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 oppurtunity 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. Each year courses vary.
Community Service and Cultural Trip: Zambia- Trip Leaders: William Warlick and Leslie Patient
The program will have both an academic and community service focus. Prior to the trip, students will research life in Zambia, including its history, its social institutions and contemporary issues. Students will read African Friends and Money Matters. This book discusses the cultural differences between the West and the traditional African way of life. While on campus students will collect needed clothing and medical items for the Namumu and House of Moses communities prior to the trip, and will pack the items to be donated. While in Zambia students will volunteer at the House of Moses Orphanage where they will be caring for abandoned orphaned infants. They will also visit the UNICEF and UNDP offices, teach school lessons, and paint. While at Namumu, students will be engaged in a variety of activities with children ages 5-15 years of age. They will be teaching two lessons at the school, tutoring students in English, and working in the garden. They will also visit a traditional village, and the Kariba Dam. The last journey on their trip will be to Livingstone where they will visit Victoria Falls, shop and spend the night in the Chobe Safari Park in Botswana.
CSI Purnell- Teachers: Robin Dyer, Jennifer Parker and Shereen Thomas
Students will gain a broad understanding of the field of Forensic Science through labs, research study and hands on work. Throughout Project Exploration students will be diving deep into the different areas of Forensic Science, studying a variety of things such as fingerprints, hair and fibers, ballistics, etc. Throughout the period students will visit the Morris County K-9 Unit, Somerset County Forensics' Lab, Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, and a morgue. Students will read the following books: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, Kinsey Millhone Mystery by Sue Grafton, Cross Fire by James Paterson, and a Forensic Illustrated: Step Under the Tape by Brennon Sapp.
Early Childhood Education- Teacher: Shelly Kaye
Students will understand and utilize educational theory, learn the importance of properly setting up and maintaining a safe, stimulating, and age-appropriate classroom space, learn how to effectively interact with and instruct toddlers and preschool-aged children and effectively run age appropriate activities and lessons for toddlers/preschoolers. Students design and create an early childhood classroom and create lessons and activities for their students. Throughout the period students will visit Seton Hall University to explore what it's like to be in college studying to be a teacher, visit Childtime Center to observe an early childhood care center and get a chance to interact with toddlers and visit Kid's House and Kiddie Academy for observations and assisting with lessons, lastly, students facilitate workshops and activities at The Kid's House. Students will read the following book: The First Days of School by Harry K. and Rosemary T. Wong.
Functional Street Art- Teacher: Chris Kaye
Street art is a form of art that has developed through the outcry for change and acceptance within our society. Most street artists convey their message using anti-capitalist and rebellious undertones, personal expression, and mass production. Now that street art has gone mainstream, both private collectors and museums are trying to understand and acquire these works of art. During the course students will increase their general knowledge about Street Art and Urban Art, acquire basic technical skills in a variety of Street Art related materials and relate an individual artist's work to a larger social context. During the period students will take field trips to PS1 Museum in Long Island, Kid Robot in Manhattan, and Five Pointz in Long Island.
The Greatest City in the World: NYC- Teachers: Nyika Buccello and Amy Pasterczyk
Students will increase general knowledge about city/urban planning theory and practice. They will explore what constitutes/defines a city and examine the city as a primary social, political and creative force world-wide. Students will also gain a more profound appreciation of the City of New York as a center of the global economy and cultural movements. Students will participate in NYC Scavenger Hunts (Upper West Side & Lower Manhattan) and take field trips to the following places: The Tenement Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, Walking Tour of Greenwich Village (West Village), The Police Museum of NYC, The Staten Island Ferry, Hoboken, NJ, NY Hall of Science in Queens, Wave Hill in the Bronx, Brooklyn Museum Park Slope and Transit Museum. Students will read the following books: Who's Your City by Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, Writing New York: A Literary Anthology edited by Phillip Lopate, New York Echoes by Warren Adler, PBS Documentary "The American Experience: New York City", Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (The History of New York City) by Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace and Empire City: New York Through the Centuries edited by David Dunbar
Thematic Exploration of Art- Teachers: Donna Andeskie and Denise Greller
In this course students will be exposed to the many themes and subjects of art, to help them find a theme that expresses their own ideas about the human experience. Students will create an exhibition of artworks relating to a particular theme. The works will include a ceramic sculpture, drawings, an acrylic painting and photographs, either digital or darkroom. During Project Exploration students will be visiting the following places: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ and Princeton Museum of Art, Princeton, NJ.
Spanish Language Trip: Ecuador- Trip Leaders: Brooke Malik and Mirna Valerio
Prior to the trip students will focus on the culture and history of Ecuador and the bio-diversity of the Galápagos Islands. While in Ecuador students will be able to study the Spanish language while living with a host family. During their study abroad students will have 15-20 hours of Spanish language immersion courses at Estudio Sampere School in Cuenca, daily cultural activities at the school and in the local area each afternoon, and a seven-day home stay with an Ecuadorian family. In addition, students will visit the cities of Quito and Guayaquil and take a five-day tour of the diverse Galápagos Islands aboard a private boat.
Production: Scream Queens- Teachers: Kristan Cassady, Nicole Labrit and Peter Pasterczyk
Project Exploration gives the Performing Arts Department the opportunity to work collaboratively on a musical play. Based on a prior audition, students are cast as a character role, technical crew, or film crew. Character roles will learn all blocking, choreography and songs daily, the technical crew will help design, create, and modify the set and costumes, and the film crew will be responsible for storyboarding, shooting, and editing their horror short films. This year's musical production will be Scream Queens. Play synopsis: A hotel ballroom outside of Cleveland, OH is the setting for the International GlamaGore ScreamiCon, an annual convention for fans, collectors and celebrities of the direct-to-video B-movie horror film genre. The special guests this year are six of the sexiest and most popular actresses in the business -- collectively known as the SCREAM QUEENS!
