First Day: May 17, 2018 

Today was the first day of STEMmersion. There were many activities within the day, all of which I enjoyed. We began with reading a quote by Henry David Thoreau and giving our interpretations on what the statement meant. A ‘getting to know each other’ game was played afterward, where we all stood in a circle. The game had similar aspects to musical chairs, where there was one less space available than the amount of players participating. Afterwards, we read a biography on Henry Thoreau and his history of being the first known nature writer. As a final activity, we sat near the water’s edge of a pond in complete silence. In the ten minutes that we sat in silence, we listed things we felt, sounds we heard, and objects we saw; everyone shared what they had written down with others who participated. Silence was broken, however, when students from the canoeing STEMmersion were chatting in their canoe as they passed by our listening spot. We ended the activity with identifying what poison ivy looked like for future, precautionary reference.

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Today marked the first day that I have deliberately sat outside in complete silence, listening for sounds and listing what I saw and felt. At one point, I zoned out looking at a blue sky, and came back to reality to see rain clouds making their way over top us. I hadn’t realized how long ten minutes was until I sat in complete silence; it felt like an eternity. I’m sure I’ll be doing this same activity many times within the next two weeks; I should just get used to it.