‘Texas A&M Today’ Season Finale Episode 6 Premieres Monday On KAMU-TV

KAMU-TV will air Episode 6 – the season finale – of “Texas A&M Today” on Monday featuring “The Three Brisketeers” of the popular Barbecue Summer Camp; the students and faculty who are making waves in Hollywood; and the journey of a certain pair of Corps of Cadets boots. Plus, a talk with one of the university’s most TikTok-famous professors and one very tall science experiment anyone can visit in the physics building.

Watch the Episode 6 promo.

“Texas A&M Today” is hosted by Chelsea Reber, a 2010 Texas A&M graduate who co-hosts “The Infomaniacs” morning show on Bryan Broadcasting’s WTAW 1620 AM.

Episode 6 debuts on Monday, Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. and will re-air on Dec. 10 at 6 p.m., Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. and Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. All episodes can be viewed on demand.

Season 1 Episode 6

We’ll visit one of the university’s most popular events – Barbecue Summer Camp, an exploration of the science of barbecue with “The Three Brisketeers,” meat science educators Davey Griffin, Ray Riley and Jeff Savell, who is the dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The first camp was held in June 2011 and has continued each year with a growing number of meat enthusiasts signing up to attend.

Since its inception, the camp has hosted around 750 participants from 32 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, Mexico and Australia. In addition to the summer camp, the Brisketeers also present Camp Brisket, with more than 800 participants since its start in 2013 from 35 states, D.C. and nine countries. The Brisketeers are in such high demand that there is a now a lottery system in place to purchase tickets for the camps, which are open to all students, faculty and staff, as well as the general public. At Camp Brisket alone, more than 7,000 pounds of brisket has been trimmed, cooked and served.

Next, meet the talented students and faculty in Texas A&M’s renowned Visualization Program, which has helped launch the careers of animators who’ve contributed to blockbuster movies from the likes of Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar and Lucasfilm, among others. Now a part of the new School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts, the program – known on campus as “Viz” – takes students into the world of computer animation and has led to national recognitions for Texas A&M in the fields of game design, animation and augmented/virtual reality.

Then it’s on to a touching story about a pair of cadet boots. As members of the Corps of Cadets know, getting your senior boots is a milestone, but they come with a hefty price tag of anywhere between $900-1,900. That’s why the Corps Boot Loan Program exists. The program was established in 2003 to ensure every senior cadet has the chance to wear them. Hundreds of boots donated by former students are available to be “checked out” by deserving cadets. Those cadets are given information about the donor and the history of those particular boots, and the cadet may make contact with the donor to say “thank you.” We’ll hear from the program’s manager, Lisa Kalmus, about her joy in helping cadets find the right pair; and a cadet and her boot donor who meet one another for the first time.

Plus, we visit the Mitchell Physics Building, where a seven-story-high science experiment never ends. In the building’s foyer is a Foucault Pendulum, named for the French physicist Jean Foucault who first used one in 1851 to demonstrate that the earth is rotating. Instructional Assistant Professor of Physics Dawson Nordurft explains how the pendulum’s movement proves the earth’s rotation.

And finally, more from the physics department as Reber visits with Professor Tatiana Erukhimova, whose science demonstrations on TikTok have been viewed hundreds of millions of times around the world. Erukhimova’s physics expertise, combined with her energetic personality and clever demonstrations, have made her a sensation among Aggie students as well. Erukhimova discusses the importance of science outreach, such as Texas A&M’s annual Physics & Engineering Festival.

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