Welcome to Earth Camp 2015. We have an exciting week of hands-on, earth science activities for our group of 10th graders.

Today the students spent the morning at the U-M Challenge Course on the low ropes course and climbing “The Wall”. Later, they came to Nicholas Arboretum (part of the University of Michigan campus) to use U-M’s seismic equipment and our newly acquired drone.

They learned about seismic profiles and how to apply Snell’s Law to seismic data to determine the depth to the rock layer below the surface of the Earth. They then had the opportunity to put what they had just learned to good use by using the seismic equipment to create their own mini “seismic-event” (like an earthquake, but only as powerful as the sledgehammer they wielded!) and used the real-time data to calculate how far the solid rock was below the surface (above this solid rock would be soil). They could also determine from their calculations of seismic wave velocities what type of rock it is.

Additionally, they sent up the drone with the GoPro attached and got to pilot it around. We got a lot of great footage, despite a few near misses with the trees.

It was a great first day – we are very excited about the upcoming week. This group of students is top notch and we look forward to spending more time with them.