Security or Food?

In this experiment conducted by Harry Harlow, the main idea was to find out whether the rhesus monkey would choose the security and comfort of a "mother" made of cloth compared to a "mother" made of wire with just a bottle to feed it. The beginning idea was that the time would be split almost even amongst the two but the final result was not even close. The monkey spent almost 17-18hrs each day with the cloth mother! It only went to the wire mother when it was hungry and needed food. I expected the cloth mother to have more time than the wire mother but not anywhere near this much of a majority. The idea of the monkey going to the cloth was called "Creature Comfort" which is the idea that an infant will go to the more comfortable choice in any situation. This just goes to show how much of an effect a nurturing and comforting parent can have on a child.

This week's theme at lab was Toy Story and Dan and Mitch both came in dressed up and were both instant hits with the kids. We assessed stationary bounce(dribble) and kicking and you can see how it turned out here. We started off with a game that involved two teams trying to get a ball down to other end by passing it and dribbling it, the game was set up well, but a couple of the students weren't too enthused to play it which in the end hurt the overall game. After this we played kickball with the students which was fun and they seemed to enjoy it. After kickball was over we went into the cafeteria because the gym was taken up. In the cafeteria I played with the dominoes with a couple boys until the time was up and we did the group cheer with everyone. Overall this was another fun week at St. Mary's!

Easter at St. Mary's

This week at St. Mary's our group was assigned to special assignment so we didn't get to play a game in the beginning with the kids, but we observed them and assessed their play. One of the first games had the children throw eggs from their side to the other side, this game was a good was to assess their throwing technique, but at points the children wouldn't throw with proper form and would try to rush it which hurt their technique. After a little bit the children were split up and we had to go to our special project. Our task was to put up a large banner that we would take a picture in front of at the end of the class. Also we had to take collages that the entire class made and put them on posters to put on the doors of the gymnasium which took a decent amount of time to make. Once this was done it was time for the end of the day activities which we led. The first one was Dan's game of "Sneak Attack" which had the students try to sneak up on the people who were it and then run back to their side of the court without getting tagged. This was a good instant activity which got the kids' attention. Next Holly explained her dance which involved each students having a hula hoop to stand in and them copy Holly's movements which included: hops, jumps, skips and running around the hoop. After this we all took a group photo in front of the banner that we put up and that ended the day. This was one of the most fun days so far at St. Mary's and it seems that with every week its getting easier and easier to do.