Academics

Science meets every day for 80 minutes for two quarters. In 5th Grade Science, students will explore science in a hands-on manner. They will be engaged in activities, projects, labs and investigations that will lead to a deeper understanding of the natural world. Units of study will be Ecosystems, Earth Systems, Changes in Matter, and Earth, Moon and Stars.

Students will work independently and in collaborative peer groups to conduct investigations, design experiments, develop hypotheses and analyze data. Completion of daily tasks and unit tests will be an indicator of students’ understanding of the concepts.

Meets every day for 80 minutes for two quarters. In Social Studies, students take a journey through our past.  From early explorers all the way through the American Revolution, we will discover the importance of how our past has shaped who we are today. 

Students will be expected to complete daily in-class tasks and activities, both individually and collaboratively, as well as prepare themselves for unit tests. Most coursework will be done in class, however, if your  child is absent or does not finish during class time, work will need to be completed at home to catch up.

Physical Education meets every other day for 40 minutes. The purpose of physical education is to provide students an opportunity to participate in selected fitness and physical education activities on a daily basis, learn strategies and skills, gain better fitness through activities, understand and appreciate  the total concept of team sports, individual and dual sports, and fitness activities. This course is an activity course, meaning that students are expected to actively participate and are graded upon their level of activity throughout the quarter.

CHOIR: Choir 5 is a full-year, alternating day course which offers students an opportunity to sing and perform in a mixed chorus setting. We will focus on the rehearsal and performance of both traditional choral literature and modern pop arrangements. Special attention will be given to two- and three-part singing. All choir members are required to perform in the evening Winter Concert and the Spring Concert.

BAND: Band members demonstrate skills on their individual instruments, and also work toward excellence in their ensemble skills (playing well together). Students are expected to practice their instruments regularly outside of the class period, and students will perform individually for the teacher to show continued progress. All band members are required to perform in the evening Winter Concert, the evening Spring Concert, and the Sunday afternoon All-District Concert.

This course covers important items to start the year like keyboarding, safe searching, Chromebook care, We Video, Google Applications, and technology best practices. We’ve added some additional lessons relating to school success such as note-taking and organizational skills.

The Post Secondary Skills course at Westonka Middle School is designed to help students prepare for the challenges they will face as individuals, consumers and family members in their changing world. This curriculum offers opportunities to integrate academic skills with problem solving strategies. It combines academic learning and hands-on application as part of the learning process. Students develop life skills specifically related to college and career readiness, financial literacy, nutrition and food preparation, health and wellness, satisfying relationships, and self-awareness.

Students are challenged with new choices and materials during their first art course of middle school. Using artists and artwork as inspiration, students are challenged to plan and execute their own artwork. Students will explore Mixed Media, sculpture, landscape painting, and drawing using artist’s graphite pencils and tools.

Selected students will also be recommended for Guided Study. This is designed to help offer support to students who struggle and/or are behind grade-level expectations. Often, these courses take the place of a quarter class and/or music. Students will be notified during registration or as needs arise and recommended for these courses.

Sixth grade students have science every day for 80 minutes second semester. Our curriculum is Bring Science Alive! by TCI, which includes an innovative online textbook  and fantastic digital and hands-on resources. The lessons in the textbook are supported by digital resources, as well as experiments and demonstrations in the classroom.

The content covered and the skills taught align with the 6th grade NGSS standards and those skills are our “learning targets”.  Students have the opportunity to practice skills and master material as we conduct simulations on the computer, do hands-on labs and projects, view and take notes on digital lessons, and work through the text. Our coursework falls into three modules:

• Weather and Climate
• Space
• Planet Earth

The online student textbook contains both text and active reading questions. Each unit will contain an Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) where students will apply vocabulary, answer reading process questions, and complete lab activities. Due to the semester arrangement, the class moves at a fast pace. Students are expected to read and complete assignments outside of class some days.

Students will log into TCI through the Clever app on their Chromebooks. Printed copies of the text are also available for classroom use. Students will work independently and in collaborative peer groups to conduct investigations, design experiments, develop hypotheses and analyze data.  Completion of daily tasks, including homework and labs, and quiz and unit test scores will be an indicator of students’ understanding of the concepts.  

6th grade social studies focuses on Minnesota History. Our study begins with the Dakota and Ojibwe people of the upper Midwest, followed by the Fur Trade and western expansion. Statehood of Minnesota is next, then industrialization and the growth of cities. Next we discuss the role of Minnesota in WWI and WWII, and end the year with a discussion of modern Minnesota. We learn through stories of real people facing the challenges of their time. The stories are the building blocks of our state’s history.

We have incorporated a variety of hands-on projects that allow students to apply their learning in new and interesting ways. Most projects include a creative writing component. Examples include parfleches, voyageur journals, town maps and Minnesota History Research Projects.

Sixth grade students will be expected to complete their written work and any assigned projects, both individually and collaboratively, as well as prepare themselves for chapter tests.

This course covers important items to start the year like keyboarding, safe searching, Chromebook care, We Video, Google Applications, and technology best practices. We’ve added some additional using are DARE curriculum so that students can also learn about the dangers of chemical use, refusal skills and good decision making.

Among the most critical academic disciplines of success in the 21st century workforce are those involving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). In this course students will be looking at the process of how to design and build roller coasters. They will learn about all of the elements that need to be accounted for when creating a roller coaster. Then they will build a roller coaster using recycled materials. After building a working roller coaster in class, they will then use Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 to build and manage roller coasters and a theme park. Students will be given a variety of tasks that they need to perform in order to properly run an amusement park. Roller Coaster Tycoon simulations will be entered into IE Challenge Competition based out of Arkansa.

Skills to be mastered: 

• Explore the history of roller coaster invention and design.  
• Identify safety components of roller coaster design.  
• Brainstorm, plan and draft a two-dimensional model of a roller coaster.  
• Make a scale model of drafted roller coaster using recyclable materials.  
• Display, evaluate and revise roller coaster model.  
• Integrate roller coaster design into Roller Coaster Tycoon software program.  
• Build and manage group theme park using Roller Coaster Tycoon software.  
• Present digital theme park for judging panel

The Post-Secondary Skills course at Westonka Middle School is designed to help students prepare for the challenges they will face as individuals, consumers and family members in their changing world. This curriculum offers opportunities to integrate academic skills with problem solving strategies. It combines academic learning and hands-on application as part of the learning process. Students develop life skills specifically related to college and career readiness, financial literacy, nutrition and food preparation, health and wellness, satisfying relationships, and self-awareness.

Students in 6th grade Art are introduced to more choice in their artwork while exploring new concepts and material. Students are given the opportunity to increase knowledge and skill in materials such as drawing, block printing, pottery, and painting. This course is focused on developing the necessary skills for students to be successful in 7th grade and high school art courses.

Selected students will also be recommended for Guided Study, which is designed to help offer support to students who struggle and/or are behind grade-level expectations. Often these courses take the place of a quarter class and/or music. Students will be notified during registration or as needs arise and recommended for these courses. In some cases, students may be required to take due to failing grades.

This class will focus on the Future Problem Solving Program. If you aren’t familiar with FPS, it teaches students how to think, not what to think. This is accomplished by teaching critical and creative thinking skills and problem solving and decision making skills via a six step process. Developing these skills helps students to improve their academic and social achievement.   

Other benefits to this program:

• Encourages students to improve their critical, creative, and analytical thinking skills
• Stimulates students’ knowledge and interest in the future
• Extends written and verbal communication
• Develops and improves research proficiency
• Provides opportunities to apply process tools and method to real world problems
• Guides students to become more self-directed and responsible
• Develops teamwork skills
• Promotes decision-making techniques to reach agreement with team members

The program provides opportunities to apply process tools and methods to real world problems such as Climate Change/Climate Threat, Freedom of Speech, Nutrition, Healthcare Access, Redistribution of Wealth, Debt in Developing Countries, and many more global topics that are relevant today and into the future. The program provides a problem-solving model that students integrate into their lives, giving them the competitive edge when applying for jobs and building sustainable futures.

The exciting part for students is that not only is this a class, but it is a competition in which they compete against other local schools. The students will be working in teams within the class and will complete and submit several problems throughout the quarter. All teams to attend the local Future Problem Solving Competition bowl at the end of January or early February! Qualifying teams will advance to the State and International Competition.

This is a program that is perfect for gifted and highly motivated learners and, we believe, is a wonderful option for those students in need of more of a challenge than your typical PSS class. By taking this class, your child will not have PSS this year. We do offer PSS again in 7th grade. Due to the academic rigor of the course and limited space available, a variety of criterion will be used, as well as an application process, to determine which students will be selected for placement in the course. We encourage all students who are interested to apply, keeping in mind that students who have been successful in the class in the past have had the following characteristics:

• Strong reading skills (NWEA scores in the 85th percentile)
• Strong writing skills (well-developed multiple paragraphs)
• Strong work habits (turns high quality work on time)

Your application is due when you return your registration form.

In 7th Grade Science, students will be introduced to a variety of Biology topics through the Bring Science Alive curriculum published by Teacher’s Curriculum Institute (TCI). They will be engaged in activities, projects, labs and investigations that will lead to a deeper understanding of the interactions of all living things.

Students will complete three modules:

1. Cells and Genetics
2. Adaptations
3. Ecosystems

7th Grade Science is a semester class and moves at a pretty fast pace. Students will work independently and in collaborative peer groups to conduct investigations and explore the content. Teacher-directed seminars, labs and discussions help to guide understanding. Unit tests or projects will be an indicator of students’ understanding of the concepts.

Grading is based on a variety of assignments and fit into either the Formative or Summative category. Formative assessments consist of lesson quizzes, lesson reviews, labs, and make up 20% of the grade. Unit tests and projects, where students demonstrate what they know, fit in the Summative category. This is 80% of the grade.

7th grade U.S. History is a MN Standards-based course in which you will learn about important issues and events in this nation’s history beginning with the writing of the Constitution through the early 2000’s. Students also study civics and economic principles, making connections between these disciplines and history to explain the impact of various policies on how people lived, worked and functioned in society. Students will be asked to analyze primary sources in order to develop and apply historical thinking skills contextualization, comparison, causation, continuity and change, analyzing evidence and argumentation while creating inquiry based projects. Students will also be asked to show what they know during in class debates and argumentative essays. The textbook used is, "History Alive! The United States Through Industrialism."

The Future Cities competition brings science, technology, engineering, and math alive. Students work in teams with an engineering mentor to design a city that is 150 years in the future. As part of the competition students will research an engineering problem, write an essay on their solution, build a tabletop scale model of their city, and present their project to a panel of judges.

Skills to be mastered:

• Design a future city using SimCity 5 Deluxe software.
• Research a specific engineering problem and write an essay on the solution using Google Document.
• Write, rehearse, and present a speech on their project to a panel of judges.
• Design a tabletop scale model of their city using recycled materials.