In the swimming pool, ping-pong balls each bear a number, and a child may be asked to grab any two balls and do an oral problem in addition or subtraction before starting to swim. In arts and crafts, before a child may put a clay medallion in the kiln to bake, he or she may have to answer a question about the map location of his or her hometown or find the capital of a foreign country on a world map. Nature study may emphasize photosynthesis, vertebrae or work with a microscope. The students' morning is an intensive school under the guise of a recreational camp. In the afternoon all children, again within their group, or tribe, of eight or nine, participate in two ninety-minute cooperative learning projects during which they must work with others to get the project done.
Projects are in part student chosen and directed.
They may choose to build a tree house in the woods, construct a bridge over a creek, plant a flower garden, break a new trail. The choices are limited only by what is possible within time limits, what can be done on the grounds with available equipment and what everyone, including the teachers, initially agrees upon as desirable and worthwhile. Most of the activities are established around tasks the children want to do because they benefit from them, e.g., clearing a site for a campout that night. After the initial agreement, should one tribe member not participate fully, all work sometimes stops. Peer pressure, however, tends to mold them into a cooperating group.