junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	matt from massachusetts (7/15) Matt, a 7th grade day student, has a lot of reasons to love Explo. As an avid sports fan, he enjoys the variety of athletic activities and courses offered at Explo . . . but he also appreciates Explo's ability to foster an appreciation for new topics, like the art . . . however, his favorite things about the summer: all the new friends that he has made and plans to keep in touch with. What have you been up to this morning? Well, for the first activity I did “Gettin’ Twiggy With It”. That’s the name of the activity where you basically go out and find a bunch of twigs, then you go up to the art center where all the art supplies are, and you make art with the twigs. For the second activity period, I did “Music Appreciation: Abbey Road”. Basically we listened to a bunch of music by the Beatles and talked about when it came out and what it’s about and everything like that. What did you make during “Gettin’ Twiggy With It”? Well, I got a bunch of sticks and I tried to make a house, but it kind of fell apart, so I just ended up tying them together in a cool shape. What have been some of your favorite activities at Explo? Well, there are always a lot of things outside, which is really cool. There have been a lot of sports, like football skills and baseball skills, which have been pretty fun. I’m a big sports fan and I like playing those sports, so it helps me fine-tune my skills. The “Sport of the Day” activities are usually really fun, because for the first part of the activity you get to practice, and then you get to play. There is a different sport everyday. Have you gotten to try any sports that were new for you? I was going to do lacrosse, but then I did something else. There have been a lot of sports that I haven’t really recognized, but that seem fun and I might want to try. There are a lot of sports to choose from: lacrosse, football, baseball, basketball . . . There are also courses and mini-courses that involve sports, so there is a wide range of things you can do in sports. Are you taking any sports-related courses or mini-courses? Yeah, I’m taking flag football as a mini-course and for a regular course I’m taking “The Science of Sports.” You’re into sports all over the place. How’s your football mini-course? It’s really fun because we get a lot of time to scrimmage, which is a lot of fun . . . but we also get a lot of time to work on our skills and do drills and stuff. It’s really fun and it helps me a lot. Do you feel like you’ve improved since you started the mini-course? Definitely. I wasn’t too good at football when I started, but it helped me get better. We’ve learned how to turn faster and keep balanced when we’re running. We do a lot of drills like that, and it has really helped me improve my skills. What have you been doing in “Science of Sports”? That class is basically about the laws of motion and stuff. We do some cool experiments. A lot of times we get to go outside and do dodge ball and football and stuff and see how it relates to what we’re talking about. It’s really fun. We’ve learned the three laws of motion, and we’ve learned about keeping a low center of gravity in football. What are the three laws of motion? Well, the first one is, “any object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by another force.” The second one is, “any object will maintain the same velocity, (which is speed and direction), until acted on by another force.” The third one is . . . I can’t remember the third one right now. How are you applying the knowledge to sports? Well, it can help you because you know what to expect more. If you know what’s going to happen, it can really help you play games because, like, the laws actually can be applied to real life. A lot of that stuff is not just theories, so it can help you in sports. How is Explo different than other summer programs? I’ve gone to some different camps, but they weren’t really anything like Explo. There is much more variety here, because the other programs are mainly focused on one thing. Here, you’ve got so many courses and mini-courses and activities. It’s really laid-back and you’ve got such a variety of stuff. Have you been able to try something new since you’ve been here? Yeah. I’m not really artistic, but I’ve tried some arts activities here and that has gotten me a little bit more into art. How is the food at Explo? The food is awesome! I went to a sleep-away camp in Maine once and the food there wasn’t that great. Here, there’s a variety of stuff. There’s pasta everyday . . . along with some stuff that I’ve never heard of before . . . and it has all been really good. The chicken fillet is really good, and I like the pasta with the sauce . . . and the Philly cheese steak was really good. What are you going to take away with you this summer? I’ve made a lot of friends here. It’s really easy to make friends because you spend time with so many different people here. I’m going to keep in touch with them, because they’re all really friendly here. I think I’m going to have a lot more friends after this summer. I’ve met friends from other states, other countries, and some people that live just like one town over. If Explo were a song, what type of music would it be? I think it would probably be, like, pop music, because there’s such a variety. There’s a lot of stuff here that you can do that’s fast paced, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s laid-back too. more conversations > first session \| second session