Page 6 - Priorities #11 1999-October Annual Report

Academics: The Heart of the School
Science
Editor’s Note: This information is provided by Father Maurus Nemeth, who celebrates his 25th year as head of the Priory’s Science Department this year. He is especially proud of the range and quality of science course offerings at this time, he said.
With the addition of AP Environmental Science this year, WPS now offers the complete advanced placement science curriculum (biology, physics and chemistry are the others). Students may take these challenging courses as soon as they are academically prepared; some sophomores have enrolled and done very well.
Students have a strong and well defined middle school and high school curriculum, including six elective choices - the advanced placement classes, astronomy and architecture. New equipment include a greenhouse and field lab by the community garden, an expanded lab for Middle School science, and a special gift for the electron microscope lab. That gift will fund the work of a retired electron microscope specialist who hopes to jumpstart this complex project.
Curriculum
The English curriculum received special attention last year, with new Academic Dean Holly Thompson heading the department. Required experience in community service became a shared project between the Campus Minister and the Theology faculty. Study, reorganization and planning last year resulted in several new and revised courses this fall.
New for this year is a jump from eight to 15 advanced placement courses, plus 13 new or revised courses. New APs include Art Portfolio, Computer Science, Economics, Environmental Science, and Spanish Literature. With an increase in student requests, AP French is offered again, and Chemistry and Physics AP are offered annually instead of semiannually.
Other new or revised courses are in visual media, music theory, visual arts, drama, history, theology, writing/computer research, and PE.
Following are a sampling of year-end summaries from across the campus - not a complete summary by any means but some interesting highlights.
Woodside Priory is maintaining its commitment to advanced technology integrated into the teaching of every subject area. Upgrades were evident everywhere last year and will continue. Here, Father Maurus shows student Allyn Coats some of the available science software.
Two years ago, math teacher Steve Marsheck pioneered use of the GeoSketchpad for his advanced math lectures, with the help of a summer grant. Last summer, with a second grant, he took Sketchpad a step further. Now, all his geometry students have copies of Sketchpad software installed on computers in the library’s technology center. With this software, they discover geometric properties on their own, using lesson plans written by Steve. Students exercise more of their learning senses and knowledge is more likely to stick. Steve notes that for the past three years his AP Calculus students have achieved an average score of over 4 on the AP exam, and everyone has passed. Also, the number of students taking the class is increasing, he says. (The student shown is Kiley Hepper).
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