Learning through experience takes TIME and SPACE Thanks to The Pingry Fund, we have both!
Scientific Observation Through Art Duke Farms Sculpture Garden at the Hay Barn.
WITH LONGER DAYS AND WARMER WINDS, THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR PROVIDED AMPLE OPPORTUNITY TO REFLECT AND UNSPOOL. At the Lower School, third-graders completed recording ads for their project on the 50 states. Middle Schoolers were engrossed in Project Week, and seniors left campus to embark on their Independent Senior Projects (ISPs). With so much to do, the urge to break free of the constraints of the classroom was nearly palpable…so where did this leave the underclassmen (students in Forms III–V)? Thanks to your support, these students had their best experience yet.
Three years of planning, research, course design, and professional growth went into designing Pingry’s Spring Intensives—immersive, interdisciplinary, and totally unique opportunities to comprehensively cover a single topic in
11 school days. Instead of closing out the academic year with traditional final exams, students and teachers had a chance to slow down and explore a complex subject through a multidisciplinary lens.
From Craving to Consumption: The Story and Science of Chocolate Blind taste tests.
A Culinary Journey: Knowing Your Food Sampling curry potato salad, chickpeas curry, and flatbread.
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Scientific Observation Through Art Sketching at Duke Farms.
The benefits for students are clear—with the time for focused study, collaboration, and reflection, students gained new ways to engage with their work and with each other, resulting in profoundly transformational learning experiences—the kind that stick with them for the rest of their lives.
Pingry teachers are more than just educators; they are also scholars, researchers, and experts in their fields. In 2018, Pingry’s Strategic Plan for the Future identified how fundamental our faculty experts are in delivering Pingry’s first-in-class education. Their creativity and passion birthed the Spring Intensives, and thanks to donor support, they now have access to the training, technology, and transportation they need to extend their influence beyond the scope of traditional coursework, and beyond our Basking Ridge Campus.
The benefits for faculty? A chance to strut their stuff, dive into engrossing new material, and share their expertise and love of learning with our students.
The Great Pingry Bake Off Making sourdough “Mother” dough.
A Sound Perspective: Let’s Write Some Songs Students collaborate to compose music using Soundtrap (online recording studio).
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My Home(State): Promised Land or Wasteland? Cruisin’ the Meadowlands.
SPRING INTENSIVES CO-CHAIRS
Brian Burkhart Director of Technology and Curricular Initiatives and Interim Director of Teaching and Learning
Rebecca Sullivan Director of Experiential Education and Pottersville Programs
Hudson River Rising Ferry ride on the Hudson River after visiting the National Museum of the American Indian.
World War II Through Film and Fiction Identifying key terrain for defending Pottersville.
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Leave No Trace Students learned how to judge the health of a brook.
A third campus in Pottersville provides a home base for experiential learning at Pingry at all levels, K-12. Many Pingry teachers have already spent a great deal of time at Pottersville, taking full advantage of the possibilities offered by the 82-acre campus and its fields, forests, and facilities. Only 20 minutes from our campus in Basking Ridge, the Pottersville Campus offers a convenient location to host a number of other learning experiences, like our Spring Intensives.
May 1 was his first opportunity. John, his friend and classmate Matthew Oatman, and Pingry faculty including Assistant Director of Experiential Education (Sustainability) Olivia Tandon, Director of Experiential Education and Pottersville Programs Rebecca Sullivan, and Grade 5 Social Studies Teacher and Experiential Education Coordinator (LS) Erik Hove taught a group of 14 fourth- and fifth-grade students the principles of Leave No Trace, which they practiced on a hike around the campus and a picnic lunch by the campus pond. The students then gathered at Pottersville and learned about indicator species and how to judge the health of a brook. They found and identified everything from two healthy crawfish to many different types of insect larvae—indicating a healthy ecosystem!
In spring 2021, Pingry junior John Grissinger completed a Pingry Semester Away at the Alzar School, which specializes in outdoor education and leadership training. John was eager to return to Pingry to share his love of the outdoors with Lower Schoolers—but because of COVID-19,
John Grissinger ’23 Pingry junior
Matthew Oatman ’23 Pingry junior
Olivia Tandon Assistant Director of Experiential Education (Sustainability)
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Erik Hove Grade 5 Social Studies Teacher and Experiential Education Coordinator (LS)
Experiences like this are formative for students. Intensives foster a love of exploration and discovery, bolstering Pingry’s mission to graduate citizen-leaders who have the courage to question and the confidence to take responsible action. Your support, this year and every year, moves us farther.
Learn more about Spring Intensives:
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“Spring Intensives offer both students and faculty the opportunity to learn in a more non-traditional way outside of our typical learning schedule in the classroom. For my course in particular, a major benefit was being able to collaborate with my science colleagues. Together, we introduced students to the intersection of science and art to better understand the world! ” —MELODY BOONE, ART TEACHER : SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION THROUGH ART
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From Discus to Diving: A Short Sprint Through the Olympics Rock climbing.
From Clay to Kimchi: An In-Depth Look at Two Ancient Korean Traditions Checking the pH in red cabbage fermentation.
SPRING INTENSIVE COURSES AT A GLANCE
Exploring the Nature of Infinity
Voices from a Cultural (R)evolution
Bugs and Bacteria: Characterizing the Relationship of Wolbachia Infection to the Pingry Insect Population
Ekphrastic Poetry—The Intersection of Art and Writing
Refugee Stories
World War II Through Film and Fiction
The Curious Case of Quantum Science
Congrats, You’ve Graduated Pingry: Now What?
Money, Morality, and Message in Sports
Explorations in Artificial Intelligence
Seed to Shelf
A Sound Perspective: Let’s Write Some Songs
Film Appreciation
From Clay to Kimchi: An In-Depth Look at Two Ancient Korean Traditions
From Craving to Consumption: The Story and Science of Chocolate
Create Really Awesome Performances
What Does It Mean to be Human? An Exploration Through Science Fiction
Rediscovering New Jersey By Talking to Ghosts
Great Leaders, Great Stories: A Study of Leadership Through Sport
From Discus to Diving: A Short Sprint Through the Olympics
A History of the World in 8 Meals
Introduction to Latin/Hispanic Studies
Don’t Quit: Building Resilience Through Endurance Sports
Survey of Cryptology
The Great Pingry Bake Off
The Mathematics of Board Games
Adventures in Problem Solving
From Bono and Belonging to Spies and Soda Bread: Ireland’s Identity, Borders, and Culture
A Culinary Journey: Knowing Your Food
Hudson River Rising
Fiction as Philosophy: Creating Yourself as a Literary Character
Scientific Observation Through Art
My Home(state): Promised Land or Wasteland?
Two Cities In Ferment: New York City and Atlanta in the Seventies 9
SPRING INTENSIVE TRIPS
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OFF-CAMPUS TRIPS
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TRIPS TO POTTERSVILLE
Chelsea Market and West Village in NYC Voices from a Cultural Revolution
Duke Farms in NJ
SCAFFOLDING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Scientific Observation Through Art
El Museo del Barrio in NYC
Seniors
Intro to Latin Hispanic Studies
ISP
(Independent Senior Project)
The Hershey Story Museum in PA Craving to Consumption
Hinchcliffe Stadium and Central Railroad Terminal in NJ Rediscovering Ghosts
LGBTQ Center in NYC
Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors Grades 6–8
Two Cities in Ferment
Museum of the American Indian in NYC Hudson River Rising
K–5
PK’s Four Brothers Farm in NJ A Culinary Journey
Spring Intensives Middle School Project Week Lower School Experiential Teaching
Top Golf in NJ
Money Morality and Sports
USGA Golf Museum and Library in NJ Money Morality and Sports
Thank you! S TAY C O N N E C T E D
pingry.org
To learn more about how to make your next Pingry Fund gift or to volunteer in our community, contact Director of Annual Giving and Community Relations Jane Hoffman ’94, P ’26, ’27, ’28 at 908-647-5555, ext. 1222 or jhoffman@pingry.org.