Whether it’s chicken noodle soup, lobster bisque, or clam chowder, the Social Studies Department has likely prepared it for one of their Soup Mondays. Once a week, Soup Club tries a different type of soup prepared by South’s very own Social Studies teachers, Matthew Whipple, Social Studies Teacher, explained. 

Whipple admires the opportunity Soup Club provides him to engage with his colleagues on a deeper level, rather than just speaking about departmental business. He described the discussion as a casual setting where they often explore the history and culture of the recipes used, and the motives behind the soup being chosen.

“The beauty of [Soup Club] is that our department is unique enough that you don’t see the same [soup] over and over again,” Whipple said. “We all invested in special bowls for our soup [and] everybody [has] their own unique serving dish.” 

Nick Morley, Social Studies Teacher, similarly believes that Soup Club binds all of the soup-lovers within the department together, as they explore new varieties of soup and converse over daily topics and interests.

“I find very few things more important than the opportunity to gain free food,” Morley joked. “[It is] a great joy to me on a gray, cold [Monday] morning [to] I know there’s warm soup and oftentimes bread products ready.”

Traditions do not just occur in the Social Studies Department, however, as the Science Department celebrates National Mole Day on Oct. 23 to commemorate the unit of measurement, a “mole”, which equals 6.02 x 10^23 particles of anything, Science Teacher Cheryl Simon explained. 

“The mole is the foundation of the periodic table,” Simon said. “It is what the entirety of [chemistry] is based upon. We have fun celebrating it.”

These celebrations, Simon explained, include Chemistry teachers dressed up in mole costumes, the “Mole Olympics”, and home-made mole beauty pageants in which the winner has their creation displayed in the Mole Showcase in the New Pit.

“It’s fun, it piques the interest of students,” Simon said. “All students around  school [are] like ‘Why is somebody wearing a mole costume?’ and the amount of attention the mole showcase gets [is always exciting].” 

Similarly, the Math Department takes time to annually celebrate Pi Day, March 14, in honor of the mathematical constant Pi, Elizabeth Bushek, Assistant Instructional Supervisor of Mathematics, said. 

“[The Math] Department buys a lot of pies and invites all the teachers and all the staff on Pi Day,” Bushek said. “We have any kind of pie you would want and then we’d have some trivia on Pi and fun games.”