Electives

Students with prior visual art experience may continue with Level 3 in the visual art sequence. In Middle School Art Level 3, students will have the opportunity to refine their skills and develop their personal artistic style while exploring how INFLUENCE can be communicated through art. Students will develop a portfolio of work demonstrating proficiency in working with traditional 2D and 3D studio media and techniques including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and crafts to create artworks. 

Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) programs focus on processes and skills that enhance individual, family, and societal well-being. Programs reflect the National Standards for FACS Education and integrate math, science, English, and social studies. A project-based curriculum encourages students to investigate and solve authentic problems. Students learn to use communication and critical-thinking skills as well as current technologies to make informed decisions

Students learn the importance of invention and innovation in technological development and apply engineering-thinking skills and technical skills to complete each step of the engineering desing process, creatively addressing real-world challenges.  Student learn technical drawing and Computer Aided Design skills.

This course offers a study of media, its history, and basic related physics concepts as the core for teaching even more advanced literacy skills. Lights, Camera, Media Literacy! presents a timeline of media with focus on the history and physics of communication from the earliest times via storytelling by troubadours and griots to today’s mass media world. The units include Storytelling; The Printing Press; Newspapers & Print Advertising; Photography & Film; Radio; Television; Computers and the Internet; and Media & Our World. Students develop related multimedia projects within each of these units.

Co-Requisite Course: Algebra 1A/1B or Honors Geometry A/B.  

Introduction to Engineering Design emphasizes the development of a design Students use computer software to produce analyze and evaluate models of projects solutions They study the design concepts of form and function and then use state-of-the-art technology to translate conceptual design into reproducible products.

This course is ONE of the courses for the Project Lead the Way (PTLW) Engineering Program that may be completed through courses taken at either Watkins Mill High School or Seneca Valley High School.

The PLTW engineering program allows students to apply engineering, science, math and technology to solve complex, open ended problems in a real-world context. Students focus on the process of defining and solving problems, not on getting the "right" answer. They learn how to apply STEM knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to make the world a better place through innovation.

Link to Sample Course Plan for Engineering Project Lead the Way

Students also have the opportunity to earn 3 college credits through the Rochester Institute of Technology.  To qualify for college credit, a student must successfully do the following:

• a minimum class average of 85%

• meet the minimum score for your PLTW course on the EoC exam. 

Link to Project Lead the Way Information 

Students develop and refine their technical skills in order to perform music at the Grade 3 Level of difficulty. Emphasis is placed on developing formal rehearsal decorum, following a conductor and developing pitch and rhythmic security in preparation for performing an independent part in the traditional band ensemble. Students learn the social, cultural, and intellectual influences reflected in the musical works they are studying and discuss performance styles and musical forms of corresponding historical periods. The study of music theory includes performance and recognition of major scales, diatonic and chromatic intervals, and simple melodic dictation. The critical listening skills that are developed as a result of preparation for instrumental performance are used to help the student formulate criteria for effectively evaluating his/her own performance as well as the performance of others. Students in the band program will present a public performance twice during the year.

Students distinguish between abstract and programmatic music and learn and discuss the social, intellectual, and historical influences on each. Students develop and refine their technical skills in order to perform music at the Grade 2 to Grade 3 Level of difficulty. In addition, students perform and historically categorize transcriptions of a variety of composers. This band or orchestra represents middle schools at public performances.