Sleepless nights, constant feeding and a crying “baby” are all things students in the Child Development class will experience this semester.

According to teacher Stacie Simmons,the Baby Project is a parent simulation project designed to let students gain experience as, and perspective of, being a parent of a newborn baby.

Students in the class are required to care for a life-like baby for a minimum of 24 hours, but may choose to care for them up to 72 hours. They are graded based on the care given to the baby during that time.

“Many students going into the project thinking it will be so much fun and afterwards realize it is not that much fun at all,” Simmons said.

The students in the class prepare for this project by studying course curriculum, watching videos and completing class projects prior to taking a baby home. The babies have four programmable modes – easy, medium, hard and random. Each student is allowed to choose the mode they would like to experience.

“The most common challenges are: the sleep deprivation of caring for a new born, figuring out what the baby needs or wants every time it cries the difficulty of single parenting and when out in public with the baby the experience how society views teen parents,” Simmons said.

Some of the Child Development students plan on working with children in the future with careers in the medical and education field.

“It is fun to see some of them gain both a parent and a career perspective,” Simmons said. “Some of the students are suprised at how well they do while the majority say afterward that they never ever want to have children.”