NWP Core Courses 2017-2018
Northwest Prep Charter School's curriculum is integrated toward building each semester's various long-term projects and is designed to address a school-wide Driving Question (theme). Past semester Driving Questions examples include: Is Progress Worth The Price?, What's My Message to the World?, and How can conducting experiments on our own bodies help us understand how they function? Our Driving Question for Spring 2018 is: Who are the homeless, how did they get there, and how can we help those in Sonoma County? All NWP coursework this semester is designed to facilitate the exploration, development, and understanding of that question. All core academic courses are UC-approved or in process for approval.
Inquiry Class
IC is a fully integrated teaching team course combining what would traditionally be known as English, Social Studies, Math, and Science curriculum and instruction. NWP's Project-Based Learning program seeks to infuse a process for learning, a habit of mind, in its students so they can rigorously approach and investigate information and ideas, and effectively express their findings and conclusions. IC seeks to instill an empathetic process of inquiry that empowers students to approach, analyze, and apply information and ideas from different points of view.
Mathematical Systems
At NWP students take an integrated approach to mathematics. Instead of being divided into separate courses of Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry, math strands are combined to give students a more holistic understanding of mathematics. To assist in this endeavor we utilize the IMP curriculum. The Interactive Mathematics Program® (IMP) curriculum is both project-based and problem-based. The units are each organized around a central problem or theme that focuses on several major mathematical ideas. The mathematical concepts that students learn in each unit grow out of what is needed to solve those problems. Motivated by this central, organizing focus, students solve a variety of smaller problems, both routine and non-routine, that develop the underlying skills and concepts needed to solve the central problem in that unit. The real-life situations capture students’ interest and make mathematics relevant and compelling. Problem-based learning also helps students develop the ability to transfer their learning and reasoning skills to new problems. After completing the math courses at NWP students will have a thorough understanding of the strands of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics and Probability. Students will also have been introduced to the fundamentals of Calculus. Most importantly, students will grasp the interconnectivity of mathematics and be able to employ mathematical thinking in any type of situation.
Language and Communication
Students receive instruction and experience using language as a tool to flourish in society. The goal is to guide students toward a relationship with the linguistic world that is marked by awareness and purpose. Through reading and interpretation of various texts students are taught the skills to consider and account for an author’s bias and purpose, to analyze and make meaning of disparate ideas and concepts, and to recognize the power these concepts can have in affecting their own realities. Students are expected to engage in critical consumption and inquiry of all media from advertising and story, to academic articles and discourse. Effective grammar, syntax and personal writing styles are developed and applied through the conduit of semester-long, multidisciplinary projects that demand collaboration, creativity, and a mind open to possibility and change. Cognitive rigor, the cultivation of fresh and useful ideas, and a multifaceted viewpoint are at the heart of the Language and Communication curriculum.
Social Systems
Students will analyze different topics and issues from various points of view. Social Systems serves as a lens to look at everything through multiple perspectives and is applicable across all school disciplines. By exploring, analyzing, and synthesizing many different available points of view, students can create their own well-rounded and educated opinions about issues that affect our world today. The goal is to help students develop not only academic skills that will help them in later grades, but also citizenship and life skills that they can use in situations and experiences outside of the classroom.
Natural Systems
Inquiry Class
IC is a fully integrated teaching team course combining what would traditionally be known as English, Social Studies, Math, and Science curriculum and instruction. NWP's Project-Based Learning program seeks to infuse a process for learning, a habit of mind, in its students so they can rigorously approach and investigate information and ideas, and effectively express their findings and conclusions. IC seeks to instill an empathetic process of inquiry that empowers students to approach, analyze, and apply information and ideas from different points of view.
Mathematical Systems
At NWP students take an integrated approach to mathematics. Instead of being divided into separate courses of Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry, math strands are combined to give students a more holistic understanding of mathematics. To assist in this endeavor we utilize the IMP curriculum. The Interactive Mathematics Program® (IMP) curriculum is both project-based and problem-based. The units are each organized around a central problem or theme that focuses on several major mathematical ideas. The mathematical concepts that students learn in each unit grow out of what is needed to solve those problems. Motivated by this central, organizing focus, students solve a variety of smaller problems, both routine and non-routine, that develop the underlying skills and concepts needed to solve the central problem in that unit. The real-life situations capture students’ interest and make mathematics relevant and compelling. Problem-based learning also helps students develop the ability to transfer their learning and reasoning skills to new problems. After completing the math courses at NWP students will have a thorough understanding of the strands of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics and Probability. Students will also have been introduced to the fundamentals of Calculus. Most importantly, students will grasp the interconnectivity of mathematics and be able to employ mathematical thinking in any type of situation.
Language and Communication
Students receive instruction and experience using language as a tool to flourish in society. The goal is to guide students toward a relationship with the linguistic world that is marked by awareness and purpose. Through reading and interpretation of various texts students are taught the skills to consider and account for an author’s bias and purpose, to analyze and make meaning of disparate ideas and concepts, and to recognize the power these concepts can have in affecting their own realities. Students are expected to engage in critical consumption and inquiry of all media from advertising and story, to academic articles and discourse. Effective grammar, syntax and personal writing styles are developed and applied through the conduit of semester-long, multidisciplinary projects that demand collaboration, creativity, and a mind open to possibility and change. Cognitive rigor, the cultivation of fresh and useful ideas, and a multifaceted viewpoint are at the heart of the Language and Communication curriculum.
Social Systems
Students will analyze different topics and issues from various points of view. Social Systems serves as a lens to look at everything through multiple perspectives and is applicable across all school disciplines. By exploring, analyzing, and synthesizing many different available points of view, students can create their own well-rounded and educated opinions about issues that affect our world today. The goal is to help students develop not only academic skills that will help them in later grades, but also citizenship and life skills that they can use in situations and experiences outside of the classroom.
Natural Systems
- Understand, identify, and interpret the interrelationship between humans and ecological cycles
- Develop scientific literacy to become informed and engaged citizens
- Enliven cognitive awareness around natural resource and materials production, consumption, and use
- Encourage innovative thought about the pressing environmental challenges of our era
- Understand the organization of functioning, healthy systems (from the micro to the macro level) and identify factors that threaten their integrity.
Move It
Move It takes place each day. The goal of this course is to promote active student involvement, critical thinking, development and reinforcement of positive health behaviors. Through movement, this class advances the physical, mental, emotional and social well being of each student in the pursuit of lifelong health. Students will have an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities leading to lifelong enjoyment of physical activity. Students are introduced to the benefits of exercise and how to achieve a level of fitness that improves both physical and mental health, providing an opportunity for the enjoyment and challenge of being physically active. Some of the ways this will be achieved is through:
-Movement Skills and Movement Knowledge: Exercises for cardio respiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility.
-Self Image and Personal Development: Identifying preferences for physical activity to be pursued over the long term (i.e. walking, hiking, bowling, dance, biking) and understanding Body Mass Index.
-Intramural Team Sports: Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Softball and Flag Football. Understand offensive and defensive strategies in game and sports and being a team player showing good sportsmanship.
-Social Development: Etiquette, following rules, cooperate in teamwork and competition, work for delayed rewards, persevere towards a goal.
-Hiking and walking are a regular part of our Move It class and provide huge physical and mental health benefits for those who partake. Besides oxygenating our very important brains, hiking and walking lowers blood pressure, enhances stamina and energy, lessens anxiety and tension, improves muscle tone, increases aerobic capacity, reduces levels of bad cholesterol, slims your waist, eases back pains, reduces levels of bad cholesterol, slows down osteoporosis bone loss, can be done anytime, and is free! Hiking and walking also provides students with a chance to slow down and be mindful about what is around them and what is inside of them. It is an opportunity to “unplug” from their typical,technology wired day.
Health Education topics that may be covered during Move It include:
-Nutrition, Mental and Emotional Health, Dealing with Stress, Improving Healthy
-Behaviors, Preventing Food Borne Illness, Reading food labels, Reproductive Health including HIV, STI and Pregnancy Prevention, personal care and body systems understanding and promotion of safe and healthy relationships.
-Movement Skills and Movement Knowledge: Exercises for cardio respiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility.
-Self Image and Personal Development: Identifying preferences for physical activity to be pursued over the long term (i.e. walking, hiking, bowling, dance, biking) and understanding Body Mass Index.
-Intramural Team Sports: Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Softball and Flag Football. Understand offensive and defensive strategies in game and sports and being a team player showing good sportsmanship.
-Social Development: Etiquette, following rules, cooperate in teamwork and competition, work for delayed rewards, persevere towards a goal.
-Hiking and walking are a regular part of our Move It class and provide huge physical and mental health benefits for those who partake. Besides oxygenating our very important brains, hiking and walking lowers blood pressure, enhances stamina and energy, lessens anxiety and tension, improves muscle tone, increases aerobic capacity, reduces levels of bad cholesterol, slims your waist, eases back pains, reduces levels of bad cholesterol, slows down osteoporosis bone loss, can be done anytime, and is free! Hiking and walking also provides students with a chance to slow down and be mindful about what is around them and what is inside of them. It is an opportunity to “unplug” from their typical,technology wired day.
Health Education topics that may be covered during Move It include:
-Nutrition, Mental and Emotional Health, Dealing with Stress, Improving Healthy
-Behaviors, Preventing Food Borne Illness, Reading food labels, Reproductive Health including HIV, STI and Pregnancy Prevention, personal care and body systems understanding and promotion of safe and healthy relationships.
Crossroads
NWP's Crossroads program is a six-year individualized course in career development for all of our students. Crossroads is also where various school community-building exercises and activities occur (such as the production of our weekly Community Meetings, AKA The Thing).
The focus of this Career Exploration program is on obtaining skills, attitudes and values that are essential for success in the workplace. The emphasis is on building explicit connections between what we learn in school and how it can be applied to the outside world. Students will explore career fields that they are interested in and learn the process of creating a professional portfolio and resume, learn interviewing skills, and learn how to apply for jobs, colleges, scholarships, and other types of post secondary school training. Students also learn how to set up and participate in job shadows, internships and various work experience opportunities.
The focus of this Career Exploration program is on obtaining skills, attitudes and values that are essential for success in the workplace. The emphasis is on building explicit connections between what we learn in school and how it can be applied to the outside world. Students will explore career fields that they are interested in and learn the process of creating a professional portfolio and resume, learn interviewing skills, and learn how to apply for jobs, colleges, scholarships, and other types of post secondary school training. Students also learn how to set up and participate in job shadows, internships and various work experience opportunities.
Project WORKSHOPS
Portfolio Workshop
In Portfolio Workshop students create and revise digital portfolios of archived work and reflect through weekly Blogs. Student digital Portfolios serve as one of the powerful assessment tools used at NWP. You can view examples of Student Portfolios HERE.
Design Workshop
Design promotes the development of intellectual, aesthetic and emotional growth in a structured environment while fostering critical thinking, and stimulating creativity, imagination and innovation. The Elements and Principles of Design are the building blocks used to create visual works. The elements of design can be thought of as the things that make up paintings, drawings, a design etc. The Principles of Design can be thought of as what we do to the elements of design. How we apply the Principles of Design determines how successful we are in creating a piece of visual work.
Students will learn to compare, analyze, evaluate and discuss their own work as well as the work of others. Students will develop the ability to adapt and apply learned skills to other areas of their lives and will recognize the important influence of design in our daily lives. This workshop blends academic and technical understanding with creative development and problem solving to help foster respect for and appreciation of the process of design.
Makers Workshop
Project Make is an "open workbench". It's a place where students can be totally creative and build almost anything they can imagine. Each student has the choice of working in a group or by themselves. Students conduct research on what they want to build to make sure its possible and legal, then finally they design and build awesome creations that support and enhance the semester project.
In Portfolio Workshop students create and revise digital portfolios of archived work and reflect through weekly Blogs. Student digital Portfolios serve as one of the powerful assessment tools used at NWP. You can view examples of Student Portfolios HERE.
Design Workshop
Design promotes the development of intellectual, aesthetic and emotional growth in a structured environment while fostering critical thinking, and stimulating creativity, imagination and innovation. The Elements and Principles of Design are the building blocks used to create visual works. The elements of design can be thought of as the things that make up paintings, drawings, a design etc. The Principles of Design can be thought of as what we do to the elements of design. How we apply the Principles of Design determines how successful we are in creating a piece of visual work.
Students will learn to compare, analyze, evaluate and discuss their own work as well as the work of others. Students will develop the ability to adapt and apply learned skills to other areas of their lives and will recognize the important influence of design in our daily lives. This workshop blends academic and technical understanding with creative development and problem solving to help foster respect for and appreciation of the process of design.
Makers Workshop
Project Make is an "open workbench". It's a place where students can be totally creative and build almost anything they can imagine. Each student has the choice of working in a group or by themselves. Students conduct research on what they want to build to make sure its possible and legal, then finally they design and build awesome creations that support and enhance the semester project.
Electives
Computer Programming (Coding)
The goal of this elective is to give students an understanding of programming principles. Just as learning to read and write English dramatically improved a person's worth in the 15th century, the same is true for learning to program in the 21st century. While the programming language that is in demand changes every decade or so, the underlying tools of programming (if-then statements, for loops, case statements) remain the same regardless of the coding language. Students can expect to create their own app or simple game (a text-based adventure game, memory puzzle, Simon, etc) by the end of this elective. This elective will also explore careers in computer science and coding/programming.
Improv Theater
The objectives of this course are to discover the fundamentals of improvisational comedy, improve storytelling skills, learn techniques to think quickly on your feet, build confidence for public speaking and improve listening. This spirited, fun course is designed for the student who wants to learn the essentials of spontaneous scene creation on stage as well as improve their teamwork or communication skills. Through warm-up exercises, creative performance games and basic short-form scene-work, students will learn how to be more spontaneous, trusting and cooperative and how to listen in a fun, supportive, and creative atmosphere.
Seed to Table (Seed to Table photos HERE)
Seed to Table is a hands-on elective in which students learn the basics of botanical crop production and small-scale gardening. Students will learn how to start seeds, care for and grow seedlings, prepare and maintain garden beds, harvest food, and how to collect and save seed. Students will incorporate garden produce into healthy, home-cooked foods and meals. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn about garden planning and design, native flora and fauna, theme gardens, composting, permaculture, seasonality, and sustainable food systems. This elective is designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore and develop a new life skill and hobby, while also tending to and caring for our campus.
Fine Art
In this elective students explore the world of art through illustration and drawing. With sketch books at hand, students refresh and refine their drawing skills while learning techniques for tapping into creativity and methods for tracking their lives. In addition, basic illustration and watercolor techniques will be taught.
Crafts
This class will be a hands-on making class where craft and concept are equally stressed.The emphasis is on creativity, exploring with different media and techniques.
STEAM
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics Integrated Elective
The goal of this elective is to give students an understanding of programming principles. Just as learning to read and write English dramatically improved a person's worth in the 15th century, the same is true for learning to program in the 21st century. While the programming language that is in demand changes every decade or so, the underlying tools of programming (if-then statements, for loops, case statements) remain the same regardless of the coding language. Students can expect to create their own app or simple game (a text-based adventure game, memory puzzle, Simon, etc) by the end of this elective. This elective will also explore careers in computer science and coding/programming.
Improv Theater
The objectives of this course are to discover the fundamentals of improvisational comedy, improve storytelling skills, learn techniques to think quickly on your feet, build confidence for public speaking and improve listening. This spirited, fun course is designed for the student who wants to learn the essentials of spontaneous scene creation on stage as well as improve their teamwork or communication skills. Through warm-up exercises, creative performance games and basic short-form scene-work, students will learn how to be more spontaneous, trusting and cooperative and how to listen in a fun, supportive, and creative atmosphere.
Seed to Table (Seed to Table photos HERE)
Seed to Table is a hands-on elective in which students learn the basics of botanical crop production and small-scale gardening. Students will learn how to start seeds, care for and grow seedlings, prepare and maintain garden beds, harvest food, and how to collect and save seed. Students will incorporate garden produce into healthy, home-cooked foods and meals. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn about garden planning and design, native flora and fauna, theme gardens, composting, permaculture, seasonality, and sustainable food systems. This elective is designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore and develop a new life skill and hobby, while also tending to and caring for our campus.
Fine Art
In this elective students explore the world of art through illustration and drawing. With sketch books at hand, students refresh and refine their drawing skills while learning techniques for tapping into creativity and methods for tracking their lives. In addition, basic illustration and watercolor techniques will be taught.
Crafts
This class will be a hands-on making class where craft and concept are equally stressed.The emphasis is on creativity, exploring with different media and techniques.
STEAM
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics Integrated Elective
