Curriculum
SEEQS recognizes that students need to learn a broad set of skills and content to be productive citizens in the modern world. But just as importantly, students need to experience how they will use those tools and skills, and implement them in ways that are meaningful and relevant to their lives, their communities, and their future.
SEEQS approaches these coexistent needs by basing academics around Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS). Semester-long EQS courses meet four days a week to delve deeply into one essential question, such as “how does water sustain us?” or “what are the limits of growth?” through the independent and inter-dependent lenses of science, math, English, history, and the arts.
Core academic courses, which meet in 75-minute blocks each morning, help students develop discipline-specific skills and content knowledge to support their work around the Essential Questions of Sustainability. Academic courses include Mathematical Applications, Scientific Explorations, English Language Arts, and Historical Perspective, offered at a wide range of depth and complexity to meet the learning needs and levels of all SEEQS students. Both EQS courses and core courses are designed with constructivist principles in mind.
EQS groups work as interdisciplinary teams of teachers (3-5 teachers with collective expertise in Science, English, Mathematics, History, and Art) and students (40-60 students), in two hour blocks of time. These blocks can be used in various and varying ways, including student-directed projects, teacher-led tutorials, community outings, guest visits, and, in later years, formal internships for upperclassmen. Students will develop individual and/or small group work plans each day to chart their progress towards meeting objectives.
Each semester begins with a week-long “EQS camp” which serves as an intensive introduction to the key elements of the essential questions through field trips, interviews of experts, and question-storming. The EQS term culminates with performance assessments to an authentic audience that includes teachers, parents, fellow students, community members, and experts.
Consistent with SEEQS’ belief that students learn best when they take ownership of their learning, the “curriculum” for EQS courses will be flexible and fluctuating. EQS course offerings will be guided by the “Scope & Sequence of the Big Ideas of Sustainability” and other supporting materials developed by Sustainable Schools Project, as well as by the disciplinary and pedagogical expertise of the EQS teachers.
The Common Core standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts, Next Generation Science Standards, the National Standards for History, Hawaii Content and Performance Standards, and the “Big Ideas of Sustainability” scope and sequence will guide the work around developing scope and sequence and competencies for individual disciplines.
SEEQS approaches these coexistent needs by basing academics around Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS). Semester-long EQS courses meet four days a week to delve deeply into one essential question, such as “how does water sustain us?” or “what are the limits of growth?” through the independent and inter-dependent lenses of science, math, English, history, and the arts.
Core academic courses, which meet in 75-minute blocks each morning, help students develop discipline-specific skills and content knowledge to support their work around the Essential Questions of Sustainability. Academic courses include Mathematical Applications, Scientific Explorations, English Language Arts, and Historical Perspective, offered at a wide range of depth and complexity to meet the learning needs and levels of all SEEQS students. Both EQS courses and core courses are designed with constructivist principles in mind.
EQS groups work as interdisciplinary teams of teachers (3-5 teachers with collective expertise in Science, English, Mathematics, History, and Art) and students (40-60 students), in two hour blocks of time. These blocks can be used in various and varying ways, including student-directed projects, teacher-led tutorials, community outings, guest visits, and, in later years, formal internships for upperclassmen. Students will develop individual and/or small group work plans each day to chart their progress towards meeting objectives.
Each semester begins with a week-long “EQS camp” which serves as an intensive introduction to the key elements of the essential questions through field trips, interviews of experts, and question-storming. The EQS term culminates with performance assessments to an authentic audience that includes teachers, parents, fellow students, community members, and experts.
Consistent with SEEQS’ belief that students learn best when they take ownership of their learning, the “curriculum” for EQS courses will be flexible and fluctuating. EQS course offerings will be guided by the “Scope & Sequence of the Big Ideas of Sustainability” and other supporting materials developed by Sustainable Schools Project, as well as by the disciplinary and pedagogical expertise of the EQS teachers.
The Common Core standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts, Next Generation Science Standards, the National Standards for History, Hawaii Content and Performance Standards, and the “Big Ideas of Sustainability” scope and sequence will guide the work around developing scope and sequence and competencies for individual disciplines.