An Integrated Curriculum

Dear Families,

First, a hearty congratulations to the members of our Rube Goldberg team who competed this past weekend in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Competition at the Fay School in Massachusetts. With the support of Middle School science teacher Stephen Volkmann, seventh graders Lola, Maxine, Olivia, Marcello and Will and eighth grader Ivo worked diligently over the past few months to prepare for the event. This year’s event required teams to use a common set of materials to create a contraption that used multiple energy transfers to accomplish the simple task of stapling three pieces of paper together. At the competition, the teams were given a set of materials and under timed conditions the teams had to construct and run their machines. They were also required to give a presentation on their design and the associated scientific principles. While only six team members were allowed to construct the machine at the competition, our team was rounded out by sixth graders Mars and Zach, seventh graders Ben, E.D. and Nicholas and eighth grader Matan. Well done all! Click here for photos.

Also on the subject of accomplishments, this week’s sixth grade Medieval Pageant was a wonderful culmination to units of focused study that were carried out across core, science, and visual and performing arts classes. Click here for photos.

As I reflect on the Pageant and on my varied interactions with students and teachers, I am continually struck by the richness of our integrated curriculum. The value of an integrated curriculum, which connects traditionally-separate subject areas, and its particular relevance at the middle school level, is something that has been a core value at LREI from the very beginning. While students learn an incredible amount of what we traditionally consider as subject area knowledge through this process, they also learn how to use this information to solve authentic problems and to assess critically this knowledge. Through our integrated curriculum, inquiry occurs in a thematic and holistic manner. In this way, the curriculum empowers our students to see connections and to generalize and transfer knowledge to a variety of problem-solving situations.