Last week, first-year Geisel students participated in a virtual team-building program. Organized by Gunnar Johnson, a coordinator for the Outdoor Programs Office (OPO), the game combined aspects of an orienteering course, Scrabble, a campus tour, and a scavenger hunt. 

Students tuned in via Zoom and became members of teams, each with an on-campus facilitator. After learning basic map and compass skills, the students worked together to navigate and lead their facilitator to targets placed around campus. Once at the targets, the facilitators gave their group a challenge. The challenges included trivia questions, riddles, math equations or a game. If the team members passed, the team received a letter for its Scrabble board. The goal was to collect as many letters as possible and build the most words with the largest word scores, all while getting to know fellow classmates and the campus. Read the full story.

For most of July, observers have been catching a glimpse of the Comet NEOWISE in the night sky. Discovered on March 27 by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope, the comet is currently visible in the Northern Hemisphere just after sunset below the Ursa Major constellation. On clear nights, NEOWISE can be seen over the Dartmouth campus and around the Upper Valley.

Comets are composed of ice, rock, and dust, which is why they are often called "cosmic snowballs," according to Space.com. As these objects orbit the sun, they heat up and begin to emit tails, one made of dust and gas and another made of ions. In addition to the two common tails, NEOWISE has a third sodium tail, which has been observed only in bright comets like Hale-Bopp, the website says.

Skywatchers will be able to see NEOWISE until at least July 23, when it makes its closest approach to Earth. NASA says it won't return to our skies for another 6,800 years.

The 200- to 300-pound juvenile spent about two hours up a tree behind Parkhurst last week.

Read the full story. 

This gallery is a collection of photographs of families, friends, staff, faculty, and other community members celebrating the Class of 2020, as well as images of members of the graduating class celebrating. Dartmouth's first-ever virtual degree-conferral ceremony took place on June 14, when the Dartmouth community gathered remotely from across the globe to celebrate the Class of 2020.

For a larger collection of images, visit the full Flickr album.

On June 15, President Philip J. Hanlon '77 announced that Dartmouth would replace the copper weather vane, designed nearly a hundred years ago, that sat atop Baker Library Tower and represented an offensive image of a Native American. Ten days later, a crane operator and other workers arrived at the site and took down the weather vane. Recommendations for a replacement will come from a working group whose members will consider new designs for the weather vane.

A 52-foot sugar maple dug in Weathersfield, Vt., was planted this week by Facilities Operations & Management, working with the company Skyline Landscaping, on the southeast corner of the Green across from the Hop. With a second large maple going in a day after the first one, the two trees removed from the site late last year due to disease will have tall, healthy successors growing in the same spot.

On June 14, family, friends, and the entire Dartmouth community will cheer on the Class of 2020 at Celebrating the Moment: Dartmouth 2020, this year's virtual degree-conferral ceremony. Here are a few of the photographs that families sent in to congratulate their graduates in a personal way. You'll see plenty of sign-making skill and, in some of them, a bit of help from the family pet. The larger gallery will appear on June 14.

Join us on June 14th at 12:00 PM EDT to virtually celebrate Dartmouth's Class of 2020 graduates!