12th Grade Curriculum

Seniors are called to reflect upon their entire education and use what they’ve learned to move themselves forward into the world. The new experiences of senior year—domestic and international travel, independent senior projects, and internships—encourage students to answer inquiry with action.

Below are classes we’ve offered recently:

Mathematics

  • This course builds on Algebra II topics by deepening the understanding of polynomials, polynomial operations, and functions. Students focus on practical applications of concepts such as logarithmic/exponential expressions, systems of equations, and trigonometric functions. These topics are explored through real-world examples involving topics that vary from finance to geology to biology and others.

  • This year-long class picks up directly from Introduction to Calculus ended using g a college-level textbook. Students are expected to be able to read the text, make sense of the ideas within it, and ask appropriate questions to help further their understanding. The content begins with a quick review of how to find derivatives, their applications, and revisiting conceptual understanding of the mentioned processes. The following new concepts are covered: indefinite integration; Riemann sums and the definite integral; the fundamental theorem of calculus; the second fundamental theorem of calculus; how to integrate different types of functions; differential equations applications of integration.

  • After considering the worldwide network of organizations and activities involved in producing a simple product like a bar of Swiss chocolate, students move to a study of pre-capitalist economics, then on to Adam Smith and his idea of a self-regulating free-market system guided by “the invisible hand.” The seniors learn how supply and demand curves lead to an equilibrium point where overproduction and shortfall can be avoided, and about factors that affect supply and demand. Mergers, oligopolies, conglomerates, and economies of scale were also considered in this context. The block includes an inquiry into how the tensions that exist between our objectives as self-seeking consumers and the ideals we carry as members of a humane democratic society can be resolved. The block concludes with consideration of subprime mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, and other factors that contributed to the economic recession that began in 2008.

Sciences

  • In this block, the first goal is to further understanding of atomic theory and molecular structure. The initial experiment looks at Brownian motion, which through Einstein’s analysis contributed to the acceptance of atomic and kinetic theories in the twentieth century. Based on the structure of the oleic acid molecule, we learn how to estimate the size of an atom and calculate Avogadro’s number. Discussions on chemical bonding and the special nature of water, including hydrogen bonds, are taken up early in the block and find important applications throughout. The class looks at specific ways of classifying structure, including a discussion of isomers. Experiments explore the effects of chirality (relating to enantiomers, or mirror image molecular structures) on physical properties, such as optical rotation, and on chemoreception.

    This understanding can be applied to the realm of biochemistry, beginning with work on the structure of amino acids. Students learn to sequence a peptide experimentally, which includes titration and thin film chromatography. A thorough description of protein structure follows; the class learns to check for the presence of proteins with the Biuret test. Later in the block, the focus shifts to the discovery of DNA and its significance in genetics. We describe its structure and extract DNA from our own cheek cells. Students discuss the human genome project and the process of sequencing the base pairs in DNA, which includes electrophoresis. The last experiment demonstrates electrophoresis on fragments of bacterial DNA. There is a field trip to the bionanotechnology lab at Northwestern University.

  • This block begins with a brief overview of marine invertebrates in preparation for a week on Hermit Island in Maine, where the students meet the flora and fauna of the North Atlantic coast first-hand. They navigate seaweed covered rocks in the process of exploring life-filled tide-pools; they wade through thick mud in search of soft-shelled clams; they paint land and seascapes; they learn about dune ecology and the genesis of beach forms; and not least , they investigate the tiny details of several ocean dwellers with the help of microscopes. This rich exploration into marine biology is followed by classroom work on vertebrate animals after we return to Chicago. Practicing a form of comparative morphology, the class discusses and compares fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and several characteristic groups of the mammals. The block ends with a consideration of the unique nature of the human being.

  • This year-long class is an independent study course offered for students interested in pursuing the sciences more vigorously. Past projects have included a survey of computer and related technology, in which a student learned the basics of binary arithmetic and Boolean logic, and the use of some electronic circuit emulations. Other projects have been focused in the life-sciences. A student wishing to take the course will write a proposal, including an outline of work to be completed with deadlines that can be met within the allotted time. Periodic written and oral reports are presented by students throughout the course.

  • This block challenges students to consider the importance of understanding science and technology as factors of change in the modern world. The class explores optics as a means of demonstrating the evolution of physical theories, taking up experimental work in the field of optics and physical colors, in which we compare the understanding of color phenomena in a wholistic manner with the analysis of experimental results through modern mathematical models. The class also takes up questions that relate historically to the development of physics in the 20th century and their present impact. A background text offering descriptions and a critique of 20th century physics is Physics for the Rest of Us by Roger Jones.

    To experience physics in a modern setting, the seniors take up such current issues as the energy crisis, alternative energy sources and related technology. There is a field trip to Fermilab, one of the world’s prominent particle physics labs.

Humanities

  • The Russian land encompasses eleven time zones and climates that range from arctic to subtropical. Russian history encompasses tyrants, heroes, artists, saints and rebels. In this block, literature is a gateway to Russian history and culture as well as to archetypal human questions. We begin with fairy tales and icons. Stories of Russia's acceptance of eastern orthodox Christianity, the Mongol invasions and the biography of Peter the Great give insights into Russia’s simultaneous attraction to and rejection of the West. We read Gogol (“The Overcoat”), Dostoevsky (“The Grand Inquisitor”), Tolstoy (“What Men Live By”), Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard), Akhmatova ("Requiem") and Yevtushenko (A Precocious Autobiography), as well as many poems. The biography of each writer helps place each work in its historical context.

  • Seniors work individually with faculty advisors to complete their papers for their senior projects.

  • Beginning with the raising of standing stones and ending with contemporary structures, students examine the human being’s changing experience of space, place, purpose, materials and design. In the last week of the course students give a short presentation of an architectural approach to a contemporary question.

  • A small group of thinkers, educators, and writers, many of whom lived in and around Concord, Massachusetts in the years leading up to the American Civil War, addressed the great questions of existence in ways that still shape our thinking today. When students encounter Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman for the first time, there is often a shock of essays and poetry of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, along with their associates Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller. In keeping with transcendentalist traditions, the class converses and writes in their journals on a daily basis.

  • Most of the literature studied by the twelfth-grade deals explicitly with the struggle of individual human beings to find their meaningful place in the world. Seniors are beginning to look outward into the world well outside of the high school; they are at a threshold, exiting a comfortable world that might nevertheless appear to them as 'stale, weary, and flat,' and entering a mysterious new world that is 'infinite in variety.' This mood is captured poignantly by the mid-twentieth century writers of the existentialist movement, Sartre and Camus. Seniors read No Exit, The Flies, and The Stranger, all from this period. We then move backwards in time, tracing the roots of the existential perspective, reading The Metamorphosis by Kafka, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Senior reading culminates with the first part of Goethe's Faust. Seniors relate uncannily to the character of Faust, who is at once world-weary and yet fervently hungry for a new kind of knowledge.

Languages

  • By the end of German III, students should have mastered the present and past verbs, including reflexives. They should be able to differentiate between the nominative, accusative and dative cases in terms of prepositions, articles, and pronouns, as well as know and apply with accuracy, dative verbs and relative clauses. Practically speaking, students should also know how to ask for products in a pharmacy, describe their injuries or illnesses, tell/recount a story in the present and past, look for a hostel while traveling, and read a short novel.

  • This class is an opportunity to study independently with the teacher. By the end of this course, students should have mastered the usage of the subjunctive cases (I and II), passive voice, phrases such as um…zu, je…desto, and da-wo compounds. Practically speaking, the students should know how to write a formal/informal letter and email, how to apply for a job, how to give a presentation, and how to defend his or her own opinion about a worldwide and/or local social problem.

  • The goal of this course is to provide the basic grammatical structures needed to communicate in Spanish. The students learn vocabulary for typical activities related to traveling in a foreign country and vocabulary pertaining to housework, shopping, weather, transportation, restaurants, and everyday life. Students learn more complex verb forms (such as the imperfect, future and conditional tenses). They also read short stories from different Latin American authors and work on two different projects for each semester.

  • In Spanish IV/V, students read El Esclavo by Francisco J. Angel. Students spend time discussing the book in order to deepen their fluency and write assignments in order to focus on their Spanish reading and writing. Their final test is to summarize the novel in a brief Spanish language essay.

  • As part of the extensive and growing global network of Waldorf schools, the Chicago Waldorf School offers a distinctive exchange program that places our High School students in Waldorf Schools across the world and welcomes exchange students and international students to visit and enroll in our school. Exchange students come to our school from diverse countries including Colombia, Chile, Austria, Switzerland, Korea, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Kyrgyzstan, France, and Peru, among others.

Arts

  • A fully realized production in senior year is the culmination of the High School Drama program and is the seniors’ gift to the community before graduating. The process offers students a high degree of autonomy— a variety of opportunities are offered to hone individual craft, to work in small teams in a chosen area of production, as well as collectively as a class. At the beginning of the process, students consider a variety of genres and scripts and arrive at a universally approved choice. Students self-select into production groups including scenic design and build, acting & rehearsal production, costume and props design, lighting & sound. During the final performances, students perform, run tech, and stage manage their own show. Recent 12th grade plays include You Can’t Take It With You, Peter Pan, Clue, and The Phantom Tollbooth.

  • Students are required to complete a series of elements combining them as they choose. The elements are: etching, enameling, stencil design and completion, a 3 D component, enameling a bowl. The design must come out of their experience with marine biology in Maine. The students design, develop, and complete their individual projects in collaboration with the teacher.

  • Students apply the basics of portrait painting to create a final self portrait or portrait of a classmate using oils.

  • The class begins with group exercises incorporating the themes of pulse and flow. As they work the students consider their selection of materials and the theme they will develop in this block. Students select from a range of materials.

  • The aim of the Technical Arts part of the elective is to explore digital painting and drawing media. Students begin with the basics, exploring use of software and the graphics tablet (along with the necessary laptop The goal is for students to be able to work in a convincingly representational technique with the graphics tablet, from both life and imagination, as well as they are able to do with traditional media.

Music

  • Students develop technique, hand coordination, and traditional rhythms in an ensemble. Additionally, students investigate the cultural and historical significance of the djembe drum, the oral history of each rhythm and song, and the geography of regions specific to the tradition of the djembe as well as Africa in general.

  • Chamber Ensemble is for those students who wish to continue the study and performance of music on classical instruments. The students study and perform standard orchestral works arranged for small ensemble and also continue playing both by rote and by improvisation. Listening – melody, harmony, accompaniment – is emphasized, as is technique.

  • Students learn basic musical concepts and skills with an emphasis on how they apply to guitar as well as to singing. Students learn to play chords, scales, and full songs and attain a basic proficiency in reading music.

  • Students who have a basic level of guitar skill play a range of parts (according to level of ability) that when combined, create a cohesive whole, as in an orchestra. Moving beyond unison chords, students will learn to play single line melodies and two or more notes simultaneously, in addition to broken or block chords. Students also sharpen their listening and collaboration skills. The class takes up different genres – classical, folk, rock, jazz – over the course of the year.

  • The Jazz Band plays many different styles of jazz including Dixieland, Bebop, Bossanova, Swing, and Standards. The students play at a high level on their instruments, study music theory, and improvise as part of the ensemble.

  • Vocal Ensemble is both a performance-driven chamber choir focused on the rehearsal and performance of choral and vocal music, and a supportive environment to try new things, experiment with improvisation, and have fun creating music together. The class places emphasis on vocal development, independence in part-singing, stylistic understanding, and performance technique. Time is spent on reinforcing and developing an understanding of musical notation and conducting patterns.

MOvement

  • Eurythmy is a performing art that engages aspects of dance, music, poetry, speech, and kinesthetic expression. A feature unique to Waldorf education, the beautiful, spiritual, and emotional art of eurythmy introduces students to the frameworks underlying speech and music through movement. The study of Eurythmy develops concentration, spatial orientation and dexterity, and engages students in the study of enhanced rhythms of speech and music as experienced and interpreted through the whole body.

  • At the Chicago Waldorf School, we believe every student is a mathematician, scientist, artist and athlete. In our gym program and extra programming we strive to offer a rich variety of athletic activities designed for students to explore physicality in all its aspects. Students learn fundamental movement skills through sport lead-up games, then participate in team and individual sports. From aerial circus arts to javelin to football to parkour, our students have ample opportunity to discover their interests and to develop mastery.

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