down there in the white tents, boys and staff in the gray ones.

The first two look familiar enough.... but what about that third one?  It's a Finnish adaptation for males - three at a time, and don't be shy!

 

Tyrone checks out this great portable cooking stove and our cook.  We never did learn what happened to his pant leg, but it was like that for 2 days!

Before setting out for another day of hiking, participants line up for breakfast:  cold or hot cereal, bread, salami and cheese, rich Finnish yogurt, bananas, apples, and pears, coffee and fruit juice.

Everyone helped out after each meal by rinsing off their own plate and utensils. Dip in suds, dip in water, and stack it up! Here Tyrone tries out the system.

 
  A relatively short hike (only an hour) brought us to this measurement site for the Atmospheric protocol.  Here students measured air temperature, humidity, and precipitation.   We found that within a fairly short distance the air temperature could vary considerably, depending upon the elevation and tree cover.  Makes you wonder how the weatherman comes up with just one average temperature on the nightly news! 

Here students determine the fertility of the soil by performing chemical tests for phosphates, nitrates, and potassium.

Sven and Vinny perform the final step of the measurement for potassium by comparing the sample with a color chart.

Lunch time back at the camp .... and yes, it's raining again!   The afternoon activities consisted of a couple more measurement sites and then some of us tried a Finnish sauna on the lake..... rain or no rain, it was a refreshing experience!

A Video Conference with Gallaudet SSP students

That night we returned by bus to the Paasitorni Conference Center in Helsinki, where we linked up with far away students at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. for a videoconference.  Here Vinny uses the chat window to answer questions from Summer Science Program (SSP) students (small video windows at top left of screen).  In Helsinki it was 8:00pm...... for the students in Washington it was only 1:00 in the afternoon.
   

 
Tyrone grins as he answers question from the SSP Chemistry students.  They wanted to know how big Finland was, how many deaf people were there, and what was the food like!