Eleventh Grade

Diving into Computer Coding, Calculus, and Physics, along with Studying Shakespeare and Plato

With the eleventh-grade, the students begin the curricular drama program and computer coding program. Their coding skills are used to simulate real-world mathematical and physical situations. Other highlights of this year will be creating acrylic copies of masterworks; beginning a two-semester course in Italian, Spanish or New Testament Greek; and acting with classmates in dramas that combine portions of the boys’ and girls’ sections.

Curricular Overview

Humane Letters Seminar (2 Semesters)
Students read, discuss and write on texts drawn from the classical Greek and early Christian eras. Each student is encouraged to participate actively in the discussion, and will develop important conversational skills to make the seminar more ordered, fluid, and conducive to seeking the truth. The students’ writing instruction turns towards the development of clarity and grace in explaining their ideas. See our reading list for the literature of the course.

Scripture II (New Testament) (1 Semester)
Students engage in a close reading of large portions of the New Testament and discuss them in seminar format. They read the Gospels of Matthew and John, Acts, a sample of Epistles, and Revelation. The class is focused on seeing what God is revealing about Himself, as well as discerning what the passages might have meant in their original context. The students work with the literary and historical clues within passages, including references to the Old Testament, to arrive at reasonable interpretations for metaphors and images.

Modern Language I (Italian, Spanish, or New Testament Greek) (1 Semester)
Students are introduced to the basic building blocks of the target language: nouns, verbs, modifiers, and simple idioms. Emphasis is placed on learning verb tenses, on translating short readings, and on sentence composition. Students practice pronunciation and listening comprehension. Having studied Latin for four years, students are in a position to move much more rapidly through the early portions of studying a third language than they otherwise would be.

Art III (1 Semester)
Students focus on developing artistic skills through studying masterworks from the Western art tradition. Students learn how to use graphite and charcoal in drawing and how to mix and blend colors using acrylic paint.

Art History I (1 Semester)
Students study a variety of art forms from the prehistoric era through the 12th century A.D., learning how to employ artistic vocabulary, formally analyze a work of art and appreciate art in its historical context.

Drama I (1 Semester)
Students are introduced to the elements of acting, performance and play production. They receive technical instruction, are involved in group activities and participate in creative workshops designed to build the skills of voice, movement, stage presence and collaboration. Students produce and perform a full-length play.

Calculus A and B (2 Semesters)
Students work through the two key questions of calculus: the tangent line problem and the area problem. They learn how to work with limits to develop the idea of a derivative and then develop a variety of techniques to take derivatives more efficiently. They then work up to the fundamental theorem of calculus. The students develop a strong theoretical understanding of key concepts and a rigorous procedural fluency with techniques and then apply those skills to consider real-world applications.

Computer Programming (1 Semester)
Students learn the fundamentals of programming including logic statements, loops, plotting, and animation. They also learn how to design and build apps for modeling mathematical behaviors. While MATLAB is used primarily in academia and in engineering, the concepts learned in this course are applicable to other languages. This course serves as the foundation to MATLAB projects assigned in future physics and math courses.

Physics A (1 Semester)
Students begin with a study of Newton’s laws and their applications. They then study energy and momentum, circular motion, and simple harmonic motion. They use the skills developed in the first semester in MATLAB to help them model and better understand these physical concepts. The semester culminates with a simple harmonic motion project that nicely ties together many of the concepts studied this semester.