STEM Eighth Grade student scientists dive right into Physics by exploring Newton’s Third Law and real-life STEM application by anchoring their thinking with analytical correlation between unbalanced forces and sports injuries. This initial unit supports the rest of their year with a smooth transition from kinetic and potential energy to gravitational force, the solar system and galaxies. After a unit on Earth and space science, students continue life science studies by researching evolution from embryonic similarities, genes, and proteins to natural and artificial selection. At the end of the year, students reflect on all of their knowledge and develop their capstone project. JEWISH STUDIES In Jewish Thought the students learn how Judaism became what it is today by delving into the major upheavals 2,000 years ago of the Hasmonean (Maccabean) Dynasty and the Roman Empire. The schisms between the Jewish people and subsequent destruction of the Second Temple made Judaism less focused on ritual and more on thought and so we will learn to think like Talmudic scholars as we examine various cases and discussions. Judaism does not exist in a vacuum and we live in a very multicultural society and we will learn why Abraham is named the father of many nations with a unit on Comparative Religion by learning about Christianity and Islam vis-à-vis Judaism. Simultaneously, they have a 2nd course that is called “Judaic Studies Seminar”. In this course, the students have a “voice” in the direction of their Jewish education at Levine. They get to choose 2 courses per year from a range of topics like the Holocaust, “Heroes of TaNaKh”, Science and Torah, and Talmud Beit-Midrash. During Seventh-Eighth Grade they must take the Judaic Seminar course that covers the period from המרד הגדול (“The Great Revolt” against Rome 66-73CE) until the Holocaust.
MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES 5 - 8 | CURRICULUM GUIDE
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