Roland Allen

Similar to other independent schools, Sidwell Friends School sends the seniors away to do independent projects the final month of school.

Projects are great experience for the seniors and it also gets them off campus so that the rest of the students can continue their learning without the distraction of the graduting seniors.

Friday was the day the seniors returned to campus to show off what they had done with their month.

Leda, who is headed off to Oxford University to study Latin, researched, then designed and built, armour that would have been worn by an officer in the Roman Army during the first century.

It's heavy - the officer would have had a slave with him who would hoist the armour over his shoulders and help get it tied up.

Considering that Sidwell is a Quaker school, it's interesting that a number of students took on projects that dealt with war.

Jeff researched and built a trebuchet - which is a scaled down model of a medieval catapult. The trebuchet would have been built on site during a castle seige - requiring about two weeks to construct.

That gives you a sense of how slowly war progressed during that time.

Less overtly violent, but equally as loud as war, students that I supervised designed and built a foos ball table. It's sitting outside of my office, for the time being. The dean of students is thoughtfully considering the placement of the table, anticipating the noise that it will produce inside the academic building.

Helen, like a number of students, took on cultural projects. She's been involved in Chineses dance most of her life. For her senior project, Helen restored this Chinese Lion Head, which is used for the Lion Dance.