Grade 7
At a time when students are experiencing great physical, cognitive and emotional changes, the 7th grade curriculum is designed to meet the student’s need for greater accuracy and articulation through eurythmy, mechanics, chemistry and physical education. The emotional life is explored in thoughtful, organized way through poetry, geometry, perspective drawing, chemistry and other subjects. Cognitive skills are challenged with the increasing expectation of clarity and order in verbal and written expression as well as phenomenological study and observation. The goal is for the student to experience a stronger sense of self-mastery and responsibility.
With all the personal changes being experienced by the student and the increasing need to challenge existing rules and practices, this is the time that the curriculum visits the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration and the Reformation.
Students are also introduced to meters and poetic structure, allowing them to explore emotions and inner experiences through a new means of articulation and expression.
Algebra brings simple, logical structures to more complex problem-solving. Students continue work with plane geometry with constructions becoming increasingly demanding both cognitively and technically. Accuracy is essential in both thinking and technique. Mathematical laws of perspective bring order to depth in art and provide another connecting point between arts and academics.
The historical transition from the geocentric to the heliocentric picture of the solar system is the focus of astronomy studies. Biographies of the great thinkers including Kepler, Copernicus and Galileo connect this study to the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. This is also the grade in which a more formal study of chemistry is introduced with focus on combustion, salts, acids, bases and the lime cycle.