Science

Open to III & New IV Form students

As the Science Department’s foundational course, Biology is designed to introduce students to our extraordinary campus while building scientific skills they will use throughout our curriculum. Particular emphasis is placed upon systematic observation and the formation and testing of scientific hypotheses. Students learn to be skeptical and to construct scientific explanations that are detailed, logical, and supported by evidence. The course also seeks to stimulate student appreciation for the natural world. Areas of primary conceptual focus include:

• introductory evolution;
• ecology and human impacts on the environment;
• energy transformation;
• genetics and the central dogma;
• and advanced topics in evolution.

Each fall, students will participate in "Pond Day," a weekend-long scientific exploration of our campus, including a overnight component.

Supporting texts: Biology: Exploring Life by Campbell, Williamson, and Heyden

Open to VI Form students

requires instructor permission

The aim of this advanced biology course is to more closely examine a range of topics in biology, with a thematic emphasis on the unity of life and life's molecular basis. Topics that recur throughout the year include:

• evolution;
• the structure-function relationship;
• the importance of energy; and
• the role of information.

In addition to its factual content, the course stresses rigorous scientific analysis and reasoning. Many lab investigations are student-designed and involve long-term, open-ended inquiry. Several labs closely follow the College Board's Advanced Placement recommendations. Text: Campbell, Reece and Mitchell, Biology: Concepts and Connections.

Open to VI Form students

requires instructor permission

This college-level course is intended to foster in its students the awareness and appreciation of the natural world and the interdependencies that exist within it. Students explore the natural environment and resources of the School and surrounding areas while becoming acquainted with the principles and methods used to examine environmental issues. Topics include:

• sustainability;
• ecosystems;
• population dynamics;
• water;
• energy efficiency:
• climate change:
• food resources; and
• biodiversity.

The course includes visiting speakers, supplemental readings, investigations and labs drawn from college curricula, and a year-long independent project. Students make visits to nearby organizations and locales that provide insight into environmental issues, including a spray irrigation water treatment plant, a local cemetery and an organic farm. An overnight camping trip exposes students to the natural beauty of the Appalachian Mountains; students hike the Appalachian Trail and canoe on Antietam Creek. Students are prepared to sit for the Advanced Placement Environmental Science examination at the end of the year. Texts: Miller, Living in the Environment; McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid, and supplemental readings.

Open to IV & V Form students

In Physics, students discover the fundamental laws that govern nature through the process of inquiry—posing their own questions within an agreed-upon framework and conducting careful experiments to find their own answers. The class is taught using Modeling Instruction pedagogy, a research-based approach developed at Arizona State University. Students organize their knowledge according to a series of physical models which can be used to analyze and explain increasingly complex phenomena. This course also devotes significant time to helping students articulate the methods and results of their experiments to their peers in discussion, in writing, and in the models they create to explain the physical world. Text: Adapted from publically available Modeling Instruction materials.

Open to IV & V Form students

requires instructor permission

The Honors Physics curriculum is derived from a course developed by the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), a group first organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. This rigorous curriculum is coupled with the Modeling Instruction pedagogy used in Physics 1 to create a unique and research-based approach to teaching physics. Its strength resides in its guidance of students through experiments and conceptual constructions that require authentic scientific thinking and practice. Rather than asking students to memorize a catalogue of facts and equations, coursework is organized around a a series of physical models students use to explain and predict the structure and interactions of matter. Each student is called on to develop his or her abilities to analyze, infer, evaluate, synthesize and reason quantitatively from the results of his or her experimental work. Laboratories involve extensive use of computer-interfaced instrumentation. Text: Teacher-authored text inspired by Haber-Schaim et al., PSSC Physics.

Open to VI Form students

COREQUISITES: CALCULUS AB OR CALCULUS BC

requires instructor permission

This course covers a calculus-based college-level physics curriculum, and includes explorations of mechanics, thermal physics, and electricity and magnetism. This course assumes a deep curiosity about physics and willingness to work on the part of the students. The course approaches the above topics by focusing on matter and its interactions at the atomic scale through students' creation and application of models. Toward this end, students learn V-Python, a powerful object-oriented computer-programming language that they use to model real physical systems. Students are prepared to sit for the Advanced Placement Physics examination, Level C. Text: Chabay and Sherwood, Matter and Interactions (vols. 1-2).

Open to V Form students

Chemistry is concerned with discovering the natural laws governing the transformations of matter. It is also concerned with inventing theories to explain these laws in terms of atomic interactions. This rather prosaic summary actually represents a rich and intriguing field of exploration whose findings touch on nearly every aspect of our lives. Chemistry is often called the central science because it connects so many other scientific disciplines and technologies, particularly physics to life and environmental sciences. Success in chemistry depends upon the development and practice of a unique language. This language consists of chemistry definitions, chemistry drawings, chemistry facts and algorithms used to solve chemistry problems. This language, like all languages, can be used to express and manipulate ideas that may be inexpressible otherwise. This language will offer a new perspective on the nature of the universe and our students connection to it. Students will emerge from this course with an enriched view of themselves and the world in which they live. They will see how some of the big ideas of chemistry can be used to reframe and digest some of the biggest problems humanity faces. Text: Russo and Silver, Introductory Chemistry, 2nd ed.

Open to V & VI Form students

requires instructor permission

Honors Chemistry applies the foundation of concepts, computational techniques, and laboratory practices students learn in Honors Physics to support their study of chemistry. The course begins with an introduction to descriptive and analytical chemistry through several weeks of laboratory work. Students here become familiar with important chemical properties and tools for uncovering patterns of chemical behavior and the laws that govern them. Laboratory work remains the central focus of the course as it recreates the empirical lines of evidence and creative reasoning from which modern chemical theory evolved during the 19th and 20th centuries. Students are challenged to construct their knowledge from their own experiments and collaborative discussions that utilize their prior knowledge of physics. Text: Brown et al., Chemistry: The Central Science, 10th ed.

Open to VI Form students

requires instructor permission

This course offers students an opportunity to continue their study of chemistry at an advanced level by further exploring topics in physical and organic chemistry. The course is laboratory-centered with structured experiments that extend the students' experience with analytical techniques and instrumentation, followed by opened-ended projects that develop students' research skills. Text: Brown et al., Chemistry: The Central Science, 10th ed.

open to V & VI Form students, and to IV Form students with instructor permission

Semester-Long Half-credit elective

The goal of Introduction to Engineering is to provide an introduction to design thinking and a variety of engineering disciplines. The course will be broken into six parts that include: design thinking, experimental design, mechanical advantage, structural engineering concepts, aeronautical concepts, and a culminating independent design project. In each part of the course, students will learn the basic principles associated with the subject and conduct hands on projects using the principles learned. Students will leave the course with a greater appreciation of engineering problems and solutions.

Open to V & VI Form Students

Semester-long Half-Credit Elective

This semester-long course introduces students to fundamental nuclear physics; in particular, radioactive decay, giving them the scientific knowledge needed in order to then fully tackle some difficult ethical questions regarding its many modern-day applications. As well as understanding decay processes on a subatomic level, students will learn how radioactive materials are used in abundance in industry and medicine. They will then be asked to explore the human cost in developing these usages as well as the ethical questions raised by the use of radioactive isotopes in medical treatments, particularly in cases involving children and pregnancy. We will then explore nuclear power and the physical processes by which electricity is generated in a nuclear plant. With an understanding of the science behind realistic safety standards in nuclear electricity generation, as well as of the risks posed by radioactive waste, students will be able to dissect difficult questions involving whether nuclear power is preferable to coal, where a nuclear plant should be located, and who exactly should be able to make those decisions. Finally, we will consider nuclear warfare; covering the development, testing, and function of atomic bombs, as well as their human and environmental impacts. Students will consider the experience of the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which developed the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as being asked to contemplate whether the usage of nuclear weapons in warfare can ever be justified.

open to V & VI Form students

semester-long Half-credit elective

Anatomy and physiology is the study of the structure and function of human biology. This course will cover the general principles of anatomy and physiology, including cells, tissues and organs, homeostasis and embryology, and we will use readings, lab work and case studies to accomplish learning. The following systems will be studied in detail: respiratory, circulatory, muscular, and nervous. Emphasis will be on interrelationships among systems and regulation of physiological functions. The lab will provide a hands-on learning experience for exploration of human system components and basic physiology, and case studies will provide insight into the pathology of these systems.

open to V & VI Form students

semester-long Half-credit Elective

This advanced course focuses on not just what we know about the Universe but also how we know it. By combining quantitative and conceptual astrophysics we can learn a great deal about distant objects solely by examining the light we receive from them. Astronomy students begin by investigating the nature of electromagnetic radiation and atomic structure in order to understand the tools astrophysicists use to learn about the cosmos. We then use these tools to forge an understanding of the solar system's features and formation; the methods for exoplanet discovery and the search for extraterrestrial life; the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies; and the study of the Universe as a whole, including the Big Bang theory, dark matter, and dark energy. Students complete a number of independent research projects that require them to delve into real peer-reviewed scientific research, and based on which they prepare a paper or presentation. The varied and exciting topics of independent research may include:

• the search for habitable exoplanets,
• solar system missions such as Cassini-Huygens,
• historical asteroid impacts and their effects,
• an exploration of exotic stars and stellar remnants,
• the mechanics of galaxy collisions, and
• the evidence for the Big Bang theory.

open to V & VI Form students

Semester-long Half-credit elective

We humans seek solutions to all sorts of questions. However, unsolved problems exist despite dedicated work by teams of highly trained experts. One subset of such experts are the engineers, who seek pragmatic solutions and who utilize highly valuable resources to make progress in their search. Resources include the team's limited time, its domain-specific tools and its aggregate brain power. Throughout our intellectual history, humans have solved problems again and again. Some solutions are invented, whole-cloth, using human ingenuity. Others are on loan from the natural world: consider the piece of fruit that exactly matched an ancestor's daily caloric need. Still other solutions are inspired by the natural world: as George de Mestral was inspired to invent the hook and loop system of velcro after noticing burdock burrs clinging to his socks. Stationary, brainless burdock had solved the problem of being fixed in space. It had learned to attach its genes to moving animals. In Bioengineering, students will study nature-inspired solutions. Students will learn to take the view that evolution through natural selection is primarily an engine of innovation. From the smallest viruses to the largest organisms on earth, we are all problem solvers. And, it is the view of bioengineers that there are many hidden solutions left to find. Our work is to become better collaborators with Nature.