junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	dillon from massachusetts (8/8) Dillon, a Pioneer, is here at Explo for his first summer and has attended both sessions. After taking some artistic courses during first session, he has chosen two courses for second session that reflect his love of science: "Explo's Most Exreme" and "Pond Scum". As a day student, he has enjoyed staying late to see main events such as the yo-yo show. Is this your first summer at Explo? It is, but I was here last session too. Oh cool. What do you like about Explo? It’s just really good overall. You get a lot of choices, even before you ever come here. It’s just amazing! All the different foods, all the different activities . . . all the time you just get to choose! What do you like about having so many options to choose from? Well, you don’t get stuck doing anything that you don’t want to do. Like, if you are feeling a little tired, then you don’t have to run around or go swimming. If you’re just feeling great, then you can do all of those things. You just get to choose things based on how you’re doing. Which classes are you taking? I’m taking “Explo’s Most Extreme” and “Pond Scum”. Those sound fun. What are you doing in “Explo’s Most Extreme”? We’re learning all about animals’ adaptations and making a lot of figures. We did a lot on camouflage and learned about all kinds of adaptations. We learned about big horns and antlers and why the antlers fall off after spring. We made little models out of plastic cups and straws and rubber bands. It’s just amazing. Sounds pretty hands-on. It is. And with my other class, we really go hands-on! It’s called “Pond Scum”, and we go down to the pond sometimes. We have nets, and we try to catch animals with them. We have a bunch of tadpoles and crayfish in our classroom in jars and things. What have you been learning in that class? We’ve been learning a lot about evaporation. For the first couple of classes, we were learning about how the water got into the pond and how the water from the pond travels to different places. You must really like science. I really do. Does Explo have a lot of options for people who are really into science? Definitely, but it has options for everyone else, too! Like, if you like art, you could have all your classes and activities be entirely based on art. Or, you could have half your activities based on science and half based on sports! You definitely try new things here, too. Have you tried anything new at Explo? I’ve tried a lot of new foods, and I’ve also tried some new sports . . . and even some new playground games on the upper quad. Which new sports did you try? There’s this soccer-handball mixture called “speedball”, and it’s really cool. And new foods? With the foods, I just try everything. Ham and cheese sandwiches, a new kind of pasta sauce . . . all sorts of things. Today is mini-course day. How are they going? They’re going awesome. I take woodworking in the afternoon, and "Wilderness Survival" in the morning. What have you been making in woodworking? We made a plaque, and we’ve made a tic-tac-toe board. What have you been doing in “Wilderness Survival”? We do all sorts of things. The first day was kind of a “get to know each other day”, and we stuck a little low key. We read through some really cool packets. The next day, we had this nature walk, which was really cool. Then we learned about the different types of poison ivy and stuff like that. Today, we learned how to keep food away from bears and how to pitch a tent really quickly. That probably would have been useful today! That’s true, it is pretty rainy out now. So aside from your courses, what else do you enjoy about Explo? Every week we have a theme day, and last week it was “Alien Day”. Theme days are really fun because everyone dresses up. The first week was “Pirate Day”, and it’s just really fun. You get to do all this cool stuff. Also, we have a lot of activities that are entirely your choice. There are normally about 7-10 things you can choose. You can choose anything! What have been some of your favorite activities? I really like swimming and I really like bombardment. We get to do some really cool things in the pool, so it’s really fun. It’s amazing. As a day student, do you stay late or go on weekend trips often? Almost every day I stay late. It’s just so fun because there are different main events every night. If you stay until 8:45, then you get to see the main event, which can be anything from a yo-yo show to a live animal presentation. My favorite main event was probably the yo-yo show. They did so many cool tricks with yo-yos and hula hoops. They had one yo-yo that actually went off the string! They shot it up as high as they could get it, and then they got it to land right back on the string! If Explo were a type of food, what would it be? I think it would be a pizza, because that can have anything on it – from pepperoni to salami, or it could just be plain. You get to choose whatever it is. At Explo, you get to choose whatever you want to do. more conversations > first session \| second session