More than a month ago, COSMOS mailed all the students a huge box filled with all sorts of supplies and merchandise like whiteboards, lanyards, and t-shirts. But within this box was an unfamiliar guest: a box of tomato sauce.
Upon meeting each other, many students had raging questions about the tomato sauce. Why would COSMOS, a STEM program, be sending everyone tomato sauce?
“I thought it was for a science experiment.”
“For wearing.”
“To wash your hair, DUHr.”
“For drinking.”
“I thought my cluster leaders sent it as a joke.”
On Monday, we got the answer we all had been waiting for. The tomato sauce was for making pizza!
On Monday evening, COSMOS Assistant Director Katrina Ricca, started our pizza adventure by teaching us how to make the dough. She told us that it was a well-loved family recipe. While Katrina was an expert at making pizza dough, the rest of us teenagers struggled and displayed our severe lack of culinary skills. Plus, since our hands were covered in flour, trying to unmute to ask for help only ended in flour all over our laptops.
Ten minutes in, and we were all frantically mixing. Some of us gave up on the tried and true method of measuring and instead decided to eyeball it. (Spoiler: that didn’t end well). The more we mixed, the more our dough began to take shape. After inspecting our doughs through her laptop screen, Katrina suggested that we roll up our sleeves and knead the glutenous dough by hand.
So we all dug our hands into the sticky mixture and hoped for the best. For some, it was too sticky, and they ended up with half of their pizza dough stuck to their hands. For others, it was too dry, and they inhaled clouds of flour. But Katrina walked us through fixing our doughs, always repeating the phrase: “Don’t worry, pizza is forgiving.” That quote may have been a little counterproductive, as it further encouraged eyeballing of measurements. But by the end of our short kneading session, everyone had round balls of dough.
Katrina continued by gathering her toppings. Some popular pizza topping choices included cheese, pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, olives, and the infamous tomato sauce.
While we prepared our pizza toppings, Katrina introduced us to her garden, featuring her first freshly grown tomato. After, we all grated our cheese together, with a few unfortunate incidents of grated skin. What can I say? Extra protein!
The yeast in our dough was also hard at work. By the time our toppings were all prepped, our pizza dough had risen and was all ready to be rolled out. Arming ourselves with water bottles and bean cans to use as rolling pins, we attempted to roll out circles of dough.
Circles proved to be a real challenge.
So we settled for some triangles and rectangles.
Finally, after an entire month of anticipation, the tomato sauce had its chance to shine. We were walked through step-by-step how to open it — getting tomato sauce out of a box is harder than you think — before spreading it all over our pizzas. Some of us poured out the entire box; others saved it as a dipping sauce!
With the bare bones of our pizza done, it was time to get creative! Our Zoom call was silent while everyone worked intently. A couple of students were perfectionists; they wanted everything flawlessly spaced on their pizza. Other students settled for something more rustic: they let gravity determine their topping location.
Once our pizzas were topped with veggies, meats, and heart-stopping amounts of cheese, we popped them in the oven. And, like well-behaved, responsible teenagers, we scrubbed down our kitchens together.
Soon after we finished cleaning, we heard the heavenly beep of ovens. All of us quickly raced towards our ovens, grabbed a pair of oven mitts, and pulled out our beautiful creations. There were a couple of burnt ones (read: extremely charred), some soupy ones, but plenty of delicious ones.
As Katrina blasted “All I Eat Is Pizza” by Koo Koo Kanga Roo, we danced, laughed, and chowed down on our steaming-hot pies. - Sharis Hsu
Escape Night
On Escape Room night, we were welcomed onto Zoom with Kahoot music. After a small intermission of jamming to the song, we were given instructions on how the escape room worked and divided into breakout rooms.
We then entered breakout rooms. This is the beauty of a big Zoom call and randomization -- you don’t know who you’re going to be teamed up with. In my breakout room, I got to know my fellow COSMOS students by asking some ice-breaker questions, such as “What cluster are you in?” and “What labs do you do?” I found it fascinating that even though we were all studying science, everyone had extremely different experiences. I was able to connect with my peers on the subject that we truly enjoyed and wanted to explore more of. I remember saying, “Isn’t it cool how we get to learn from people who are accomplished in their field?” Everyone agreed.
When we finally got the link to the game, the screen looked ominous. A video started playing, which surprised us. The “hacker” told us how the game worked in a cryptic way, saying that he had stolen our files. We needed to work together to solve the puzzles to get our files back. All of us were intrigued.
We were then prompted to choose roles: the team leader, a “number” clue retriever, and a “letter clue” retriever. Once the roles were decided, we continued navigating through the game.
As the instructions and the objectives of the escape room were outlined, the first puzzle that we attempted set the scene for the rest of the game. The task seemed simple: Find what was missing in the picture provided. As we all sat in silence trying to figure out what was missing in the picture -- two horses eating grass near statues -- one team member, Cole, said, “Wait. Where’s the leg?” When we finally processed what he was saying, we busted out laughing. The horse was missing a leg! How was this not obvious to us before? There were lots of different kinds of challenges, including one where we had to listen to an audio recording, and another puzzle about Harry Potter. As we continued completing the puzzles, we found a way to approach what they were asking and began to work cohesively together to figure out what we needed to enter in to move on.
I would first read the challenge out loud, and ask the other team members if they had any clues (either letters or numbers), and we would talk about what the clues were in the context of the given task, proceeding further on as more clues were uncovered. Though we didn’t manage our time very well, we tried to attempt the puzzles as much as we could, only using one hint.
When time ran out, we were given one final task: determine one of Aristotle’s 12 virtues with the given clues. We tried so hard, but couldn’t definitively figure it out. The others in my group told me, with ten seconds left, “Just choose modesty.” And, surprisingly, that was the right answer! I had so much fun working with such amazing people.
As we were all filtering back into the main room after we had cracked the escape room, we were asked for song suggestions to celebrate. A student on the call, Viggo, suggested a One Direction song. There was lots of clamoring, and the chat immediately blew up with support for it. We first listened to a remix of “What Makes You Beautiful” (which was good), and then others were prompting another student, Cathleen, to share her screen and sing “Night Changes” by One Direction. She then took the reins, sharing her screen, and belted out the song with all her heart as we smiled and sang to ourselves. Some of us even turned on the flashlights on our phones and waved along as if it were a real-life concert.
This event made me forget that we were all so far away from each other, only bound by the internet. I’m sure everyone enjoyed the games as much as I did. We’re all looking forward to the next event! -Ankita Prasad
Enrichment (UC Admission)
This Wednesday, July 14, Emily Strain, a member of the admissions team at UC Santa Cruz, met with COSMOS students. Strain provided information about the University of California admissions process. Equipped with handy slides, statistics, and pictures, she talked about the specific locations of each of the UC’s (with the exception of UC Berkeley and UCLA), and the strong programs each school has to offer. In addition to the COSMOS campuses: UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Davis, and our very own UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara and UC Merced were also mentioned. Many questions were asked and many questions were answered. Students found the presentation engaging, important, and informative — especially the rising seniors. For more information regarding the UC system, visit their website: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/ - Allie Wang
Coffee Talks
Hey, you! Yeah, you over there, staring at your screen blankly! Are you looking for a way to better understand topics covered in your cluster? Are you trying to connect with your classmates and teachers on a deeper level? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you need the Coffee Talk, an excellent way to open up with others while getting ready for the morning! With Coffee Talk, you’re free to discuss anything your heart desires, from hobbies and interests to research, to your deepest, darkest secrets. Additionally, your Teacher Assistant will be the host of Coffee Talk, allowing you to really get to know one of your instructors. What fun! However, if you have more pressing matters like catching up on class material, don’t worry! You can ask your hosting teacher assistant for help on these topics, allowing you to come back to your cluster as a powerhouse ready to smash any concept to bits! The bonus? Your mind will be stimulated right before our discovery lectures, meaning you’re ready to absorb new, juicy knowledge. And to seal the deal, who could refute a delicious, steaming cup of hot coffee in the morning to get your energy levels to an all time high? So, what are you waiting for?! Come on down to your local coffee talk, and enjoy the company of others along with a piping hot drink. - Viggo Kovas