Prisons designed to depersonalize inmates trigger antisocial behavior. Students learned about the three keystones of the social psychology of prison life – the Stanford Prison experiment on social roles, the Yale Milgram studies of obedience, and the Swarthmore Asch work on conformity – as a prelude to understanding the social pressures on behavior. Today...
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Bayshore: Lots of work and some play
Day Two Day two of our Bayshore trip and the boat still hasn’t arrived (hopefully tomorrow!). But that doesn’t mean our group of 14 eager (and slightly frozen) students couldn’t find work to be done. Not only does the boat need to be taken care of, but also the dock she resides in, and the...
Continue readingMulticultural Philadelphia: African-American history
Day Two We began the day with a riveting talk about the African-American history of Philly thanks to our entertaining tour guide Ernest. He talked about how African-American women and children were significant to the history of Philadelphia, how Quakers came about, and how Pennsylvania came about. He talked about William Penn, and his...
Continue readingQuilting: Our skills are improving!
Day Two Hey guys! Today we made quilts! Everyone improved their skills and can finish quilting more quickly. We were grouped in pairs of two to help each other out. All of us were focused and careful. During lunch, we went uptown and ate at Passarello’s. We then went to Starbuck’s afterwards. All of...
Continue readingHabitat for Humanity: Demolition
Day Two Today, we had breakfast as soon as we arrived. Then, we went to the Habitat Restore warehouse to do whatever was needed. The visit was actually a surprise because we were supposed to be making raised beds, but due to frigid temperatures we decided to change our plans. Of course, the Habitat community...
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Pine Barrens: Bogs and Burns
Day Two Today we ventured to the Pine Island Cranberry Company facilities, where we met the owner, Bill Haines, and Kristina. They broke down their process of harvest throughout the seasons and showed us what each season entailed. They also took us out into the field to a dormant bog that was preparing for...
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Dispatch from Coope San Juan: All is well!
I just received this text from Mrs. Barna in Costa Rica: “All is well in Coope San Juan. We have very little service.” Cheers to our global travelers! We can’t wait to hear about your adventures. ~Ms. Day...
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Tempe, AZ: Meeting and service
Day Three The day began with an excellent Meeting for Worship with the community of Tempe. We were treated to a potluck lunch and then primed, painted, and caulked a near by home. ...
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Costa Rica: Painting the playground
Day Three Annie Today was amazing! We started out our day by visiting a small school after breakfast. We helped paint a playground and also some classrooms. We got to play with some of the local children. We all had an excellent meal of rice, salad, chips and pineapple juice together. When we finished...
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Exploring Art: Enlivening the ruins
Day One Today in our Exploring Art intensive learning trip we traveled to Fairmount Park in order to address the remains of a former home as a location for site-specific art. The structure was a mere ruin with visible entrances, however there were no doors or windows. Many street artists have taken advantage of...
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Improv with Issues: Building community through games
Day One Today was all about building trust and getting to know each other better as a group. We started the day by talking about the definition of theatre, and then we started building up energy through games. We did trust activities like trust falls and leading “blind” people through activities. We explored how...
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Exploring Art
This Intensive Learning year our group will be traveling to local destinations to create ephemeral art that relates to the environment in which we are standing–from improv and street art to using trees to draw. Our three trips will include Philadelphia, Pakum Pond in the Pine Barrens and the beaches in Ocean City, NJ....
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