ELECTIVES

Intro to Psychology Honors                                                                                           Full Year

This course introduces the study of psychological concepts, theories, research findings, and applications. Through this study, the student will acquire an understanding of and appreciation for human behavior, behavior interaction, and the progressive development of the individual. This knowledge will better prepare the student to understand his or her own behavior and that of others. The course content includes, but is not limited to, the foundations of psychology, critical thinking and methods of research, brain structures and functions, human growth and life-span development, sleep and dreams, states of consciousness, learning (classical and operant conditioning), the nature and assessment of intelligence, personality, psychological disorders, therapy, and social psychology.

 

AP Psychology                                                                                                                  Full Year

This course provides a continuation of the study of psychological concepts, theories, research findings, and applications begun in Intro to Psychology. Through this study, the student advances his/her understanding of and appreciation for human behavior and interaction as well as the progressive development of the individual. This knowledge better prepares the student to understand his/her own behavior and that of others. The course content includes, but is not be limited to, the foundations of psychology, critical thinking and methods of research, neuroscience and brain structures/functions, human growth and life-span development, sensation and perception, memory, language, motivation, emotion, states of consciousness, learning (classical and operant conditioning), the nature and assessment of intelligence, personality, psychological disorders, therapy, and social psychology. The AP Psychology course culminates with the College Board’s Advanced Placement examination in May 2020 and is a requirement for successful completion of this course.

 

Public Speaking                                                                                            Semester Course

provides the study of and practice in the basic principles and techniques of effective oral communication. This course includes instruction in adapting speech to different audiences and purposes. Students have opportunities to make different types of oral   presentations including viewpoint, instructional, demonstration, informative, persuasive, and impromptu. Students are given opportunities to express subject matter knowledge and content through creative, analytical, and expository writing as well as reading a variety of literary genres related to course content and speaking assignments.

 

In addition, to learning the basics of speaking in front of an audience, students will incorporate various philosophies into a final project: a speech entitled, What Is the Good Life? or What I’ve Learned. This will be the final of four major speeches given over the course of the semester. The first speech is an informal speech assigned by the instructor and aimed at helping the students to get comfortable in front of an audience. The second is a more formal speech from pop culture, perhaps a monologue from a movie or an excerpt from a book. The third speech is a formal speech from the past, preferably a famous speech. This speech will be given in class in front of classmates, but we will also make a trip downtown where students are expected to deliver their speech on the street in front of strangers. This speech, the third of four major speeches is followed by the final exam speech on the good life (see above).

 

History of Science and Innovation                                                                  Semester Course

History of Art and Design                                                                                 Semester Course

American Military War                                                                                      Semester Course

Western Way of War                                                                                          Semester Course

 

 

 

Statistics                                                                                                                            Full Year

This course is designed to introduce the student to the study of statistics and probability.  Topics include descriptive statistics (organization of data, histograms, and measures of central tendency and spread), linear correlation and regression, design of experiments, introductory probability, random variables, the normal and t-distribution, and statistical inference, including confidence intervals and tests of significance.  This course is important for students who are planning to major in mathematics, the behavioral, social or other applied sciences, journalism and other media, and economics and business.  In a world of fast and furious data acquisition and interpretation, an understanding of statistics is essential to any informed consumer, voter, or general reader.

AP Statistics                                                                                                                      Full Year

The Purpose of this course is to prepare students for the higher levels of technical studies in college. It is for students who are planning to major in mathematics, the behavioral or social sciences, biology and other applied sciences, economics, and business. Also, this course is for the mathematically talented student, regardless of further pursuits in college. Students who successfully perform at the Advanced Placement level obtain college credit in almost all colleges. In a world of fast and furious data acquisition and interpretation, an understanding of statistics is essential to any informed consumer, voter, or general reader.  Your success in this statistics course marks you as a savvy learner and an informed citizen.

Math Topics 1

Math. for Data and Financial Literacy

Intro to Accounting

Intro to Finance

 

Physics                                                                                                                               Full Year

Physics gives students a better understanding of the world around them and how they interact with it. This physics class covers a wide range of physics topics including kinematics (motion), momentum and impulse, energy, heat, light sound, and DC circuits. Students participate in projects and labs for each topic area including at least one building project during the year, such as the rubber band-powered car.

 

AP Physics                                                                                                                         Full Year

 

AP Biology                                                                                                                         Full Year

Advanced Placement Biology is designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester college level general biology course. The two main goals of AP Biology are to help students develop a conceptual framework for modern biology and to help students gain an appreciation of science as a process. The primary emphasis of the course taught at Seacrest Country Day School is on developing an understanding of concepts rather than on memorizing terms and technical details. Essential to this conceptual understanding is the following:

1. A grasp of science as a process rather than an accumulation of facts
2. Personal experience in scientific inquiry
3. Recognition of unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology
4. Application of biological knowledge and the critical thinking to environmental and social concerns

This AP course is structured around the four big ideas, the enduring understandings within the big ideas and the essential knowledge within the enduring understanding.

 

The Big Ideas:

Big idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

Big idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.

Big idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes.

Big idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties.

 

AP Chemistry                                                                                                                    Full Year

Over the course of this year you have the opportunity to learn a great deal about chemistry, much more than you learned or would have learned in the first-year class. We explore in much greater depth the concepts you have learned as well as new material that builds upon your previous knowledge. Ultimately, this class serves a number of functions. It gives you a chance to experience what a college class may be like, and challenge you with new information. You use your knowledge in performing labs, thus “seeing and doing” those concepts you learn in class, and you develop a greater understanding of how chemistry affects the total environment in which we live.

 

AP Environmental Science                                                                                             Full Year

The AP Environmental Science course integrates the knowledge gained by our students in the study of the four natural sciences. Students build on this foundational scientific knowledge developed in the Middle and Upper School coursework. The course content is interdisciplinary and provides a college level comprehensive and enriched study of the environment through scientific, social, economic, and political lenses with emphasis placed on developing an in-depth study of the natural environment and the implications for future world sustainability. Course content expands from the study of the science at work in our world to create, maintain, and support our environment - to systems theory that sustains life on Earth and the implications for populations and the natural environment socially, economically, and politically. Students acquire extensive knowledge through dynamic discussion and interaction including field exploration, development of theories, practical applications, and projects. The course design incorporates multimedia classroom instruction, laboratory experience, and field studies. Students develop a conceptual framework in Environmental Studies, gain factual interdisciplinary knowledge, and advance analytical skills needed to deal critically with environmental impacts in a rapidly changing world. Satisfactory completion of the course and success on the AP Environmental Science exam provide the student with the option of gaining transferable credit for a college program of study requirement in science.

 

Global Sustainability                                                                                         Semester Course

Global Sustainability is designed for students who want to learn about and work toward a sustainable planet. It is an action-based course where students learn about the fundamentals of: our environment, the food we eat, the energy we use, and animal husbandry; and about running our organic gardens. We strive to spread awareness of the environment by working collaboratively to design games and activities used to teach what has been learned in the lower school and middle school. This course is co-taught by a Seacrest Student who attended Maine Semester School in Chewonki.

 

Marine Biology                                                                                                                 Full Year

This course honors and develops a love of the marine world and the unusual organisms that inhabit it. Students experience this world by mimicking marine environments and maintaining the organisms within. Biweekly trips to local beaches and occasional boat trips are used to collect specimens for our tanks. We also participate in local marine research projects. A focus of the course is dissecting organisms and tracing the development of organ systems to reveal the evolution of these systems over time and their connection to our human systems.

 

Poultry Project                                                                                                                                              Students that join the Seacrest Poultry Project are able to raise chickens from incubation to mature adults. Students are in a hands-on program and work outdoors with live animals.

 

Aquaculture and Pond Project

This class block is a continuation of the research project started in 2018-19 aimed at maintaining a healthy retention pond environment and food web. Students will be involved in designing the next steps in this aquaculture and pond restoration project. They will determine the status of the project to date and develop a new methodology to extend the project and carry out their research design. Students will conduct routine water quality data. Students will evaluate the current condition of the environment and the food web through their own research design. They will obtain and raise fry indigenous to the pond that are native species. The mature fish will be introduced into our pond environment to balance and enhance the current food web. Students will travel to locations as needed to further investigate the research question and gain advice from individuals experienced in the field.

 

Introduction to Engineering                                                                                  Full Year

Introduction to Engineering will provide the students with a foundation of Engineering practices and an understanding of the fields of Engineering that they could possibly pursue.  This course will start with a look at how failure can achieve success and progress to an in-depth look at the 7 stages of engineering, with application of each stage.  Students will discuss how projects take shape, the process of funding a project, and the teamwork it takes to have a project come to fruition.  Students will also participate in at least one project, focusing on each step of the 7.

 

Advanced Engineering                                                                                            Full Year

Advanced Engineering will review the fundamentals of Engineering practices including design, scale, modeling and working as a team.  This course will start with an overview of the 7 steps of the Engineering design process and review of tools of the trade. Students will practice teamwork, brainstorming and client-based modeling.  Students will discuss how projects take shape, the process of funding a project, and the teamwork it takes to have a project come to fruition.  Students will also participate in at least one project, focusing on each step of the 7 step process.

 

Introduction to Robotics                                                                                         Full Year

This course is focused on different aspects of robotics and programming.  The participant will complete many small projects throughout the year.  These projects involve individual and group work comprising lessons in safety, automation, design, communication, engineering teamwork, planning, scaling, Tetrix robot control, electronic circuits, basic programming, sensors, motors, drive trains, strategy, and intra-school cooperative gameplay. The students will participate in several strategy robot building challenges requiring unique creations and incorporating lesson objectives.

Bee Keeping Project                                                                                                                        

FINE ARTS AND PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT COURSES

 

FINE ARTS

Studio Art                                                                                                                          Full Year

Like any written language, the language of art can express emotions, describe events, communicate ideas and tell stories. Using the five elements of art, such as line quality, color theory, shape and form, we can understand the purpose and practice of art. Students create a series of 2D and 3D projects that are based on the elements of art. Most of the work spans various art forms and genres. Students practice different media and develop a personal style. 

            Drawing:  - perspective, figure drawing,

            Color:  pencil, oil, acrylic, tempera

            Pottery and Ceramics: hand built and throwing

            Art history: then and now

Various media are used so students experience their differences:

            Pencil

            Sculpture

            Textiles

            Computer graphics

            Pottery

            Acrylics, oils, watercolors

            Pastels

 

(need separate descriptions for 1, 2, 3?)

 

Portfolio Art

Sculpture and Ceramics

Photography                                                                                                                                    

 

 

 

PERFORMING ARTS

Chorus                                                                                                                               Full Year

Upper School Chorus develops basic individual and ensemble skills in choral performance through preparation of various high school literature. Students study vocal production, breathing techniques, basic note reading, sight singing, and ear training. As these basic skills are mastered, students work on several styles of music for performances throughout the year on and off campus. This elective course strives to get students to enjoy singing and participate together as an ensemble. Not only are the basic elements of music studied and mastered, but through the performances the group develops a confidence on stage and a camaraderie together that truly develops school spirit in an artistic way.

 

Band                                                                                                                                   Full Year

The Instrumental Music class performs as a single ensemble and also assigns rock, jazz, and classical musicians into ensembles appropriate to their level of experience and achievement.  All aspects of performance are emphasized and rehearsed, regardless of style, e.g.: intonation, phrasing and articulation, rhythm, expression, and rehearsal technique. All groups present concert performances throughout the year and may also accompany the Theater productions.

 

Theater

 

Music History: History of Rock-n-Roll, Punk in the 90s, Music Evolution Post Civil War

Electronic Music

Music Theory

Drumline

World Drumming

                                                                                                                                                           

 

TECHNOLOGY

Introduction to Technology                                                                              Semester Course

The student develops basic skills and understanding of technology, which serves as a platform for growth. The student understands that technology is everywhere, can recognize technology and have a basic understanding of how it works. These skills include vocabulary, identification and understanding of the purpose of various components and peripherals, typing, and safely handling technology.

The student applies technology to create something new. Technology enables what was previously impossible. The student learns how to apply understanding of technology to build, tell stories, raise awareness, or entertain. The student experiences how technology is used extensively in the world of multimedia. As well as the creation of digital materials, the student has experience in manipulating and editing his or her own work and resources from elsewhere.

Graphic Arts/Yearbook                                                                                                   Full Year

The Graphic Arts/Yearbook course exposes students to all aspects of publishing the Seacrest yearbook and any possible publications, programs, flyers. Topics include: design, digital photography, creative writing, and marketing.

 

Introduction to Digital Design

Graphic Design