Basketball & Scorpions

Photos (top to bottom):  Filipa tears down the basketball court, while Momodou, winded and fatigued, struggles to keep up (that comment is going to get me into hot water);  Adam plasti-dips (a new verb) the soldered tetherline leads;  Damir, Will, and Haziq measure and cut the tetherline, 18 gauge speaker wire;  Julia and Jonathan use marine sealant to bond the halogen lights to the frame.

Amongst the myriad of things going on around the sixth grade, here are two highlights from the past few days:

Having taught in the primary grades, I know that younger kids tend to play together, regardless of gender;  play is relatively inclusive.  That's out the window come middle school.  The repulsion is electric.  So imagine the energy when the middle school girls' basketball team took on the boys last week in the gym, to an audience of mums and dads, and lots of cheering fans.  It was, naturally, a spirited game.  

In advance, I heard a lot of this:  Oh, no, Mister Spedding, don't take photos, oh, please, no embarrassing photos, which, translated from pre-adolescent speak, means Oh, please, take my photo, take my photo, and put on BOT!

I think the girls and boys approached the game a little differently.  For the girls, collaboration seemed key, and passing the ball off to a teammate was immediate, perhaps to a fault.  For the boys, individual heroism seemed central, slaying the dragon as it were, to the cheers of admiring fans, irrespective of your teammates, perhaps to a fault.  The fact that you're only twelve, and can just barely dribble a basketball, does not distract from the fantasy of channeling Michael Jordan, Spiderman, and Harry Potter, magicians all.

Thankfully, both teams won.  The girls had fun, and the boys were heroic.

The ninth grade ROV group, who have been bogged down with homework lately, handed off the completion of their Scorpion model to the middle school team, who jump started the work by soldering the lights, cutting and installing the tetherline, and waterproofing all leads.  The Scorpion is equipped with a 16 meter tetherline, a depth approaching the maximum for the bilge motors.   Go much deeper and the shaft seals will fail, and water will rush into the motor.

The Scorpion will likely see it's first water test on Thursday afternoon, and sea test next weekend when we return to Ile de Madeleine.