Dr. Dave Joiner started class with a few rules and regulations of being at camp at Shodor. He then went into the basics of astronomy and gravity. He explained that Newton found out about gravity long before computers came along. He also explained that during this class the students would explore the same things as Newton but that they will use computers.
After the introduction and regulations, the students began to work. Dr. Joiner used Microsoft Excel to show them equations representing the movement of a bouncing ball. After an equation was established and they had made a graph, the students used real balls and actually performed the lab themselves. The students were to drop the balls from about two meters high, and time how long it took for each object to hit the ground. After they completed this activity the students compared their results to the model they created using Excel.
After lunch the class started with Dave teaching the students to run a model. The model that the students used shows how the gravitational pull of the earth and the moon keep an object in orbit. The model allows the students to change the settings so that they can see what the effects would be if gravitational pulls were different from what they truly are.
After the afternoon break the class used a search engine on the internet to see images of other galaxies. Then, the students used GalCrash to show them the coming together of two galaxies over a period of time. It models the reactions that the two galaxies have to each other as they draw closer and closer together.