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Middle School

Middle School students receiving instruction in the MS library

The place where you'll learn how to think bolder and dream bigger.

The Middle School is a vibrant place. It’s more than our thoughtful, student-centered curriculum, the way our teachers recognize you as an individual or the spaces we’ve engineered to bring us together with minimal stress for maximal collaboration.

It’s our deep-seated culture of mutual support and togetherness. Look around and you'll see a community that reflects the world and an environment in which you can dare to dig a little deeper. So, go ahead, dream big. And if you stumble, that's okay — setbacks happen. The best part about the Middle School is that there's always someone right there with you when you do. They'll remind you that just because you can't do something, it doesn't mean you'll never do it. It means you just can't do it...yet. 

Middle school students working on a STEAM project

The Power to Try

Middle school students working with clay during DaVinci
The DaVinci Program

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Designing and building cities of the future. Producing an original piece of music. Researching the stock market and investing $100,000 of your own (fake) money. Here, all of that is possible. Through a weekly DaVinci class, which changes every quarter, you’ll have the opportunity to dive into something you love — or something you know nothing about.

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Middle School students participating during mini course week
Mini-Course Week

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Each year in mid-February, regular class schedules are put on hold for a special week of interdisciplinary learning. Choose from a menu of cultural, scientific and historical studies and spend your days in focused, experiential study, visiting museums, farms, marine research institutes and historical parks to learn firsthand. Sample courses include an overnight trip to Gettysburg, Pa., where students experience the reality of the Battle of Gettysburg, a week at Princeton University learning about collegiate athletics and sports marketing or day trips to Philadelphia and Hershey, Pa., to study the history and evolution of chocolate.

Middle School student smiling during a Focus Assembly
Focus Assemblies

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A rite-of-passage for eighth graders, the entire Middle School gathers weekly for a Focus Assembly as a handful of students deliver speeches on a personal experience that has been conceptualized, developed and practiced with a faculty member. From fifth grade on, students know they’ll one day have their turn, and the Focus Assembly is just as much about being an active listener and respectful peer as it is about actually making the speech.

Middle school students working in design software during a STEAM class
The STEAM Program

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The Middle School STEAM program focuses on integration, collaboration, innovation and creativity. Its goal is to blend traditional and project-based platforms so students can see, interpret and understand fundamental concepts and solve real-life problems. Working in the Johnston STEAM Center, all students will acquire a baseline of literacy in STEAM disciplines and, as a result, emerge as engaged, informed participants in a world increasingly defined by questions at the intersection of science, math, technology and society.
 
Middle School students in outdoor education
Sustainability and Environmental Education

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As responsible stewards of our environment, we prioritize and emphasize sustainability in every aspect of our daily lives. Middle School students attend field trips to environmental protection organizations like the Watershed Institute or local sustainable farms, spend time in the Suarez Grebowich Garden here on campus and, each fall, eighth graders make their way to Echo Hill Outdoor School in Worton, Md., to deepen their understanding of scientific and ecological principles and strengthen their class bond.

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Panthers In Action