Seniors stay up all night having fun…and it’s educational

by William Belson

The overnighter was again as worthwhile as it has always been in years past, even if you got hit by the cattle prod. The seniors in Mr. Irelan’s psychology class go through a torturous eight hour experience by working with sleep deprivation and help us understand how our minds work, or how someone reacted to something happening to them, such as being shocked by a cattle prod or the project that they were participating in.

The much-anticipated overnighter was December 5, right after the basketball game and high school dance. Though this is a long-standing tradition with Mr. Irelan and the psych class, it has educational merits. “We want to learn about stimulus response first-hand, how to work with sleep deprivation, and to just have some fun,” explained Mr. Irelan.

Most of the students that attended the overnight experience had a great time. “It was a lot of fun,” said Megan Penix. Quite a few students walked away from this experience a lot smarter than they were before and a bit more tired. One of the students that went was quite amused. “It was hard keeping a logical attitude during funny moments,” such as “watching people freak out from getting zapped by the cattle prod,” said Steven Kuster.

Some students had quite a difficult time with some projects. “(The) brick project was the most challenging,” said Caroline Combs. The brick project was a test of strength to see how long you could hold the bricks with outstretched arms. There were many more projects that night that won’t be discussed so that the experience won’t be ruined for next year’s seniors.

Using objects was a big part of this experience. The students played strobe-light dodgeball, and big ball bounce. Big ball bounce was the challenge between the boys and girls to get a large beach ball into the basketball hoop; the girls and boys had a tied score at the end of the project. Many students’ favorite project was strobe light dodgeball because it tested students’ skills even more than regular dodgeball because strobe lights make trying to dodge dodgeballs even more difficult.