This booklet, the first in a series, reports the results of a year-long research project conducted in an experimental school associated with the Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh. Using a variety of techniques drawn from anthropology and psychology, the investigator elicited a cognitive map of school activities from intermediate grade pupils. This taxonomy of activities was then used to describe the school from the pupils' point of view. The taxonomy was refined and validated through the use of a similarities judgment instrument, and several analytical schemes were applied to this data. Finally, the intermediate grade pupils were each observed in a variety of school settings, and their behavior was coded on a scale that was derived from the activities taxonomy. The results of this observation scale are presented and discussed in terms of the relative frequencies of the activities over settings and over pupils. The summary lists five conclusions: (1) it is indeed possible to study a school anthropologically; (2) by focusing on beliefs or what is in peoples heads it is also possible to obtain a reasonable picture of the culture of interest; (3) while elementary school students think as a group, their behavior does not always conform to the group behavior; (4) open-ended, loosely structured interviews with a few individuals can indeed provide cultural information about a group; and (5) our collective ignorance of schools is such that it is possible for a researcher to enter a school with a very open agenda and come out with some discoveries. (Author/DMT)