Middle School

ARK Educate

Philosophy.

The remarkable phenomenon of adolescence inspires the Middle School ARK Educate curriculum. Our approach is based on specific developmental orientations to curiosity, engagement, and hands-on learning. Our model is scalable and uniquely relatable to adolescents. Students embrace scientific principles and build on the inquiry-based foundation that began in elementary school.

ARK Educate modules accommodate differentiated learners and align with our Teacher Training practices. Mindset shifts evidence success. Students enthusiastically regard disruptive innovation as relevant to their learning. Students develop an innovation mindset through ARK Educate's modules – taking innovation from the classroom into the world.

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Program.

ARK Educate's problem-first thinking approach is applied in all seven hands-on modules for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.  Lessons are situated in scientific methods and principles within a series of Innovation challenges. These lessons are designed in line with our core objectives and framed by four questions:

  1. What do we see?
  2. What conclusions can we draw?
  3. How do we know?
  4. Why is this relevant?

Then, students investigate and analyze ideas through ongoing interactive experiences emphasizing expansive thinking, imagination, collaboration, passion, and mastery.

All modules are aligned to state or independent school academic science standards.  In sixth grade, students engage in one innovation concept per module. There is additional analysis, experimentation, engagement, and focus time in seventh and eighth grades. As students pursue robotics, they learn to program in Scratch, an open-source coding language.

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Sixth-Grade Problem First Modules

Modules Aligning Innovation to Life, Earth, and Physical Sciences.

Module 1

Re-designing School Lunch

Module 2

Wearable Health Technology

Module 3

Building Sustainable Infrastructure

Module 4

Do-it-Yourself Water Filtration

Module 5

Drones for Predicting Weather and Saving Lives

Module 6

How Batteries Work

Module 7

Re-designing Reusable Rockets

Seventh-Grade Modules

Aligning Innovation and Engineering to the Life, Earth, and Physical Sciences.

Module 1

Earth Science/Robotics: 

Measuring the Age of Rocks on Mars

Module 2

Life Science/Robotics: 

The Evolution of Robots

Module 3

Life Science/Robotics: 

DNA, Nanorobots

Module 4

Life Science/Gamification:

Gamifying Food Webs

Module 5

Physical Science/Gamification:

Re-mixing Heat Transfer

Module 6

Physical Science: 

Virtual Reality 101

Module 7

Physical Science: 

Virtual Reality Space Exploration

Eighth-Grade Modules

Modules Agning Innovation to Life, Earth, and Physical Sciences.

Module 1

Physical Science/Artificial Intelligence:

Classifying Substances, Emails, and Letters

Module 2

Physical Science/Artificial Intelligence

Recreating the Periodic Table Using AI

Module 3

Physical Science/Artificial Intelligence 

Can We Trust AI?

Module 4

Life Science/ Solar Innovations

Artificial  Photosynthesis

Module 5

Life Science/ Battery Innovations

Powering the Future: Battery Innovations

Module 6

Earth & Space Science /Space Innovations

Returning to the Moon

Module 7

Earth & Space Science /Space Innovations

Three Missions to the Moon