What+you+have+to+do

This is a guide for incoming freshmen and teachers of freshmen during the 2012-2013 school year.

SAVING GULLIVER

Here is a guide to the things you should be doing in various classes. This page is a work in progress and is subject to change.

ENGLISH Students enrolled in English class will do what you would do in any English class with the following special areas of emphasis. 1. Students should pay particular attention to research skills such as citing references, compiling bibliographies in the school standard MLA format, learning to organize a paper, judging the reliability and trustworthiness of sources, and critical thinking. 2. Students should participate in a long-term research project (either a class assignment or an ACE project) requiring sustained attention over long periods of time. 3. Students should have the opportunity to participate in public speaking and defending their work to those who are critiquing it. 4. Students will prepare a typed paper using a computer and learn how to spell check, correct basic grammar mistakes, and organize a written document not less than 2 pages in length.

MATH Students enrolled in Math should be able to do whatever is assigned in class and in addition: 1. Begin learning the basic techniques of mathematical modeling such as graph straightening, finding slopes, predicting un-measured values, and explaining the meaning of relationships in equations. 2.Plot graphs and charts in a variety of formats and use them to interpolate or exrapolate as needed. 3. Use plotted data to generate mathematical functions.

SCIENCE Students should be introduced to the basics of experimental design including: 1. How to write a hypothesis 2. Identification of the independent, dependent, and interfering variables. 3. Carry out simple investigations as class assignments or projects where the outcome is not predetermined or easily obtained.