Day 24: Old Boat!

Hej! There may only be a couple days left in the program, but there is still a good bit left to do!

We started our day with another hostel breakfast of mostly bread and nutella (at least for me). Breakfast topics of discussion included tattoos (several students now have gotten tattoos at a nearby parlor; one was even featured on the artist's instagram!), superpowers (does teleportation enable you to travel to other galaxies, and what dangers might this involve?), and potential plans for tomorrow night (the last "free" night of the program)-- though I won't spoil anything in case it ends up on tomorrow's blog.

Hostel Breakfast-time

In the morning, we had our last DEI discussion, talking about actionable ways to make mathematics education more inclusive. We discussed practices that we had seen in our own classes that were inclusive or exclusive, and talked about ways to improve the many issues we've seen in mathematics.

One of our readings was a chapter from Francis Su's "Mathematics for Human Flourishing," which I encourage any reader of this blog to at least skim-- whatever your relationship with math may be. We all found Su's text to be highly impactful. If you don't have access to the book, you can see Su's related speech here, which discusses many of the same ideas.

During our lunch break, many folks went off to a brunch restaurant, which I heard was very good. However, Collin and I opted for a quick burger and fries at MAX, a Swedish fast food chain.

Afterwards, we met up as a whole group to venture off to the Vasa Museum. 

Outdoors in the snow

In the museum, I read many placards. The Vasa was a Swedish warship built in the 1620's to showcase the power of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus (you may know him as the namesake of a certain college in MN). However, on its maiden voyage in 1628, the ship sank before even leaving Stockholm's harbor, largely due to poor design. In particular, the ship was too tall and narrow, and its ballast not heavy enough to stabilize it. As a result, a strong wind caused the ship to keel to the side, quickly take in water through the cannon ports, and then sink. Why the king's ship was designed so poorly, it is not clear; though some suspect foul play.

The sunken ship's location was forgotten for many years, but after a search in the mid 20th century, it was uncovered and eventually lifted (in an impressive display of ingenuity and engineering) and brought to harbor. It was lucky to have sank in the brackish waters of the harbor instead of the ocean, where the wood would have been eaten by problematic shipworms. Now, having undergone many conservation efforts, it is on display in the Vasa museum.

In front of the warship!

Despite the engineering oversights, the ship was quite impressive. It featured a number of sculptures and decorations that made it definitely fit for a king!

A view of the ship's two rows of gun ports

Sculptures on the bow of the ship.
Each had some symbolic meaning, many were mythological figures.

After the museum, it was time to lock in and get some work done. I returned to the hostel to work on my presentation for Thursday; I suspect many others did the same (although some I believe were napping). We've had a lot of fun, but many of us are glad the end of the trip is approaching; we're starting to get worn out!!

Stay tuned for the final few days of our adventure,

-Rosemary