Sabotage. Babysitting. Cradles. Broken Babies.

Each year, a little into second semester, chatter arises about how many upperclassmen are carrying little eggs with them all day, some even protecting them with their lives. And this year, without fail, Mr. Barker assigned the same project to his AP Psychology class.

The objective of this project is to stimulate the stress of being a parent. Students take part in this experiment during the development unit of psychology. Students have to take care of the egg for nine days, seven days are during the week and the other two days take place over the weekend. The students have to take 90 pictures of their egg over the course of these nine days. 

“It was fun picking out a funny name and drawing the egg a slick look. It was also fun to take pictures in all different kinds of poses and places,” senior Logan Hammock said.  

Psychology teacher Mr. Barker explained why he has his students do this project.

“I do this to show the students how intense parenting can be, in hopes that as we study development and parenting they feel some empathy for how difficult it is to be a parent,” Barker said. “From there, I hope I also impress upon them the importance of the job of being a parent so that if/when they become parents, they do so knowing the importance of their job as a parent.” 

Students came up with many different ideas as to how to keep their egg safe,  putting their egg into tupperware to keeping their egg in a hardening resin.

“I protected my egg with a little crocheted basket out of yarn, it also had clothes,” senior Gilbert Sobieski said.  “Both layers offered amazing impact protection against multiple falls that should’ve resulted in death.” 

One of the arguably most difficult parts about taking care of the egg was prevented the egg from getting “eggnapped.” Another student who is in the AP Psychology class can take a picture of your egg that was left unattended and get extra points for themselves. Students had to take extra caution so their eggs would stay safe. They also had to take extra precautions because other students would often smash the eggs- leaving the parents with nothing but the remains of what once was their kid.