Monday was the first official day that I was an Argonaut. It was an exciting experience to be one of the 490 Argonauts in the history of The JASON Project. It is the most fun I have ever had, and now I have eight new friends. Today I learned so much and have become a little familiar with Wisconsin. I had a lot to do today, because it was non-stop work. But you just learn so much information. When you are done with your work, you get to go back to your dorm and meet and talk to all of the other Argonauts. That is why all of us are such good friends, even though it is the first day of Argonaut Boot Camp. It was a busy non-stop day of work, but at the end, we all had a fun time and can’t wait until our field assignment.
On Tuesday we were at the quarry, and we went skin diving and snorkeling. We took little measurments like dew point, temperature, wind direction, and wind speed. When we were snorkeling, we got to see fish and a surprise. The surprise was that on the bottom of the quarry there were two boats: a speed boat and a house boat. They were purposely sunk for training purposes. When we were at the quarry, we had to use teamwork to overcome various challenges that involved many people. We ended up overcoming the challenges in the end, which taught us a little more about each other and how even if we don’t think we can overcome challenges, we ended up helping and overcoming the challenges. Overall, the quarry was an extraordinary experience.
Meet the Boot Camp Team! |
On Thursday we went on a sonar boat on Lake Michigan to look for shipwrecks on the lake floor. Thursday was the best day, because I got to drive our boat. I drove the boat from our canal to the lake, and I parked the boat. Parking the boat was very difficult and harder than I thought. It was fun, because when I parked it scared a few of the Argonauts. In the end, they cheered me on, and I ended up succesfully parking the boat. It was hard because you had to turn quick and you had to turn hard. You had to go way left then way right. One thing I couldn’t do in the small canal was keep the boat straight. We tested the water out on the lake, and with the secchi, I caught a fish. It was so memorable, and I will let you see the picture of my trophy. Then we went in the research building to see the mussels. We performed experiments also.
Here on Friday we had a video conference with Dr. Jon Knox from the University of Georgia. After that we received diplomas for graduating Boot Camp and we were placed on our permanent teams. I am on the NASA team that goes to Virginia. I am with Neil, Ellen, and Dawn. It is the last day that we get to see each other unless an Argo is on our field assignment.