Project Exploration Period
Project Exploration is a hands-on, project-oriented mini-term scheduled during February and March of each year. For two and a half weeks, 6 to 10 hours a day, during their junior or senior year students have the opportunity to expand their global awareness through intensive travel abroad trips designed around interdisciplinary themes focusing on community service, in-depth cultural and language studies, and environmental science and sustainable living. Students who remain on campus explore a particular topic or creative art form in depth. The program concludes with a Project Exploration Showcase, where students display their work and give presentations to the rest of the school and outside community.
Click here to view off campus offerings for 2013-2014!
A Call to Action: Peru
This year students have the opportunity to travel to Peru where they will have the opportunity to travel, experience local culture, and sample local foods. While there they will evaluate opportunities for community service and decide how to carry out their philantrhopic mission.
Digital Story Telling – Purnell 20/20
Working in teams, students will learn every aspect of story telling: identifying interesting interview questions,performing the interview, editing the film, and combining it with news footage to develop creative and informative documentary films. During the creative process students will learn how to use programs like i-movie and moviemaker.
Digital Underground
Digital Underground is a journey into the realm of non-traditional digital photography. This course deviates from conventional photography curriculums in that it aims to transcend the rules of "good photography" by giving students the personal freedom to develop their own creative methods. Rather than teaching students "how to take a better photos," this course will allow students to create unique and enduring images through the use of freestyle techniques and personal choices.
Investigating Your Inner Animal
Throughout human history animals have been a big part of mythological, symbolic and religious cultural language and imagery. This course will explore the meaning of animals as they significantly appear in various cultures, such as Native American, African, Aboriginal Australian, European, and Egyptian. Students will complete readings and visit museums, and then reproduce the material with art in several media: charcoal, clay, printmaking and paint. The final exhibition will contain works of art and writing from each student in a gallery setting.
Planet Purnell
In this course, students will discover how they can make a difference in the world in the ideal of meeting both human and animal needs. They will look at the impact that animals have on our ecosystem, study what is making these animals endangered, and learn how they can help.
Production: On Your Toes
Project Exploration gives the Performing Arts Department the opportunity to work collaboratively on a musical play. Students audition and are cast as in either character roles or technical crew. This year's production will be Rodgers and Hart's "On Your Toes," which has extensive dance scenes in the styles of ballet, jazz, and tap. Character roles will learn blocking, choreography and songs, and the technical crew will help design, create, and modify the set and costumes.
NEW YORK VS. PHILLY
The goal of this course is to discover Philly and NYC by taking walking tours, visiting places that are "off the beaten path", and meeting with local experts who'll share their knowledge and passion for the cities that inspire them in both their work and their lives. During the last week of the course Team Philly and Team NYC will each be responsible for creating materials to promote the cities and for taking part in a heated, interactive debate to see which city wins!
