Theme: Project-Based Study of Humanities & Science
At Helios, our semester-long themes weave the study of humanities and science together to answer profound questions about the world, such as “What is beauty?” and “Why do people immigrate?”
These themes allow our curious gifted learners to explore topics from multiple angles, fostering a deeper understanding and encouraging creativity and critical thinking. By integrating subjects, they reveal parallels between science and humanities, such as in the Making Waves theme, which connects light and sound waves to the spread of ideas, or the Carnivals theme, where cultural events and scientific inventions intertwine.
Rich with independent and group projects, these themes enable students to apply knowledge practically, collaborate effectively, and develop essential skills for both academic success and real-world problem-solving.
Humanities within Theme
In lower school, students receive regular, direct instruction in reading and writing, often in smaller ability-based groups. We combine short, targeted mini-lessons with practice and small group sharing. The humanities side of each theme provides a social-studies context for applying these growing skills.
As our students move into middle school, the Humanities curriculum begins to prepare students for high school and beyond by training them to be careful, critical readers, effective researchers, and persuasive communicators who think deeply about important issues in the world around them. Helios takes the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, connects them to Social Studies topics, and integrates them seamlessly into our themes.
Science within Theme
Our lower school themes integrate science naturally in the context of the topic of study. Questions, observations, simple experiments, conclusions, and communication about what they have learned are all part of the daily life of a curious child. As students mature, the Science side of the theme begins to be taught separately from humanities. Formal scientific and engineering processes are explored, taught, and applied.
By middle school, themes are chosen to specifically develop students’ skills and background knowledge in each of the scientific disciplines - life science, earth science, physics and chemistry - as described in the Next Generation Science Standards. At every level, curiosity, analysis, iteration, and communication are seen as the foundations of the discipline.
Example Themes
Lower School
In a theme about space exploration, students were asked to decide which planet in our solar system would be the best one to colonize. With teachers coaching students in different ability groups on reading strategies, they researched options by reading nonfiction works. They then drew their conclusions and shared their findings with their classmates. Students wrote persuasive letters to NASA about why Mars would be the best choice, and they received feedback from a NASA representative. An expert from NASA Ames visited the gradband bringing simulated Martian earth! The students kept journals imagining their experiences as astronauts, while practicing narrative writing.
Middle School
In one theme, 7th and 8th grade students spent the semester studying political and scientific revolutions, looking at the concepts of resistance and breakthrough, culminating in a week-long visit (fieldwork) to Boston where they walked the Freedom Trail and visited the science museums, bringing their newfound understanding back to school for the Celebration of Learning.
We deliberately choose projects and themes that address the need gifted adolescents have for depth and complexity, while meeting their interest in social justice and fairness, and pushing them to see nuance when possible!
The Structure of a Semester-Long Theme
We begin each theme with a compelling immersion, follow it up with three interrelated investigations (with fieldwork built-in) culminating with a celebration of learning.
- Immersion: Students’ interest is grabbed by their first fieldwork of the year, immersing them in the topic, physically involving them whenever possible.
- Investigation: For example, when the Herons were studying Fair Trade, they studied the economics behind the growth and processing of chocolate, and ended their investigation with fieldwork at a chocolate factory.
- Celebration of Learning: A showcase of the class’s projects, to parents, fellow students, faculty, and sometimes the wider community. This might involve demos, presentations, or reviewing a book their child has made.