SOI 11/23/09

Today we had our SOI Food Festival. We didn't have a specific theme but generally we tried to have "international" food. Nearly everyone brought something, and everyone was able to attend. Some people who were not in SOI also attended. We tried to have members bring their own utensils, but we ended up having to use some extra tableware that we had. We also had the misfortune of scheduling SOI on the exact same day as Mr Hyer's Chili day, which distracted from our comparatively smaller event. Next week, we will discuss poster ideas.

Cross Country 11/16/09

These past two weeks were the last two weeks of practice. We only had one true meet against Barnstable and Falmouth, which we lost. I ran an ok race, running most of the time, but I tired myself out in the first 1/4 and as a result came close to last place. We also had a "group meet" against Wrentham. In this meet everyone ran against all the other runners in their gender and age group. Although I ran my best time ever during the entire season, I came close to last out of the male seniors as a whole. Regardless I felt very proud of how the season ended.

Caffeine Formula 11/16/09

Over the past two weeks I have been attempting to acquire data for my formula. I first made googledocs spreadsheets for each of the three testing areas: Coffee, Tea, and Soda/Energy Drinks. I then made the form as simple as possible, eliminating all factors except the amount of liquid and the time until crash. I reasoned that enough data would overpower the error made by such a simple formula. I then posted links to the formula on Twitter and Facebook, and at a suggestion made a Facebook group. Initially it seemed I had a lot of interest, with about 3 sets of data per chart in the first day. The Facebook group grew to about 30 members in 2 days, and it seemed like I would be able to collect real data. Unfortunately, besides the initial turnout all the data has since been my own. I hope to further simplify the process by making the submission process into a survey-type document. I will also be adding an entry for day or night by suggestion of my advisor.

Ultimate Frisbee 11/16/09

This past Friday I was once again unable to make it to Ultimate Frisbee. However this quarter I have kept better scheduling and will hopefully be able to to more meetings. Cross country season just ended so that will also help.

Physics Study Group 11/16/09

Over the last two weeks we have two meetings. During the first meeting we discussed a new topic, relativity, to help those taking the SAT II. This was different then our usual topic selection, and attracted about 10 people due to the nature of its selection. The next week we returned to our "review" topic of Current and finished off the worksheet we had previously done. With the relativity topic, however, I was not able to contribute. I hope I can help people more next week.

SOI meeting 11/16/09

Over these past two weeks our main focuses have been raising money through food sales and organizing a "food festival." Although our first attempts at raising money through food sales failed due to a lack of food, we hope to start up sales this week. We have assigned jobs for who makes the food, the day it's made for at who will staff. We also discussed having a food festival, which will commence on the Monday before Thanksgiving, a half day. Instead of our originally planned "Bring in $5 or food," this "practice" food fest will be exclusive to SOI members, and everyone will bring food. Soon we hope to raise enough money to possibly make a garden.

Ultimate Frisbee 11/06/09

This week we were unable to have practice due to bad weather conditions. We will work twice as hard this Friday.

Physics Study Group 11/2/09

This past week we did problems on circuits. Although only three people were there, I was able to learn from them, as well as help them derive formulas. On a few problems I was able to show others why a formula worked. Next week I hope there is a greater output.

SOI meeting 11/2/09

This week we were not able to have a SOI meeting as our leader was absent from school. However, I am still signed up to help sell tea and snacks at break on Monday, and these sales may continue for quite a while.

Ultimate Frisbee 11/2/09

This week I was not able to make it to Ultimate Frisbee because I was helping clean up from Spirit day. I hope to be able to make it this upcoming Friday.

Cross Country 11/2/09

Over the last week we have had two races, and three practices. During the meet against Pope John Paul and Cape Cod Academy, I was only able to run about 40-50% of the time due to a cramp that lasted throughout about half of the race. Despite this, I posted a decent time of about 28 minutes and managed to pass the person ahead of me in the final stretch. Our team managed to overcome the stormy weather and beat both PJP and CCA. I had to miss the meet on Friday due to our school's "Spirit day" activities. During the next week we will be training hard for our upcoming "weekend" state meets.