School Curriculum
Our Core Curriculum contains the required knowledge that students need to have a successful school career as well as the future. These subjects include math, social studies, science, and English language arts. These core subjects match the standards and are meant to prepare students for high school and future endeavors. In order to be developmentally responsive, models are used in the class as well as hands-on activities to better student learning. Being developmentally responsive means to meet the needs of each student in their social, emotional, cognitive, cultural, physical and moral development. Every student in the school will also participate in a pen-pal program with a student from a country of their choice. This will help a student’s global learning by allowing him or her to relate the curriculum to other countries. Translators will be used to speak to countries who are non-English speaking countries. This allows for students to also gain familiarity with different languages in the classroom. The overall goal of our curriculum is to teach the whole student by fulfilling their social, mental, emotional, physical and intellectual developmental needs. In our classes, we believe interdisciplinary lessons are important which are lessons that cover more than one discipline.
Math
For math, the students are split into a group of diverse learning abilities to allow students to feel included and work collaboratively. Students may be asked to create special projects, for example, building a house while studying angles. The areas of math focused on are geometry, trigonometry, statistics, algebra, and finance. More specifically, we focus on the Number System, Ratio and Proportions, Expressions and Equations, Geometry, Statistics, and Probability. We utilize interdisciplinary connections to help teach the students the importance of application and connection of the instruction. Interdisciplinary is a term used to describe a topic or material that involves more than one subject such as chemical reactions involve both math and science. Modeling is used in the classroom to provide students with a tangible example of the material such as manipulatives. The technology that students are encouraged to use include the 3D printer so that they can apply the use of the area, dimensions, and ratio. Students are taught how to apply proportional relationships in real-world applications. Our curriculum builds on the previous knowledge the students have on the order of operations. We teach our students how to solve real-world applications of ratio, equivalence, area, volume, and angle measurements. Our curriculum touches on the probabilities in one or more populations as well as how to read statistical data.
Science
Students are primarily taught in a greenhouse where there is an artificial ecosystem. Students are able to watch and contribute to the ecosystem and learn the structure of plants. Students use experiments to draw their own conclusions. The main domains that are taught for science are Force and Motion, Energy Conservation and Transfer, Matter, Earth Studies, and Ecosystems. Students study in-depth the properties of matter and the changes that matter go through. Students apply their knowledge to their own daily life by writing in a science journal of their experiments. Scientists are invited to speak upon their work in a specific field that relates to the instruction. Teachers in our school teach students the theory of Evolution and genetics and how they affect how an organism behaves in an ecosystem. Models are used frequently to show what is a force on an object and the relationship of force and motion. Since our world has many intermingling and ever-changing systems, we study the Earth's systems, structures, and processes.
Social Studies​
It is important that students learn from the centuries of the past to help build a better future. The focuses of social studies in our school include North Carolina, United States, and World History. It is important that students begin to build an understanding of different cultures and areas in the world. Students are required to participate in a courtroom simulation of their making going along with a book. Our curriculum involves using models and a 3D printer to show how geological trends and structure shape modern day civilization and regions. In history, we often see complex systems of commerce and government that students need to be able to understand so that they can see how the world today works. We teach our students how competition for resources affects economic activities such as supply and demand. Students also learn how financial decision making affects the quality of life such as borrowing, credits, and savings. Our curriculum also teaches how ancient civilizations and cultures have shaped how modern society is united and divided today.
English Language Arts
English and ELA are crucial to the students' education because writing and reading are the basic education blocks for every other subject. Our school strives to help every student to write in different formats. We encourage our students to read and learn to love writing by using journals in almost every core subject class. Students are meant to learn how to write explanatory and argumentative essays that successfully follow the prompts of writing while using supportive evidence from credible sources. Students look at different types of poetry and relate the poetry to their own lives as well as the context the poems were written. Students learn how to create essays with proper grammar and tenses. Students identify important pieces of passage and are able to effectively speak upon these passages. We use roleplaying in the classroom to encourage students to dig deep into the texts of poems and stories to find their own connections.