January marks the yearly tradition of egg babies. Wendy Koch’s AP Psychology classes are assigned with the task of decorating and parenting an egg each year. Students must log activities with the egg and take pictures for eight days.

“It is a simple way of having students learn the added responsibility of having a ‘baby’ to tend to in their daily lives,” Koch said. “Eight days of remembering to carry around and not forget, or break, an egg baby. It provides just enough responsibility and distraction during our development unit in AP Psych to help them get a glimpse of what life with a baby might be like.”

Egg pictures are uploaded onto Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag, #eggbabieskoch. Many students posted group photos with other eggs, their eggs in costumes and many more silly pictures.

“My favorite part is seeing how they design their babies, name them and the frustration of forgetting them or deciding what they are doing with them each day,” Koch said.

The purpose of the egg project is to learn about childhood psychology, parenting styles, behavior patterns and other aspects of early childhood and adolescence. Although this is a graded assignment, students still have lots of fun by giving their eggs funny names and costumes, taking fun photos and creating interesting situations with the egg logs.

“At the beginning, it is a mixture of excitement to break the monotony of routine and fear,” Koch said. “Some kids dread it, but end up having a lot of fun with it and their friends and family get involved. I get asked every year if we can do it, it has taken on a life of its own.”