Eagle Rock Class Archives - Eagle Rock Blog

Distribution Requirements Play a Big Role in This Trimester’s Latest Class Offerings

A little more than a month ago, we offered a behind-the-scenes look at a number of class being offered during the first half of our 77th trimester (of Eagle Rock School). In addition to highlighting new five- and 10-week classes, we preceded that listing with a description of the role Power Standards play in Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) here at Eagle Rock.

To review, a student’s ILP is comprised of three sections: Power Standards, Distribution Requirements, and Required Experiences. And this time around, as we rundown the latest classes to be offered (during the second half of this trimester), we’re going to go into the details surrounding the role Distribution Requirements play in our curriculum and how students acquire credits as a means of assessing progress in order to complete their graduation requirements.

Here’s how Distribution Requirements fit into the scheme of things when it comes to Individual Learning Plans: Continue reading…

New Class Offerings Challenge Students’ Leadership, Learning Capacities

Among the visions we pursue here at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is for each of our nation’s students to become meaningfully engaged in his or her own education. That objective sounds good on paper, but where it differs from other schools is that our own students — students here at Eagle Rock School — actually learn in part by engaging.

What is standard practice here at Eagle Rock — and what we have made available to our students for more than two decades — are both traditional and nontraditional classroom offerings that ignite the imagination, encourage curiosity, and prepare young minds for the real world.

With that in mind, we have just introduced seven new classes to the curriculum for this, the second half of our first trimester at Eagle Rock for 2018. These five-week classes join three 10-week classes that began in January and are still underway.

Those 10-week classes include Data Analysis, where students continue to use statistics to look for patterns to self-generated questions. A second 10-week class — Neuroscience — has students examining not only the physical makeup of the brain, but the physiology, or habits, of the human nervous system. And in Exposure, the third 10-week class, students have been mastering black & white photography, processing their film in a darkroom, and are now preparing their photographs for a public exhibition in just a few weeks.

Below is a brief description of the new classes at Eagle Rock that got underway just this week: Continue reading…

Our Latest Class Offerings Span From Robots to Sex-Ed

We’re comfortably squeezing in an abundance of learning between this week — which heralds the beginning of the second half of the fall trimester — and Dec. 9, which is the last day of classes before Winter Break.

From robotics to woodwork, from astronomy to sex-ed, this 70th trimester in the history of Eagle Rock School includes classes that are both challenging and potentially life changing to participating students.

Late last month we listed the first batch of new classes (see Eagle Rock 70 Classes Underway — And Here’s What’s Being Offered). Below is a list of other classroom offerings for the trimester, along with a description of each class:

Robotics
In the past decade, we have seen the rise of smartphones and drones, along with the first computer to beat a world-ranked Go player. With this growing sector around computer technology come job opportunities galore, not to mention the enjoyment of toying with robots, solving tricky problems, software coding and the intricacies of electronic circuitry. In this class, students demonstrate what they’ve learned in teams, each designing, creating, testing and redesigning a robot to meet specific challenges.

Human Sexuality
In this class students are exploring sex and sexual health from a number of perspectives. However, this isn’t your father’s sex-ed class. Instead, participants are looking at sexuality through different newspapers, magazines, websites, documentaries, films, fiction and non-fiction. The focus is on stories and experiences from around the world that can be used to better understand sexuality and healthy relationships. Digital recording and podcasts are also being used to share stories and information.

Theater Tech
Theatre Tech is designed to provide Eagle Rock School students with a basic understanding and practice of Continue reading…

This Trimester Offers Classes from Statistics to Dystopia

Editor’s Note: Today we’re please to share Dan Condon’s second of two blog posts covering the unique class offerings we have at Eagle Rock this trimester — you know, the ones that steer clear of conformity and provide students with real opportunity to reengage in their own education. The first installment can be found here: Eagle Rock Classes That Add New Meaning to the Term ‘Non-traditional’.

Why these particular classes? Our diverse student body didn’t arrive at Eagle Rock with math books and chemistry mineral charts in hand. One of the reasons they come here is to get an education that includes taking classes that enrich, enlighten and engage.

By Dan Condon, Associate Director of Professional Development

Who Made Those Nikes? In a world where technology is connecting us across time and space, why are we becoming more and more disconnected from where things come from and the people who make them? In this class, students trace some of the items we consume every day — coffee, shoes, flowers, gasoline — from cradle to grave. And yeah, who made those Nikes? What conditions do they work in? Why does it matter? What roles do power and inequality play in global capitalism and what does this mean for our environment, our global community and specifically — the Eagle Rock student?

In Fresh Prints students explore the possibilities that exist in printmaking. We focus on silkscreen printing and we print our own designs on wearable and collectible objects. Here, we learn some of the history of printmaking and about current modern printmakers who are working today. In this course, our students discover the power of print to share a message, spread the word and explore their own creativity.

Do you ever look up into the night sky and wonder what’s up there? In Astronomy, we explore the features and origins of some of the most amazing occupants of the universe: galaxies, stars, moons, planets, black holes, comets and asteroids. We learn about the theory of gravity and how it affects objects in space. We also take night sky walks and learn how to Continue reading…