Hallway Halloween Hype
It all started with an email about STEM hallway bells. Next thing you know, songs such as “This is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas were played in the hallway as the school bell. Each day, the songs were changed and emails were sent out asking if people could identify them in exchange for candy! The first twenty correct responses would receive the reward. Seems simple, right? On the surface, the STEM bells sound exactly as they are explained, but there are more minute details underneath this project which could only be uncovered by an interview with the STEM teacher, Dr. Masoni.
During the interview, Dr. Masoni started by explaining, “They’re the bells of horror, which is a part of the Halloween X-Project that I assign to my classes. Each class formed two teams, and each team decided on what was missing from the experience. Students wanted to get people excited and in the mood for
the holiday.”
Above: Katherine Kittler '17 embraces the Halloween spirit!
To create this excitement, the STEM students worked together to complete aspects of the Halloween X-Project in the week before and during the holiday. Some students programmed the bells of horror, some asked people to dance at the end of third period, and others were sent emails asking what the song had been played during the day. While there were other activities taking place the week before, most of the STEM projects took place on the day of Halloween. During the interview, a haunted bathroom was mentioned, as well as a surprise scare and a hallway decoration contest. In a combined effort, these holiday activities were designed to excite people for Halloween in different and creative ways.
Dr. Masoni made a key point about the project, stating, “This whole experience is not only something fun to do for the school, but it’s also a way to understand the steps of how to manage a project, run a project, and execute it based on ideas that came from thoughts on what the school needs.” Dr. Masoni said the the projects faced many problems, but that is what STEM is all about: trial and error.
The STEM experiments went full steam ahead into the week of Halloween, with students working away and making sure their “master plans” never got leaked to the public. Thanks to their collected effort and secretive behavior, STEM was successful in setting up all of their Halloween decorations and activities without anyone knowing! In addition to the Halloween assembly, STEM’s Halloween Hype added a more festive spirit to Derryfield’s Halloween celebration. Hopefully, STEM can continue to experiment with hyping up more holidays to continue getting DS active and engaged.
Mark Rotering is a member of Derryfield's sophomore class and is a writer for Lamplighter.