Exploration Week offers students four days of immersion in subjects not usually covered in our curriculum, plus a day dedicated to giving back through community service.

TASIS Dorado High School students return to school after the holidays to experience a week of fun and learning outside the typical classroom enviroment. During our ninth annual Exploration Week students sought out new experiences in four days of seminars and hands-on training, and they finished the week with a day of giving backthrough community service.

SEMINARS:

• Bear Challenge: A fitness challenge is an interesting way to develop a healthy positive body image, self-discipline, focus towards a goal, an interest in nutrition and physical development, and grit, or the perseverance to keep working hard. Students learned about the scientific measures of fitness and the psychological aspects of goal setting and perseverance as well as testing fitness through balance, climbing, strength, agility and speed. They were instructed in martial arts and designed and constructed a "Bear Challenge" course to present, inspire and coach younger students to work toward their own fitness goals through the Bear Challenge.

• Biotechnology: CSI Dorado: Students became familiar with biotechnology: using living organisms to generate products for use in health, agriculture, fuel and energy. It involves biology, physics, chemistry, genetic engineering, computers and information technology. The seminar focused on forensic science, using biotechnology for solving crimes. Students had field trips to a pharmaceutical research facility and the FBI forensics lab. They practiced DNA identification, blood and hair analysis, and fingerprint identification, and this culminated in a dramatic "murder mystery" to solve.

• Chef Dorado: Successful chefs develop culinary expertise but also master a variety of skills ranging from budgeting and management to marketing and event planning. Students experienced a variety of hospitality industry learning but focused on food preparation and cooking. This culminated in a lunch prepped, cooked and served by the students. It was delicious!

• Elementary Education: This seminar offered an introduction to the field of Education through a hands-on learning experience in grades PPK – 5th, enhanced by interviews with teachers and administrators. The objective was to introduce students to working in an elementary school, learning about the differences and similarities in educational strategies with students at different developmental levels. Students moved from being observers to active participants in classroom activities.

• Entrepreneurship: Cupcake War: Student entrepreneurs learned the steps it takes to start a business and then learned how to bake and decorate wonderful cupcakes! Students produced a business plan as they learned about finance, planning, purchasing and marketing, all in the context of starting their own baking business. Students worked with local bakery Dolce Cupcake for a taste of real world business and baking experience. Finally, they put it all to the test with a business presentation and a Cupcake Wars-style competition.

• Fab Lab: Design, Engineering, Inventing: This seminar was created for students who enjoy the process of designing, building, taking things apart, inventing or just making cool stuff! MIT created the concept of a Fab Lab (short for Fabrication Laboratory) where students can explore design and build prototypes of these designs in a lab full of the equipment necessary to put ideas to the test. In the Fab Lab seminar students were taught to use a 3-D design program and then were challenged to design a unique planter to be formed in a 3-D printer!

• Health Care Careers: After an introduction to the many directions open to them in the Health Services field, students learned about the work of several physicians in various specialties. Students learned about diagnosis and observed evaluations and surgical procedures, including orthopedic and obstetric. This behind-the-scenes opportunity with several of our island's top professionals definitely motivated our students.

• Musical Theater: This seminar introduced students to some of the many options for pursuing a career in the theatre arts. Students looked at the skills and dedication needed to be a performer in voice, drama and dance, and they learned what it takes to be a professional lighting producer, a technical director, and a producer for entire production. They enjoyed a master class from a professional singer and a dancer and talked via Skype to a TASIS Dorado alumnus currently studying in this field. Students worked on a short piece to record in a professional recording studio and then prepared a musical performance.

• Physics of Surfing: Surfing is an exciting and challenging sport that requires both mental and physical skills. Understanding the science behind how water can move a board is a study in the principles of physics, incorporating the motion of the waves and currents against the board. The waves at Barlovento at Dorado Beach were ideal!

• Urban Art: Graffiti is the expression of urban culture through words and drawings scratched, painted or sprayed on walls or other surfaces in public places. This art form has taken a new direction through the expressions of trained artists who use this media to reach their audiences. Students learned about the history and development of graffiti art as well as the messages it conveys. They discovered that serious artists have refined this art form, incorporating numerous elements of design. For their project, students designed and practiced before completing a mural on a school wall.

• Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary medicine is a diversified field, with many areas of specialty. In this year's Vet Medicine program, students learned about variety of career opportunities, beginning with the study of animal behavior and the work done to save the Puerto Rican Parrot, an indigenous parrot species being saved from the brink of extinction. Students also learned about veterinary work done with horses both as pets and as competitors. To observe veterinarians in action, students spent a day at a horse training facility and a companion animal veterinarian's office, participating in examinations and observing surgical procedures. Finally, they learned about the course of study to prepare for veterinary medicine from a TASIS Dorado alumna entering veterinary school.

• Community Service: Students finish Exploration Week with a day of service, with a variety of projects ranging from planting and weeding at the Sabanera Farm to working with numerous groups that serve underprivileged people.