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Standing in front of an ATM at a Soldotna grocery store, Phoebe Napolitano was approached by a stranger, enamored by her baby.

While the infant at the Soldotna High School sophomore's side had been doing its best to keep Napolitano up at night, and was cute enough to attract attention in public, Napolitano wouldn't have to worry about buying it baby food or formula on this trip to the store.

All her baby needed to survive was a standard wall outlet.

The stranger was a little embarrassed when Napolitano explained that her "baby" was actually just a high tech doll.

Napolitano is taking the child development course at Soldotna High this semester.

One of the assignments she and other students in the class are tasked with is to take home a life-like 1- to 3-month-old simulator and care for it over the course of three days.

Napolitano brought her newborn home earlier this month.

The assignment starts on a Thursday when the students check their simulator out from Meggean Bos, the family and consumer science education teacher.

They'll experience a school day and a weekend as teen parents.

"When I first got it my best friend also had picked one up the same day. We were all smiley and kind of like laughing," Napolitano said.

With a $1,000 price tag for the simulator, clothes, bottle, diapers, car seat, diaper bag, recharge cord and wireless bracelets, the school could only afford four of the simulators.

Students from both the child development course and Bos' family consumer science exploration class use the simulators, so students schedule the weekend they take them home in advance through the semester.

For three days the baby randomly whines and fusses, signaling that it needs to be fed, diapered, rocked or burped.

Unlike a real baby, Napolitano's responses would be recorded.

On Monday Bos plugs the simulators into a computer where Napolitano, as well as her peers, are assessed on how well they cared for the infant.

Originally Napolitano said she tried to get out of the elective course.

"As soon as the class started, a week in, I realized it was pretty cool," she said.

The students have the option of earning college credit through the class, which is being offered for the first time in a number of years according to Bos.

Enrollment has been strong, with the child development class reaching its 24-student cap this and next semester.

Baby blues

Napolitano went home with her baby, the microchip wristband for herself and one for a "baby sitter," some high tech diapers and a bottle among other things, feeling giddy.

She had an idea of what she was getting herself into with this assignment.

"I have friends that did it before and said it really stinks," she said.

Napolitano knew she'd be faced with a challenge, but that didn't seem to faze her too much as she left class.

Within an hour, the smiley phase was over.

"It started crying and I hadn't really gone over the instructions," she said.

She scanned her electronic bracelet so the simulator knew who was taking care of it, but when she went to pick it up she got a surprise.

"Right off the bat I forgot to support the neck, and that makes it's crying loud. It's ear piecing," she said.

The simulator not only records how quickly the student responds when it starts crying, but also how they handle it.

If they're not gentle, or forget to support the neck, points will be marked down.

A little later the baby began to cry while Napolitano napped nearby on a couch.

"I tried to grab it with one arm to do a half-job and ended up hurting it," she said. "That's when I realized I had to take it more seriously."

Life-like

That's exactly what Bos is hoping the students would take away.

There was almost no easy way out with the simulators. Even the diapers had embedded electronic chips in them so the simulator recognized if it was getting a new diaper or the student was just trying to fool it by using the "dirty one."

Bos said she wanted the students in her class to get a full on appreciation for how challenging it can be to care for an infant.

"I needed to teach students about what it's like to take care of a baby, that's one of those things that's hard to replicate," Bos said.

In the past, Bos said courses like hers have used chicken eggs, sacks of flour and dolls as simulation devices.

"They've come a long ways with technology," Bos said. "Just for the students to take these simulators to see what its like for a few days. Of course it's not the same as a real baby. It requires care but it doesn't love you back."

Bos said her students have been blown away by how frequently the baby needs to be fed and cared for.

"They're surprised because they figure they eat three times day," she said. "Then they realize it's a lot more."

Napolitano said her simulator seemed to know exactly when she'd fallen asleep and woke her up six to seven times a night.

"I definitely didn't get a full night's sleep that weekend," she said.

Going to class on Friday was particularly tough.

"Another thing that's surprising for students is when they have practice, or events at church, what do they do with this child?" Bos said.

During the assignment the students are forced to try to balance their lives as both teens and parents.

Napolitano, who's in the off-season for soccer, said even with plenty of down time, she still struggled.

"There was no way I could keep up," she said. "Even within the weekend I had a homework overload that I wasn't able to do."

"I've had some students that have not gone out," Bos said. "They stayed home all weekend."

Following the assignment Bos said she'd talk with the students about how realistic it would be for them to just stay home all day all the time.

Going out brings on a whole new set of challenges.

Bos said she's had students suddenly find themselves in the car with a crying baby and not know what to do.

In public places students have had laughable experiences like Napolitano's where strangers have complimented them for having cute baby.

Bos said one of her students even had a stranger start playing with the simulator.

It hasn't all been positive though.

Napolitano said she thought she'd brush off the stares but found it wasn't so easy.

"All I could think about was everyone is staring at me," she said. "I was by myself, there was no one to laugh it off with."

She said she didn't think about some of the little things either, like walking down the aisle with a large baby carrier that gets in other people's way.

Bos said some of her students have even heard strangers make rude comments about them and have faced the stigma associated with being a teen parent.

"One of my students was at the store and heard someone at the checkout line that said, 'Oh look, there's another teenager having a baby,'" Bos said.

Adult decisions

Bos said she hoped the assignment would allow students to think beyond whether they'd get a good grade.

"I'm hoping this opens up communication with parents so parents and students communicate a little bit about how this impacts their family," she said. "I'm also hoping students may think about what the impact would be on their life and choices they have to make."

While the assignment can be stressful, and other students like Napolitano might have lost some points for rough handling, they can make up for that talking about what they learned.

Half of the assignment grade comes from their actual care of the baby and the other half from a packet they fill out.

"The reason why I do this is if they don't do so well on caring they can still do OK on the project," Bos said. "I tell the students that this is a learning tool. It's just another way to learn what it's like to care for infants. Better to get practice now on a simulator."

Napolitano isn't shy about her feelings on the assignment.

"I'm glad its over, that's the best thing," she said.

It took her a few days to readjust to not having the simulator around, and even weeks later, she still finds herself doing something and suddenly feeling relieved that there's no baby to worry about.

"One of the huge issues is going through pregnancy, and I didn't have that, just the aftermath," she said.

While she admitted the experience wasn't fully realistic, it was close enough.

"This was just a reality check," she said. "Pretty much were all kind of exposed to pregnancy as teens, but it's not until you actually physically have something that's crying that you realize how much it is to take care of it."

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com.