Each Wednesday in the Middle School, our students get to embark on some exciting learning adventures. We have expanded our elective program to allow students more choice, as well as give them ample opportunity to try new things and grow and discover their skills and passions.

Most students participate in four different electives each Wednesday, ranging from Robotics to Archery, MakerSpace to Leonardo Da Vinci Art. Students can delve into the world of geography in National Geographic Bee, stretch their serving muscles in Tech Buddies, test their creativity in Heroes and Heroines Altered Books, or inspire school spirit as a member of House Council, just to name a few. Most electives are a semester long, so come the end of January, they will get to try three-four new learning opportunities. Students are enjoying the extra elective classes, stating, “In my other school we only got to take one elective!” We are excited to give our students such diverse learning opportunities here at The Franklin Academy.

Electives offered this semester:

  • Tech Buddies
  • Library Lab Partners
  • House Council
  • Yearbook
  • National Geographic GeoBee
  • Leonardo Da Vinci Art
  • Heroes & Heroines Altered Books
  • Earth’s Climate, Atmosphere, and Oceans
  • MakerSpace
  • MakerSpace Lab
  • Music Appreciation/Beginning Guitar
  • Math Lab
  • Robotics
  • Archery
  • Yoga/Crossfit
  • Life Science Lab
  • Band
TECH BUDDIES — For students that love technology and desire to help younger students love it too. Students are enjoying time spent mentoring lower school students, building relationships, and teaching about technology that will apply to school and beyond.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GEOBEE — This elective is a fun way to learn about geography, civilizations, cultures, physical features and more. Student are given an opportunity to participate in a school GeoBee with the winner moving on to the state GeoBee.
HOUSE COUNCIL — A student led-group that plans and implements activities throughout the year. Activities include school dances, spirit days and weeks, celebrating National food days, running the school store, coordinating community drives, facilitating house competitions, and much more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BAND — Students of all levels are welcome to join band. At the first meeting the class assessed instrumentation and helped make selections for beginning band students.
ROBOTICS — Students are given the opportunity to build, test, and program (code) robots. Students will be working in groups of two or three and will probably have some say in the groups they will be working with and the type of robot they want to build. This is a new “STEM” class this year.
LEONARDO DA VINCI ART — Layering Authentic Scientific Illustration with the Emotional & Expressive Heart, as student’s are studying the science behind the function of the human hear, the details of how DaVinci studies an oxen heart. Currently, students are following the intense curiosity of Leonardo and sketching onto paper, the outside of the heart, the inner chambers of the anatomical heart, with many references and techniques of the Renaissance Art.
YEARBOOK — Yearbook is a hands-on course were the students and teacher work closely together to produce The Franklin Academy’s annual yearbook. Students will learn many aspects of publication process, including teamwork, responsibility, brainstorming, writing, editing, photography, and design as the yearbook is designed and produced.
MUSIC APPRECIATION/BEGINNING GUITAR — This class explores the variety of musical topics and types of music while learning to play guitar. Students will be introduced to music theory, essentials of rhythm, the science of sound, and history of recorded music while listening to their favorite music.
MAKERSPACE LAB — Makerspace Workshop is an independent study work time where students pursue projects of their own design/choosing in a supervised open workspace environment.

 

 

 

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