GRADE 6:
ART APPRECIATION 6: The curriculum is designed to widen student awareness of the artistic process and to expose students to activities and projects fostering creative thinking through various media and technology. It is also geared to reinforce respect between use of tools, techniques, and materials. Students develop an “art” vocabulary and learn to apply integration of shapes, lines and colors into objects. Projects challenge students with a variety of situations relating to styles, movements, artists, and cultures.
MEDICAL DETECTIVES: Utilizing the Project Lead the Way Curriculum, students will be exposed to biomedical science by playing the role of real-life medical detectives as they collect and analyze medical data to diagnose disease. They solve medical mysteries through hands-on projects and labs, measure and interpret vital signs, examine nervous sytem structure and function, and investigate disease outbreaks.
STAGE AND SOUND 6: The Stage and Sound course is a required course in the sixth grade cycles program. It is composed of two units that use project-based learning and public speaking skills to create engaging lessons that promote critical thinking and provide real-world connections. The goal is to provide worthwhile musical and theatrical experiences for students in which they will learn a variety of musical concepts and acting/rehearsal techniques to use in their everyday lives. Stage and Sound exposes students to the fundamentals of music and theatre in various genres. It includes (1) Elements of Music and (2) Elements of Theatre.
Elements of Music: This will help students gain an understanding of how music is put together by listening, analyzing, and creating examples of the different musical elements and various instruments in instrument families.
Elements of Theatre: Students will learn the importance and connections of public speaking and entertainment through short theatrical performances. Students will study rehearsal and acting techniques, monologues, stage directions, character development and parts of storytelling.
WORLD LANGUAGE 6: Is a cycle course listed in the Languages section of this book.
GRADE 7:
ART APPRECIATION 7: Creative art activities and projects are an integral part of this course. The discipline and creativity involved in the production of artwork is supplemented by art history as well as learning how to evaluate and analyze the art of self and of others. Through the awareness of cross content and the application of the various disciplines, students begin to appreciate and strengthen their perceptual awareness of the aesthetics of art and the influence of differing cultures.
COMPUTER APPS: Utilizing the Project Lead the Way Curriculum, students will be exposed to computer science by computationally analyzing and developing solutions to authentic problems through mobile app development, and will convey the positive impact of the application of computer science to other disciplines and to society. Students will customize their experience by choosing a problem that interests them from the areas of health, environment, emergency preparedness, education, community service, and school culture. Because problems in the real world involve more than one discipline, the unit will also build ontheir knowledge of biomedical science concepts as they work on solutions for the specific problems they choose to tackle.
EXPLORING FOOD AND NUTRITION 7: Students will learn their way around a kitchen and how to make healthy food choices. Safety and sanitation are the building blocks upon which the exploration begins. The students then leverage the USDA resource MyPlate, to learn about nutrition and that everything they eat and drink matters. The students maintain daily food journals to ensure they're eating a well balanced diet and are meeting their calorie needs which they will have calculated. They also design electronic "cookbooks" with healthy recipes that they've researched and identified as foods they would like to cook. Students also study the other "NFL", the nutrition facts label, and the wealth of information it provides for making healthy food choices. Students will have the opportunity to cook a variety of items from the five food groups including eggs, pasta, vegetables, and even some sweet treats from different parts of the world. Students will put all of these skills into use as they explore what it means to be an educated consumer and a productive part of the community.
FINANCIAL FITNESS 7: The Financial Fitness course is a required course in the seventh grade cycles program. The instructional time will focus on four critical areas of financial fitness: (1) career exploration; (2) saving and credit, (3) budgeting; (4) investing;
Students will learn to search for careers available to meet their interests and personal strengths.
Students will develop strong saving habits.
Students will create budgets based on career and goals.
Students will learn about the importance of investing for the future.
The skills taught during this course will help students build core personal finance skills and real-world strategies they can use in the future. Through engaging resources and activities, students will practice these skills so they can get started on the right track to effectively manage their personal finances! Financial Fitness is aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for the 21st Century Life and Career Skills.
GRADE 8:
ART APPRECIATION 8: In this course, students will build on their previous knowledge and skills to achieve new levels of creativity, skills, and understanding. Activities emphasize art as self-expression, structure and the language of art, history of art, influences of art on culture as well as multicultural aspects and impact of art on society. Attention is directed towards encouraging awareness of art and encouraging creativity and sound judgement in the production of art by using various media and relevant technology. It also stresses the importance of art in our daily lives and allows for the sharing and expression of ideas.
CREATIVE CODING 8: The goal of this curriculum is to adapt Code.org’s Computer Science Discoveries course entitled Introduction to Computer Science to empower students to create authentic artifacts and engage with computer science as a medium of creativity, communication, problem solving, and fun. It is aligned with the Computer Science Teacher Association (CSTA) K-12 Computer Science Standards, 21st Career and Life Skills, and Technology. Creative Coding is designed to be accessible for all students, regardless of background or prior experience. It provides opportunities to interact with culturally and personally relevant topics in a wide variety of contexts and aims to show all students that Computer Science is for them. We know that giving students agency in their learning is a powerful tool for creating fun, problem-solving, and lasting learning experiences. Creative Coding focuses on the skills that enable students to create and express themselves in a variety of contexts and media. Whether they are developing their own website, designing an app, or building a game, students will be empowered to bring their ideas to life.
DESIGN & MODELING: Utilizing the Project Lead the Way Curriculum, students will be exposed to engineering by discovering the design process and developing an understanding of the influence of creativity and innovation in their lives. They are then challenged and empowered to use and apply what they've learned throughout the unit to design a therapeutic toy for a child who has a physical disability.
TV PRODUCTION 8: The goal of this curriculum is to give students the opportunity to learn about the process and elements of TV Production. They are introduced to filming, scripting, editing and critiquing. As such, students produce a quality program of their own. In this way, they complete many problem-solving tasks. Students also learn the importance of media/visual literacy, news analysis, and ethical issues.
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