The Physical Science Department was assigned to teach two topics throughout Camp Sky: organic chemistry and forces and motion. These are topics that occur every year on the MSCE but are often incompletely taught or skipped at the CDSSs Camp Sky students attend. Today, half of the students (the Eagles and Owls) were learning organic chemistry, while the other half (the Herons and the Finches) learned forces and motion. For the Eagles and the Owls, the organic chemistry activity had students form molecular models to understand the difference between isomers and conformers. Students tested their spatial reasoning as they assembled molecules from puffs, a popular corn-based snack in Malawi, and decided whether the molecules they had constructed were isomers or conformers of one another. After discussion, student groups made their own model of a given molecule and also created an isomer of that molecule—a task commonly presented in paper form on the MSCE, but one that is much easier to understand when working with three-dimensional models.
A wonderful asset of Camp Sky is that each department has three or four teachers, so team-teaching is implemented in almost all classes. This means that many students are going from student-to-teacher ratios of more than 50:1 or 100:1 to approximately 6:1. For the teachers, these manageable student sizes allow for successfully implemented activities and group work difficult to orchestrate in a CDSS setting. Additionally, team-teaching provides the teachers fresh ideas and activities to bring back to their regular classrooms, as many of the activities use locally available resources. 
Class concluded today with students presenting and comparing their isomers to the other groups'—a valuable chance to practice public speaking for the students, as well as a way for students to check their own comprehension of the topic at hand. Based on the high quality of their presentations and the insightful questions that the students asked us and their peers, we would say the isomer lesson was a success! 
The Herons and the Finches finished their Physical Science lessons learning about position, velocity, and acceleration, and the relationship between the three. The highlight of the lesson was most definitely when the students were all able to go outside and send a model car down a cardboard track. The time it took the car to travel each of four meters was measured. Then, the students were able to look at real life graphs of their data at the end of class, an experience that most have never had before. Sir Bryan Plunger spent the remainder of class helping students develop their scientific intuition, giving students valuable skills in any subject to think critically about the answers they are obtaining.The themes of real-world application and hands-on activities were continued for the rest of the afternoon and evening as all the Camp Sky students attended a malaria session and participated in math night. Our students are all going home with beautiful dream catchers to hang in their mosquito nets, and math night, which consisted of probability-based games such as Yahtzee! and Monte Hall, was many of our campers’ favorite part of the day. Despite their busy schedules, our campers are still finding time to laugh, to write kind notes to one another, and to work on extra problems from their classes, as well as to anticipate the exciting activities the following day will surely bring.
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