Mini-courses are three-day classes of your choice that range in subject from science to art to history. Mini-courses are usually the week before Spring Break. There were ten different options for mini-courses this year:
- “ART + Chemistry = Alchemy”
- “Our Fightin’ Phils”
- “72-Hour Film Festival” (link to short films: “Kids with Superpowers,” “Taken by the Dark,” and “Lost and Found” are by FCS students)
- “WFCS: Phoenix Radio” (link to station site)
- “FCS Idol”
- “Survivor”
- “Celtic Designs”
- “The Arctic”
- “Lincoln’s Assassination”
- “Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy and Physiology”
In this brief review I will outline three of these mini-courses:
- ART + Chemistry = Alchemy
In the alchemy mini-course, students focused on food chemistry and how different foods are made and composed chemically. On the second day, this mini-course took a trip to the Old Rittenhouse Village and made paper and pancakes. (Source: Hugh Braham)
- Lincoln’s Assassination
In this mini-course, students watched videos on the assassination and looked at some of the artifacts he had in his pockets when he was assassinated. Before they went to Ford’s Theater in Washington, students watched a musical representation of his assassination. At Ford’s Theater in Washington, this mini-course took a tour and guides showed students exactly where Lincoln was killed. (Source: Evan Sweitzer)
- WFCS: Phoenix Radio
In WFCS: Phoenix Radio, students created a community radio station on Tumblr (see link above). Each student created his own content for the station in the form of a podcast or music playlist. On the third day of mini-courses, this group visited WXPN, the public radio station of the University of Pennsylvania. (Source: Mekkhi Gardner)