Learning Across Borders

Hip-hop Dance Session
Get your groove on! Work with instructors from the Boston Community Dance Project to learn the basics of hip-hop. Students will also learn about choreography and craft their own routines in this high-energy workshop.

Learn to Knit (for a Cause!)
Students will learn how to knit and every participant will make a 7x9 inch rectangle to be sent to an organization called Warm Up America. WUA collects knitted rectangles and makes them into afghans for homeless or impoverished people across the globe.

Pysanky: Ukranian Egg Writing
Learn the traditional art of Pysanky and explore various motifs and symbolic colors used in Ukranian egg writing. Pysanky, which comes from the Ukrainian word pysaty, meaning "to write," uses dye recipes, written-wax batik methods, and incorporates folk designs from legends and beliefs.

Jewelry-Making
Whether you'd like to learn to make jewelry for yourself or as a gift, this workshop will result in the design of several pieces. Learn the techniques of wire wrapping cabochon pendants and more advanced works, including the Tree of Life. Experiment with beads and stones to create necklaces and other projects.

Elements of Chinese Culture: Tai Chi and Dumpling-Making
Come explore various aspects of Chinese culture through the guided movement and meditative practice of Tai Chi, taught by a respected local master. The second half of this session will involve the preparation and tasting of traditional Chinese dumplings.

How We Argue
Do you enjoy debates, writing argument-based essays, or proving your point to your friends, siblings, and parents? Do you enjoy keeping up with current events and figuring out the arguments each side is making? This workshop will introduce a powerful tool for engaging the most controversial issues. We will teach you to expose the hidden structure of arguments to reveal unstated premises and weak support relationships. Much like practicing scales for piano or jump-shots for basketball, learning to map arguments makes students more precise, confident thinkers across disciplines.

Improv 2 Improve
Improv 2 Improve is Pingree School's social justice theater troupe. The goal is to highlight relevant issues and topics related to the current national climate. In this workshop, participants will explore and engage in original scenes that depict various forms of discrimination and oppression.

Visual Literacy/Printmaking
Explore examples of the visual world we live in, including advertisements and branding messages. Using monoprints and text/image integration, you will have the opportunity to create altered images and add text in response. No printmaking experience is required, just openness and willingness to engage in expression.

Gymnastics and Muscle Movement
Hear about how muscles work together and the benefits of stretching before you hit the mats to explore the basics of gymnastics. Support your classmates as you all work through some tumbling-moves, safe ways to fall, balancing techniques, and more!

Leadership: Unlock your Inner Potential
This workshop will explore the variety of ways that students can be leaders in their own lives. Leadership is often mistaken as a quality that people are born with, instead of a skill that can be developed. Through activities and conversations, students will expand their capacities to be leaders.

Yoga and Mindfulness
Bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing through the ancient practices of yoga and meditation. Students will explore mindfulness by learning yoga techniques and breathing exercises, and by participating in reflective activities that reduce stress and unlock creativity.

Draw ZenDoodles and Patterns in Nature
Zendoodling is the art of drawing designs using structured patterns. By concentrating on small, intricate blocks of patterns at a time, you will create not only a work of art but a mood, focus, and state of mind. We'll learn about the practice, take time to look for Pingree patterns, try our hand at designing our own unique elements, and compose some zendoodles together. This meditative practice is fun, relaxing, and imaginative.

Salsa-making
There’s nothing quite like fresh, homemade salsa! Learn all sorts of facts about salsa while making (and tasting!) several different types of salsa. Layer in flavor, color, and texture with different ingredients and become an expert on variations and seasonings.

Urban Art and American Culture
Over the past forty years of contemporary American history, urban art has played a key role in sharing and shaping the collaborative culture known as hip hop. We will explore the characteristics of Urban Art through the curation, creation, and communication of current topics through digital mediums to gain a better understanding of the value this art plays in our daily lives. In this hands-on workshop, we will take social & cultural issues head-on through the creation of our own digital murals to share a message/story that speaks louder than words. Bring your laptops!

Weather Forecasting with Meteorologist Dave Epstein
Work alongside a professional meteorologist as you learn about weather patterns, weather-forecasting, and isotherms. Bring your laptop, as you’ll be doing your own weather-mapping!

Hospital Medicine: Minimizing Human and System Error
What happens where there are errors in the operating room? Beth Israel Hospital medical professionals will address the topic of medical safety and lead participants through a series of simulations that they conduct with med students.

The Economics of Clean Energy & Wind Turbine-building Competition
Get an inside look at the business of wind energy, which is a fast-growing field in Massachusetts. You’ll learn about how wind energy works as well as how it functions economically. Next, you’ll test your mettle to see who can build the best wind turbine.

Stonewall-building
This is a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn how to build the stone walls you see all over New England. You’ll also hear about how these beautiful walls have impacted New England historically and economically.

Gliders
Students will design and fabricate models of airplane gliders using paper, manila folders, balsa wood, and styrofoam sheets. They will start with simple designs created by folding paper, then move on to designs that are drawn and cut by hand, and finally to designs created on the computer and cut with the laser cutter. Each design will be tested for things like distance and accuracy, and modifications incorporated into the next iteration to make a better glider. A final “air show” competition will be held in the turf gym with prizes awarded for Time Aloft, Distance, Design/Artistic Expression, and a Fiasco prize.

Bookworms Unite!
In this workshop, we will gather to read and take pleasure in a short novel and to discuss the words and worlds we confronted. Our conversation will propel participants into a conversation that, ideally, leads to understanding, imagination, agitation, empathy, and, if we’re lucky, even awe. Pingree supplies the novel; you supply the illumination.

Tell Me in a Flash: 200-Word Stories
This workshop is for creative thinkers who love storytelling but don't like to linger in a narrative for too long. Do you think you can write a story in 200 words? In this workshop, we will read examples of flash fiction and then write our own, which we will publish in our very own online literary magazine. Graphic/web design enthusiasts are also welcome to help create the website (and design artwork to complement the flash fiction if interested).

Seafaring with Captain George Grimes
Hear fascinating and inspiring tales from a lifelong sea captain and a recent lighthouse keeper. Captain Grimes will also teach students about reading nautical charts and boat safety, and then students will engage in a “design a working harbor” project.