COSMOS 2008 at UCSD

COSMOS is officially over. I can't believe it. These past four weeks past by so quickly, that it only seems like two weeks have gone by. I am very sad that COSMOS is over. I had a great time at this camp. I learned a lot as well as made many great friends.

When I first came to COSMOS, I was a little nervous because i didn't know how the camp would be like. I was scared that I will have a hard time keeping up with the academics. Now, however, I realize how wrong I was to be scared of COSMOS. I had a great learning experience here and I wish that it could be longer. This camp has taught me a lot of things, and I feel great that I learned so many new concepts and ideas this summer. My teachers went really in depth about global warming and the Oceans that I now feel like I can be involved in a conversation about it with anyone.

In the first week of the camp, I couldn't wait for the four weeks to be over. Now, at the end of COSMOS, I am sad that it got over so soon. I miss all my friends already, and it hasn't even been a whole day without them. I just hope that we will all be able to keep in touch.

But this camp was not just fun and games. I had to work hard for the work that I was assigned, especially the final project. Also I learned a lot from the lectures given by all my cluster teachers. It is the summer vacation and I really did not want to do work over the break, but I had to, in order to keep up with the class. And, looking back, I realize that working over summer was not a bad thing. I will still be in the habit of working when school starts again.

The award ceremony was great. Everyone had wonderful projects. It was nice to see our hard work being paid off when my teachers announced that my partner and I got second place. We were so delighted. But more importantly, what I value most, is that I got to work with some of the smartest students in California, and I learned a lot about academics as well as social and life skills.

Thank you COSMOS for giving me a wonderful opportunity to learn in a college-like environment. And I thank all my teachers and instructors for teaching me during these four weeks. And last but not least, I thank all my friends for letting me have such a great time at UCSD. I will miss you all.
Bye COSMOS!
-Utkarsh Bhagi
COSMOS 2008, UCSD, Cluster 3

Today wasnt a very good day. All we did was work on our project the whole day. We got a nice amount of work done and I printed out all the papers at Giesel. It was the first time I got to go inside the huge library. But we didnt do anything interesting today. Hopefully my final project presentation goes well tomorrow.

Yesterday was really fun because of the dance. I think that this dance was a lot better than the first one.

Wow cosmos is almost over. There is only one full day left. I am going to miss all my friends that I have made. Hopefully I will get to see some of them even after cosmos is over.

-Utkarsh Bhagi

tuesday

Today was a really good day. The only bad part about it was I almost missed breakfast. I woke up late, around 8:00, and I only had fifteen minutes to eat. I am a very slow eater so fifteen minutes are not at all enough for me to eat a whole meal. After breakfast we got time to work on our projects which is good because they are due in three days. Today my progress in the project was good and I think I got a lot done. During class today I felt the earthquake. There was not much shaking so I didn't notice it until I saw the lights above me shaking slightly. I just hope that the people in Los Angeles are fine and no damage is done to their homes.

Then after lunch we went to the marsh. This was a fun trip. My feet got really muddy and my shorts got dirty, but I still enjoyed the trip. I was assigned the job of measuring the oxygen level and temperature of the water collected from the marsh. When I came back from the trip I was not feeling too good. I had a headache and I didn't have much of an appetite for dinner. Hopefully after a good sleep I will feel better tomorrow.

- Utkarsh Bhagi

last week!

wow its already the last week of cosmos. time passed by so fast. i cant believe that three of the four weeks are already over.
anyways this weekend was really fun. we went to the zoo on saturday and it was awesome. I have never been to the SD zoo before and i found it really great. i really liked the flamingos because of their bright pink color and the snow leopard. then on sunday we went to the beach which was fun. the water was a little cold but otherwise the trip was good. and today we didnt do much except for work on our final projects.
i hope this last week is going to be better than all the previous ones.

Wow, Last Week Already

This past weekend was awesome. We went to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday. Then on Sunday we went to the beach and got to hangout. Wow. It's the last week already. Final projects are moving along nicely, but it's definitely going to be a sprint to the finish. We are still busy with work and activities. It's been fun! Can't wait to see what fun things the RA staff has saved for last.

Hey Yo!

Heyy Clustaaa 3!
I hadn't been able to blog about the awesome weekend I had so I'll do that now. OMG! Batman was awesome! The joker was soo scary! but overall the movie was really good! On Saturday we went to the mall and that was really fun too! I bought my first green shirt. hahaha...
Yesterday was a pretty mellow day. I went to the bookstore during free time. Ooh! I got killed yesterday! Grrr...not cool! I wore a bra over my clothes all day for nothing! According the my assassin it wasn't "visible". I was like YO! But what ever at least I wont have some random person stalking me anymore.
Today's discovery lecture was very interesting. I'm really looking forward to our final projects! Well that's it for now!

Super Fun Weekend

Man, already week 3! Crazy. The weekend was super fun. We went to the mall on Saturday; I did laundry and learned how to solve the first two layers of a Rubik's cube. On Sunday, I made a friendship bracelet, cleaned my room up, learned how to solve the rest of a Rubik's cube, and watched Armageddon. Today's lectures were about types of climate change (more than just global warming) and global warming effects on the hydrological cycle and energy cycle; they were interesting.

FRIDAY!!!

So this week has gone by so quickly. I didn't realize it was Friday. I went running a lot this week and I did a bunch of ab stuff with Isabella and Rachel. Then I got a massive stomach ache because I had an ice cream cookie from BJ's and a burrito from Chipotle. Class was fun this week, the lectures were pretty interesting. The night activities are pretty fun. This week I learned how to salsa, ice blocking (not has fun as I thought it was going to be), and henna. I still can't play tennis because the boundaries are still there, but besides that, this week was really fun.

I can't wait to start working on our final projects they sound very interesting...

I'm looking forward for the weekend =D

My Breakfast

Hello. This morning I woke up late and I put my hair up cause Sandra put an enormous amount of hairspray in my hair yesterday cause she was trying to make it curly but it didn't work at all and now it's all hard and sticky. But anyway, after I woke up and stuff I realized that I didn't have any clothes cause I forgot to take my stuff out of the laundry place. So I wore this really ugly shirt that makes me look like a tree and went to get my stuff. Then i went to breakfast. The eggs were pretty cool, they were gray. Then I went to get hot chocolate and I made sure not to burn myself this time. It didn't really matter cause the hot chocolate was cold. I put ice cubes into it to make it into chocolate milk haha. Then we went to the computer lab and did stats and stuff. It was super fun. I made sure not to say yo in this post. go me

Week Two So Far!

Monday was interesting. Cluster 3 had the honor of meeting the Nobel Prize winner, Joel Norris. The lecture on photons and electromagnetic waves was awesome. Picking a topic for our final project is proving to be kind of difficult, but I'll surely find one! We watched An Inconvenient Truth today; it was the first time I had seen it. The Discovery Lecture about stem cells was very intriguing. During the activities on Monday, there was a cake decorating contest, and Ashley, Cherie, and I won! Our cake was extremely cute, having a log cabin made of graham crackers and trees made of frosting all on a big peppermint! I am looking forward to movie night tonight.

Hey

Hey Cluster Three,
So, the discovery lecture was very interesting today. I wasn't bored through it, and the Inconvenient Truth was also good. It related to our cluster and was interesting. Plus, eating those M&M's does brighter up the day. Overall, today was a pretty relaxing day. I can't wait for activity time today, so see you all there!

4 more days!!!!!

Well this is the first year I will not be spending my birthday with my family but I am really excited that my birthday is coming up soon.=D I hope we go some where on Saturday. I liked knotts even though i was scared of some rides LOL
I think it was a good time to get to know more people.
Oh by the way the cakes from yesterday we good =)

Week 1 Review

Hi this is Daniel Auerbach, the kid who broke his toe during the most extreme game of ultimate Frisbee ever. I currently need practice at crutches but everyone's been really nice to me, so I appreciate that a lot.

So far, I have really enjoyed the first week, even the days after my accident. The food is not that great, but hanging out with really cool people is fun. Also, my professors are fun, nice, and hilarious, and they make a great learning environment for our cluster. Although I'm going to be pretty limited physically, I'm looking forward to participated (or observing) fun activities and learning awesome stuff about the environment. I hope everyone else is enjoyed COSMOS too!

Weekend

So this weekend was really fun. On Saturday, we went to Knott's and that was so much fun. I met a bunch of new people and the rollercoasters were super fun. But afterwards, I was so tired. Then on Sunday, we went to the beach and we I played group volleyball with a bunch of my friends. The jello fight was so much fun, but it was also so messy. I got jello in my ear, mouth, and hair. By the end of the weekend, I was so tired, but I had a ton of fun!

The Weekend

This first weekend at COSMOS was totally awesome (with the exception of homework looming over our heads the whole time). On Saturday we took a trip up to Knott's Berry Farm; my first visit to that theme park, and it was fun. Then today we loaded on buses again, but headed out to the beach. The jell-o fight was interesting to watch and very messy. I won a fierce game of Egyptian War, definitely the highlight of my weekend. (I won on a slap-in!)

i've basically been too lazy to post anything so far, but here goes: the first week was good. it was weird coming in to this literally not knowing anyone, but the girls in my suite are very sweet (pun totally intended). our cluster has also been really fun too, its definitely nice being able to go to the beach several times a week. dissecting the sting ray creeped me out, so i think my future as a surgeon is kind of going out of the picture. but, hey at least if i cant find anything else, i can apparently become a very successful fisher(wo)man-- definitely caught my first fish ever on friday, woot woot. the weekend was definitely the highlight of cosmos so far; knotts, the beach, and the jello fight were all super fun. i also expect this week to be awesome, i'm excited to be lectured by a nobel prize winner. how often does that happen?! the nighttime activities that our RA mentioned for this week will also be good too. so yeah, that pretttty much sums it up!

awesomeee!!!

Weekends are always nice because we get to sleep in, till lunch. Although many people still wake up early in the morning to take a jog, shower, or laudry, I was in my bed till 11 am. After lunch, we all gathered around in the ERC green, and boarded the bus, heading to the beach. We stayed there till around 4, and the heat was killing most of us! :P But, it was super fun, tanning under the sun, playing beach-ball with friends, and just walking around the shore with them. After dinner, we will have a jello-fight. Eventhough I am not going to participate in it, I am totally looking forward to watching the others. :D IM GLAD THAT ONE WHOLE WEEK IS OVERRRRRR!!!! ^^

So this is my first blog post and I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'll try. Wow, COSMOS has been an awesome experience so far! My roomie, Maggie I., is super sweet and lively, and all the girls on my floor are cool too :). Basically Cluster 3 rocks! I love going to Scripps 3 times a week and dealing with real marine animals and settings. More to come, but it's been great so far.

p.s. the weekend has been sooo nice!

First Friday

The first Friday here at COSMOS was pretty great. I really enjoyed this morning lectures about gills. Then we went down to the beach for a nature walk. After lunch we dissected round stingrays, and ended the day with a bit of fishing off the pier. Free time Fridays!!! For the evening activities, I made magnets. They look totally fabulous.

Wow, today was the best day so far with the the beach and seeing all sea hairs, the fishing, and the squid dissection. All of what we did was related to marine biology and extremely interesting. I can't wait for swimming tonight. See you all there.

Hey

Hey cluster three. Today was a realxing day with our time in the library and at the aquarium. I already feel as if i have been as cosmos for weeks. Everyone knows everyone else, and we are all friends. I cannot believe that I already feel so at home and comfortable with the whole process and schedule. The aquarium was great, especially when we touched the sea anemone and sea cucumber. They were both extrememly squishly. Well, i hope the cosmolypics turn out to be great and we rock our Under The Sea cheer. Go cluster three!!

Field Trip!!

Today was exciting!!!!!! We visited the Birch Aquarium at Scripp's. There was all sorts of plants and animals. My favorite part was the current station; you could change the currents by moving around obstacles. Looking forward to the COSMOlympics tonight. Hope we win!

The beach was nice, but I just wished we could of had gone in the water oh well ...
maybe next time...
i can't wait to go in the pool!!!!!!! =D

A few notes from Adam

Hey Cluster 3, I've got a few things now that you've all started posting:

• If you are going to use your name to sign your posts, go ahead and just use your first name and last initial. You can change your displayed name by clicking on the Blogger Dashboard up at the top of the page (when you are logged in), then clicking the Edit Profile link. There is an option there to change your display name. Don't worry, we'll still know who you are. :)
  
• This is your blog, so if you want to change the layout or color scheme, let me know and I can help you with it. Decide amongst yourselves what you want it to look like, then go ahead and meet me in my office and we can work on it. Blogger has a number of ready-made templates, and although we can't get too complicated, if you have some html skill you might be able to turn it into something great!
• If any of your classmates/roommates/friends haven't received their invites, please send them my way. Thanks!

HEY!!! I am very excited for the bonfire tonight!! Today's lecture was pretty cool, hot. Well, it could have changed while he was talking. (Today's lecture was more on global climate change)

YOOO!!

Heyy!
Well first of all i would like to apologize to my fellow cluster mates for saying YOO too much...i know it can get annoying. Geeez thanks Lilo! haha...jk. Soo today was a good day. Our instructor's car broke down so we took a stroll down the beach. It was soo much fun! i really hope we're able to go on water field trips related to our cluster later on. OMG! I just remembered! We have a bonfire today! i hope its fun! I just have to finish my essay before we leave so i can actually enjoy myself. Ohhh! today we also choreographed our COSMO-lympic cheer! Cluster 3 is like the best one of course. =) Well our instructor is explaining something that i don't really understand soo i should pay attention. =D
Goodbye!

Hey!!!

Yesterday was so much fun. I played Apples to Apples and I met a bunch of new people. Today, I woke up at 6 to work out and then a ran with a group of people at 7. I was so tired after I ran, but it felt good. Then I had breakfast, then we went to Scripps. Our instructor didn't show up, so we went to the beach for an hour or so. We finally finished our cheer before lunch for Cosmolypics tomorrow. Now we just finished our lecture for the afternoon and a make-up for this morning's lecture and we are doing a computer lab. I'm also excited for the bonfire tonight!

heyy

So today we woke up around 7 very tired after last night having built and flew paper airplanes around middle earth haha. After we got ready we headed over to breakfast then went to Scripps College but our teacher had car troubles so we were able to take a nice walk on the beach for a while until we went back to the campus. Once we got back, we met to discuss the olympic cheer. Then we ate lunch and after we walked to the computer lab to learn about the climate's change because of global warming. After we will have our freetime we'll go to dinner then have study time then go to the bon fire. So yeah that sums up what I pretty much did and will do today.

hello!

hello!
ummmm I really don't know what to write right now but I'm waiting for our instructors to figure out something or other so I'm typing this. Last night we went to build paper airplanes on the rooftop of that building. We had an amazing plan for all of the reject planes but it really didn't work out. Today our instructor did not show up for the morning session b/c his car broke down so we all went down to the beach to walk. The water was really cold and the sun wasn't out but it was a lot of fun. I got a lot of sand stuck on my feet but it was still cool. Lunch was good because there was mashed potatos and I got another crunchy ice cream bar with Natalie. Now I'm really full and really sleepy.:)

Don't Be Hatin!

No basketball today.. 3rd time it was postponed, and we'll see how it goes but i wouldn't count on it. It's kind of strange that we can't play while supervised by a willing RA (residential advisor) with a group of kids on a court 2 blocks away, yet we're expected to play ultimate frisbee in darkness on a lawn filled with trees and metal grates. In fact, i ran into a tree because i couldn't see anything. Luckily I didn't get hurt too bad. Hopefully the rules will loosen up and we can get to play soon as it's not just me wanting to play. Otherwise, the classes are good because I'm learning about EL NINO aka the kid aka southern oscillation (ENSO). Now here is the Block 400's North Side Rap:

We're starting this out

but we don't wanna shout,

better than windows and mac

and superheroes are wack,

we dont like the bottom

thats why we fought 'em,

its the 400 block

where its better on top

-400 Block North Side KR3W

Tuesday, July 8th

I was very excited for breakfast today, but it was kind of disappointing. I wanted hash browns since yesterday's breakfast, because I only ate a waffle since I had no time because the line for the waffle was super long. Anyway, the hash browns were not yummy. Then we had a discovery lecture and it was kind of interesting. It was fun seeing the students rearrange themselves but it got tedious by the third time. After that we went to the computer rooms and read articles and wrote down the key words and points. I liked doing structured work so it was fun because I finished early and I could have free time and email my friends and stuff. Now I am going to present my poster. Oh I didn't know this was public this is embarrassing

Welcome to the Cluster 3 blog!

Hello students, parents, and guests, and welcome to the official blog for UCSD COSMOS Cluster 3: Living Oceans and Global Climate Change. The intent for this site is for the students to use it as an online journal to keep the world up to date with everything they are learning and doing here at COSMOS. Parents, check back often to see what your students are saying! Each student in the cluster will post to this specific blog; if you would like to check out the other clusters, we have links to them on the right side of the page.

Students, you aren't expected to post every single day, but we'd like you to try to post at least twice a week. The posts themselves don't have to be too long and detailed, but you should try to write at least a paragraph. You can also post pictures if you'd like to. Please keep in mind that these blogs will be monitored by staff and you are expected to uphold the COSMOS standards as outlined in your student handbook.

If you need any help posting, Blogger's help site is here or you can come ask Adam in the COSMOS Office.

Have fun!