Barbie Drop with Algebra II

By Kathy Garner

"Barbie's going skydiving" -Haishat, Algebra II TIPster

Ever want to randomly throw a Barbie off a bridge? Algebra II was able to have that privilege. In order to try to keep the class fun, this activity was chosen to show the graph of quadratic recession. The equation was used in order to show what was safe in order for Barbie not to get killed. TA Tallon Stroud was quoted as saying "they're finding out it's easier to stay simpler [with parachute designs]... Barbie's died numerous times".

Many TIPsters chose to disregard any mathematical formulas and just go for whatever. "It's a lab... just for fun" one of the participants, Kyle, said. Continuing with the theme of trying to keep the class fun, other activities the class has participated in include sending Barbie bungee jumping with rubber bands and graphing with shaving creme. Algebra II is taught by Jenifer McNally.

How to Stay in Touch with Your TIP Friends

By Lan'Tiqua Burks

At Tip, you make friends that you will keep forever.” -2009 Summer Studies Student


Well this is true unless you don’t keep in touch with your friends from TIP. You have to get everyone’s number, their email address, and add them as a friend on Facebook. These things alone will not keep you and your TIP friends close. If you do these five things you’ll definitely stay in touch with your friends.

1. Call often- make sure you don’t let too much time go by without talking to any of your TIP friends. This will ensure you don’t miss anything important in their life and they don’t miss anything important in yours. When school starts everybody will be busy but make sure you don’t let school sever your connection.

2. Use Facebook and Myspace – when you see a new picture or a funny status make sure you comment. This will allow your friend to know that you saw this. Facebook and MySpace both account for a great deal of communication between teenagers, so when your online and you see an old TIP friend, IM them and let them know what’s new in your life.

3. Use Skype and Oovoo – If you have a web cam this will be a great time to pull it out and put it to use. Web cam conversations not only are more fun but make the conversation more personal because you can see the person you’re talking to. This is great when you get a new haircut or dye your hair a different color and a picture won’t do it justice. A web cam will make you feel like your right there with the person.

4. Email and Texting- emails and text messages are a good way to express how much you miss someone. Emails are faster and easier than writing a letter, and texting is almost instant. Also, most people have their phones 24/7 and you can have several conversations at the same time.

5. Plan your next year at TIP- if you’re going to return to TIP make sure you talk to all your friends and see where they’re going before you decide, and use all the things in the list above to contact all your friends.

Many Tipsters say that TIP is 3 weeks of fun and 49 weeks of waiting. In those weeks of waiting, use these things to stay in touch.

TIPJokes

By Megan Valentine

Every term at TIP has its inside jokes, games, and phrases. This is a memorial to Term 2 at UGA 2010.

Nerd Quest

 MaLea Berry and Emily Soroka
M&M TIPsters

What do Star Wars, Twilight,Tetris, and the "take this pebble from my hand" scene in The Karate Kid all have in common? They were all part of the nerd-related events that took place Thursday, July 29, at Duke TIP's first ever NERD QUEST!!!

NerdQuest is "to find which class is the nerdiest," says Philosophy student Freddy Argueta. NerdQuest consists of playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors", Star Wars and Harry Potter Trivia, and some other nerdy events. The philosophy class and zombies/vampires class met in Myers Hall around 2PM on Thursday for this nerdy event. It was a great time for these two classes to bond.

The students from Duke TIP's philosophy class took place in an all out battle with the Zombies and Vampires class over things that only true, true, dedicated nerds would know. When it came time for the events Thursday afternoon, the two classes were ready to "pwn some noobz" and prove why their class was the nerdiest of the nerdiest in this mental melee of nerd-tastic events.

It started out as a joke within the Zombies and Vampires class one afternoon. Members of the class started kidding around about how instead of discussing some "nerd-related activities" amongst themselves, they wanted to have a chance to "crush the philosophy class" instead. Zombies teacher and Teacher's Assistant, Anna Carson Dewitt and Danny Mehta, came back the next day saying "Remember how you said you wanted to crush the philosophy class? You may just get a chance to do that..." and thus, NERD QUEST!!! was born.
The Quest started out with a Star Wars trivia round. The classes each had a trivia team,The Destroyers (Zombies) and The Philosoraptors (Philosophy), made up of 6 members, who answered trivia questions about Star Wars. When asked about the caliber of the questions, Zombies and Vampires student, Sam Gray, said, "Those questions were really hard! Our team really didn't know enough about Star Wars to beat [the] Philosophy [class in that round]!"

The next event of the afternoon was the Rock Paper Scissors throwdown. Gray also commented on this event, saying "[The philosophy class was] very strict about their rules! ...They were so serious about doing it the right way."
Rules put in place by the Philosophy class included:
1. If you're using PAPER, your hand has to be parallel to the ground and your fingers can't be spread.
2. You can't use your other hand as a "training wheel".
3. You go 1, 2, Shoot!

Other events at the first ever Nerd Quest included Harry Potter and Twilight trivia, the Poetry Challenge, where the two contestants battle trying to create a poem based off of well-known excerpts, the nerd-tabulous game of Tetris, Philosophical Text Analysis, and plainly stated, taking a pebble from someone's hands (based off of the scene in The [original] Karate Kid).

When asked to describe what Nerd Quest is all about, Gray stated, "We are learning to be well-rounded nerds by participating in a wide variety of common nerd activities."
In this, the first ever Nerd Quest, the noobz were pwnd as the Philosoraptors came to victory. Thus, the possible start of a new tradition and friendly rivalry at Duke TIP at UGA has been born.

MaLea Berry, 15, is a sophomore at The Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia
Emily Soroka, 14, is a freshman at West Forsyth High School in Cumming, Georgia

To Be Continued...

To be continued...

By Nicole Alanko

The typical fourth year traditions are the IHOP trip on the last night, swaying together to “American Pie”, and carrying the symbolic orange lanyards. At Duke TIP at UGA, Term 2 2010, the fourth years have redefined traditions. 

Patrick, the fourth year boys’ RC, tells his RC group member Colin, a bedtime story, but it has grown from Patrick’s RC group to Julie’s RC group, other fourth year girls, and some of the second year boys on that hall.

The stories began the night after the Staff/Student Ultimate Frisbee game. Colin was in his room, and hid so that Patrick would have to come looking for him in the room. When Patrick came in, Colin asked him to tell a bedtime story about the game. 

These stories grew into being the “best soap opera ever”, according to Meghan Dorn, a fourth year. Other fourth years commented that they’re “hilarious” and “It’s interesting how we’re all perceived by Colin and Patrick in these stories.”

The story is a soap opera starring the TIPsters, full of relation-tips, car chases in Paris and an eco-terrorist group. All of the boys in Patrick’s RC group sit in Colin’s room and listen, while the girls race down the hall to get the best seats just outside the door (because girls are not allowed in boys’ rooms at TIP). All of the girls crunch in together to hear the latest episode in the saga.

“I’m obviously surprised at the popularity,” commented Patrick. “I thought it would stop after one story. It’s grown now to audiences of more than thirty TIPsters.”

“It’s a great idea,” said Julie, who has been taking her RC group up to listen to the stories on the last week of TIP.

Haley and Alex, fourth years from Julie’s group, also add that the stories are “great bonding time for the fourth years.” 

TIP Fashion

By Olivia Baker


There are many unique and different kinds of people at the Duke TIP Summer Studies program. So it makes sense that their wardrobes and personal sense of style would be too. “I don’t like standard beauty, there is no beauty without strangeness,” said Karl Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director of Chanel. This definitely applies to the Duke TIP students.

The second week of TIP you will definitely see some crazy outfits. Week two at TIP is Spirit Week! Monday is Pajama Day and all the TIPster s get to go to class in their comfy jammies. Tuesday is Twin Day where TIPsters dress the same as one or more of their friends. Next up is Wacky Tacky day on Wednesday and the students dress in their crazy tackiest. However, Thursday is the most popular. It was recently changed to Crazy Hair Day, but traditionally has been Opposite Day. Friday is Favorite Team Day, where everyone represents their favorite team, or their campus. GO DAWGS!

The Duke TIP students are proud to be different, and love to express themselves in as many ways as possible. One being the way they dress. It’s not every day you see people walking around in tutus, wearing cat ears, and swinging neon shoe strings. But at TIP it’s a daily occurrence. We get many stares from college students and or other camps, but we don’t care. At TIP it’s all about the non-conformists. At school, those who all dress the same might be the popular ones- but not at TIP. The more interesting and different you are, the more you are well known. Most TIPsters never feel the need to be normal. But whether it’s Wacky Tacky Day, or just Monday, you’ll always see something interesting. 

TIPtivitives

By Alaina Boyden

At Duke TIP for evening activities, which are from 7:30- 930 every night, there are many activities to choose from. You’re guaranteed to never be just sitting down somewhere bored! These activities give friends a chance to bond or for new friendships to form. Even if you don’t get the activity that you signed up for you have a chance to switch your activity to a better one by asking the RCs. No matter what, you’re going to have fun!


Sports are ALWAYS popular at TIP with football, basketball, soccer, and Frisbee as regular options. Many TIPsters are excited about this because “we sit in a classroom all day so we need to get out and have fun.”

There’s also a choice to go downtown which is pretty simple in that you go into downtown Athens and hit up the stores, ice cream shops, or the ever popular Starbucks. “I love going downtown for ice cream, yoguri is especially good,” says a TIPster. Yoguri is a frozen yogurt shop located downtown and much loved by all the TIPsters.

If you’re not feeling up to physical activities you can choose improv, unsolicited advice, or even laundry and board games. Improv is an activity where the students get together and “improv”- act out short skits without a script. They have many interesting acting games including one known as “Freeze” where during a scene that students are acting out someone yells out freeze and then they’d take the place of one of the “frozen” people and start a new scene from the previous poses.

Unsolicited advice is an activity where you ask a question anonymously and then whoever is in charge of the activity would answer the question and no one would know who asked. Yet what makes the experience genuine are the answers that the RCs come up with, which are generally very creative and very honest.

Laundry and board games are usually offered during the second week so those who didn’t get a chance to do laundry have extra time and if you don’t need to do laundry then you can play games. Chilling on the quad is also a popular choice at TIP. It’s where you go outside and simply read a book, sit and talk to friends, play Frisbee, or even take a nap.

All in all there are many things to do at TIP, so sign up and have fun!