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Learning to Think
Each year, Park's Kindergartners monitor the eggs, the hatching, and the growth of resident goslings — honing their observational skills and laying the foundation for scientific thinking.
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Reading Partners
Partnerships across grade levels — including Fourth Grade/Kindergarten Reading Partners — create bonds among students that can last throughout their time at Park and beyond.
Topics To Explore
Kindergarten
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We're Not Afraid to Get Our Hands Dirty–or Wet
The activity of learning is an expression of positive energies, fulfills natural impulse, and enriches life. Sometimes it is messy. And wet.
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Supportive Faculty
Park teachers stand apart because of their great passion for teaching and learning. They truly connect with students, provide insight and guidance, and encourage them to think critically for themselves as they learn by doing.
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A Literary World
The reading experience begins when young children find themselves immersed in a literary world. In the Lower School, we teach our students to use multiple reading strategies so that they become strong, joyful, independent readers.
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K-12 Partnerships
Upper School student tutors staff and run the Michael Cardin ’85 Writing Center, working with Lower, Middle, and Upper School writers in a variety of settings. Here, a student tutor works with a fourth grader on developing her writing.
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Experiential Learning
Fifth graders construct and use catapults to run experiments in which they collect and analyze data. Science is not just description or information, but inquiry: children try to design experiments that will help them find out what they don’t yet know.
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Inspired Faculty
Current Park teachers have, on average, over 20 years of teaching experience. 75% hold advanced degrees. They publish. They research. They present. They perform. And more.
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Challenge
Appalachian Challenge is Park’s nationally-recognized outdoor education program, originally constructed, maintained, and led by students. Middle Schoolers take Challenge as a P.E. requirement, and many become Challenge Leaders.
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Self-expression
Park's theater program is integrated into the curriculum through course offerings in the Middle School and Upper School — developing students' creative self-expression, self-discipline, and self-confidence.
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Inquiry and Thoughtful Analysis
In 9th and 10th Grade, students have the opportunity to put science in the context of real life through authentic inquiry and central, culminating experiences, including studying the digital analysis of motion on Challenge Course initiatives.
Topics To Explore
Ninth Grade
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Innovative Electives
Park's Upper School curriculum provides opportunities for advanced study in every discipline. Elective courses allow students to follow their curiosity, explore topics in depth, and pursue rigorous investigation. Pictured: Acoustics, The Physics of Sound.
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All is Number...
Upper School students can choose from an array of mathematics electives such as Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Advanced Discrete Mathematics, Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, and Topology and Knot Theory, and more.
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Thinking on Your Feet
Park's Mock Trial team has won four State Championships. Excelling in this head-to-head competition requires understanding of the law; excellent listening, speaking, reading, and reasoning skills; communication and cooperation; and focused determination.
