Leisure activity after days of hard work at the IONiC VIPEr workshop in Seattle, WA.

Participants rented kayaks and paddled around the lake for about 90 minutes.

Pre-requisites: Application of a generous amount of sunscreen.

The original plan was to paddle to Lake Washington, but no directions or map was provided. So given the lack of navigation skills and familiarity with the area it is no surprise that only one kayak made it all the way to lake Washington (Go team FBL & KMH!).

Participants were equipped with personal flotation devices and divided in teams of two. Detailed instructions were given to get into their kayaks. But once on board no further instructions were given and participants had to figure out by themselves the physics to move forward a floating object with the aid a of a paddle while keeping control of their center of gravity.   

Overall the activity was considered a success since no one capsized and everyone made it back to shore on time.

Participants didn’t study physical chemistry, but practice physical activities; didn’t study coordination chemistry, but practice paddle coordination; didn’t learn about bonding and group theory, but in theory did group bonding. Participants didn’t study f-block elements, but likely used the f-word a couple of times. So all and all their strong chemistry background made the activity a success.

Participants did not report sore arms the following morning. It seems that their daily training writing on the blackboard, working in the glove box and reaching for the Schlenck line has kept them in optimum physical condition.