Weeks 1-2
Ancient Near East. What is "history" and what is "prehistory"? What is "civilization" and when does it begin? Neolithic revolution. Geography and its influence on the history of the region. Why is it called the "Near East," or "Middle East"?

Languages, peoples, religions, alphabets, nomads, settled agriculture, cuneiform, Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Tigris, Euphrates, Anatolia, Babylon, Iranian plateau, Palestine, Persia, Phoenicia, Hebrews.

Weeks 2-3
Ancient Egypt - "Gift of the Nile." Geography and its effect on the civilization of the ancient Egyptians. Pharaohs, hieroglyphics, pyramids, mummies, Egyptian religion, Akhenaten and "solar monotheism," Nefertiti, "King Tut," Cecil B. DeMille.

Week 4
Greece. Geography of the Greek world. How did this affect the civilization that arose there as opposed to those in Egypt and the Near East? Minoan civilization. Greek colonization. "Frogs around a pond," Iliad and the Trojan War, Odyssey, Greek religion, myths and legends.

Week 5
Classical Greece. What does "classical" mean? City states, Athens, Sparta, Herodotus -- "father of history," or "father of lies"?, the Persian Wars, Zoroastrianism, Peloponnesian War, Thucydides. How did the civilization that evolved in ancient Greece help or hinder it in the conflicts with other states? Greek philosophy, architecture, pottery, drama, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

Legacy of Ancient Greece - Democracy,. Spartan, laconic, draconian, pyrrhic, bacchanalian, halcyon. Marathon, Greeks bearing gifts, Trojan horses, sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, place names.

Week 6
Alexander the Great and Macedonia. Philip of Macedon. Demosthenes and his philippics. Hellenistic Age. Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra, Syria, legends of Alexander, influence as far as India. What lasting impact, if any, did Alexander have on the lands he conquered? How do different civilizations affect each other? Which are the most enduring?

Week 7-8
Early Rome. World of the ancient Mediterranean. Geography of Italy. What kind of society, economy, religion? Etruscans, Phoenicians and Carthage, Greek colonies, Gauls, Roman myths and legends, Romulus and Remus, establishment of the republic in 509 BC after expulsion of the last of the kings. Growth of Rome, unification of Italian peninsula, rivalry with Carthage, Punic Wars, "Hannibal's revenge." Changes in Roman institutions as a result of changes in Roman society and its economy. How can social and economic changes brought about by war undermine the institutions of the victorious power? Roman imperialism, growth of the importance of the military, beginning of a professional army, depopulation of rural Italy and the growth of a landless population in Rome itself. Gracchus brothers, Julius Caesar and civil war, assassination and Shakespeare, "noblest Roman of them all?" "Crossing the Rubicon." Cicero. More civil war.

Week 1
Why the "middle ages"? How did medieval people think of history? Of antiquity? Notion of a golden age. Maps. Why the "dark ages"? Barbarian invasions of late Roman Empire. Christian Europe. Gregory of Tours. Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, et. al.

Week 2
Decline of literacy. Breakdown of united world of antiquity (Roman Empire) into smaller self-contained units. Church as source and main repository of learning. Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Kells, How the Irish Saved Civilization, monasticism, Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, manorialism, feudalism, Vikings, Icelandic Sagas, growth of cities, trade, middle classes. Medieval myths and legends. How do increased trade and contact with other peoples affect a society?

Week 3
Europe's periphery. Islam in brief. Moorish Spain and the Reconquista, Byzantium, Russia and Eastern Europe, 1054 and the final split between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, role of Jews, Crusades.

Week 4
High Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Importance of Italian republics. Venice, Genoa, and Florence. Role of commerce, money economy, broadening of contacts with other civilizations, Marco Polo. Growth of national kingdoms (England, France), Holy Roman Empire, decline of Papacy, secularization of culture, Magna Carta, liberties, St. Thomas Aquinas, universities, medieval heresy, Albigensian Crusade, Franciscans, Dominicans, pilgrimage, (Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales), Arthurian legend. "Early Protestantism"? "Early Renaissance"? Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Gutenberg Bible and invention of printing.

Week 5
Renaissance Italy. Italian republics, printing, trade, expansion of the universe of Medieval man, spirit of the Renaissance, distrust of received explanations, spirit of inquiry and curiosity, science, exploration, discovery. Art, literature, Dante, Boccaccio's Decameron, Giotto, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Machiavelli. What produces "renaissances"?

Week 6
Exploration, conquest, trade, 1492, Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Cabot, Portugal, Spain, England, France, Holland, effect on native peoples of the Western hemisphere, African slave trade. Why this explosion of creativity just now in this small corner of the world?

Week 7
Protestant Reformation. Is it bound up with the spirit of the Renaissance? How did political, social, and economic factors combine with religious disputes to produce the Reformation? Middle classes, trade, towns and cities. What did the reformers what? Where did they come from? Who were they? Netherlands, Swiss cantons, France (Huguenots), German cities and towns, Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli.

Week 8
England, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, Thomas More and Utopia, Elizabethan Age, Shakespeare et al. France, Francis I, Henry IV, "Paris vaut bien une messe," St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Charles V, Philip II, Spanish Inquisition, Don Quixote.

Week 9
World of the 16th century, Russia and Ivan the Terrible, Ottoman Turkey and Suleiman the Magnificent, Mughal India, exploration of the Americas, conquest of the native peoples, African slave trade.

Week 1
World of 1600. An expanded universe. 1603 death of Elizabeth I and beginning of Stuart England. Jamestown 1607, France and Canada, decline of Spain after the death of Philip 11 in 1598. Thirty Years' War, English Civil War, Counter-Reformation, Russia, "the Time of Troubles," beginning of the Romanov dynasty.

Week 2
Age of Louis XIV, Moliere, Racine, et al. Holy Roman Empire and wars with Ottoman Turkey, growth of Prussia, Peter the Great and the rise of Russia, "Window on the West."

Week 3
Age of Enlightenment. What was enlightened about the age of Enlightenment? Noble savages, enlightened despotism, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Potemkin village, spread of serfdom, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, "ecrassez l'infame." The Mission, Candide, Seven Years War (one of several French and Indian Wars), partitions of Poland.

Week 4
French Revolution and Napoleon. Atlantic connection, American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the U.S., Jefferson, Franklin, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Bastille Day, execution of Louis XVI, Edmund Burke, A Tale of Two Cities." "Roll up the map of Europe….", Napoleon as the fulfillment/betrayal of the French Revolution, the nation in arms, disregard for legitimacy.

Week 5
Reaction to Napoleon. Congress of Vienna, 'a world restored," Metternich, industrialization, "railroads … will cause the lower classes to move around unnecessarily," romanticism, Germany and the brothers Grimm, folklore, Byron and Greek Independence, Chateaubriand, Shelley, Walter Scott, artist as rebel, Russia and the Decembrist Revolution, Alexander Pushkin.

Week 6-7
1848. Revolutions in France, Austria, Germany, Hungary. Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto, Queen Victoria (1837-1901), Victorian England, Crimean War, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Bismarck, 1866, and German unification, Austria-Hungary, Napoleon III, Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. French Impressionism, balance, of power, "sick man of Europe," Balkans as "powder keg of Europe," socialism Darwinism, Freud, "The Proud Tower," Russo-Japanese War of 1905, Revolution of 1905, rise of Germany, breakdown of Bismarck's European order, loss of cultural confidence (?), Picasso and modern art, Americanization of the World (W. T. Stead), World War I, Russian Revolution(s), V.I. Lenin.

Week 8
Europe between the wars, Problem of looking back at history and seeing only inevitability (hindsight is always 20/20), road to World War II, war weariness of Europe, All Quiet on the Western Front, Testament of Youth, The Sun Also rises, Dr. Zhivago, defeated Germany, Versailles Treaty, Woodrow Wilson, Futurism, Mussolini and Italian Fascism, Hitler and Nazism, "Little Man, What Now?", Lenin/Stalin/Trotsky, Stalinism, Animal Farm, blood vs. "the worker has no country," Munich.

Week 9
World War II and its effect on everything. Cold War, Marshall Plan, NATO, Truman Doctrine, a prostrate Europe, "the iron curtain," decolonization, the EEC, Europe after the fall of communism.

Week 1
Map of Latin America. Pre-Columbian background: Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, et. al. How does its Pre-Columbian heritage affect Latin America today?

Week 2
Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) background. 1492. Militant Catholicism, Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada, Bartolome de las Casas, Protector de los Indios, Expulsion of Jews and Moors from Spain in same year that Columbus first lands in New World.

Week 3
"Discovery" and conquest. Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, Moctezuma, Atahualpa, conquistadors, Bernal Diaz, effect on native populations, African slave trade.

Week 4-5
Colonial rule, the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, vice royalties, The Mission, independence, Napoleon, Monroe Doctrine. How do events elsewhere (Europe? North America?) affect Latin America? How has this affected Latin America down to this day?

Week 5-6
Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. "So far from God and so close to the United States." Independence, the Alamo, the Mexican War, Henry David Thoreau and On Civil Disobedience, Benito Juarez, the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Woodrow Wilson and "Blackjack" Pershing, The Power and the Glory, William Walker and Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Rigoberto Mencu, the Spanish-American War, Teddy Roosevelt, the Panama Canal, Cuba and Castro, Puerto Rico, baseball.

Week 7
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and the Guianas. Oil, cocaine, Sendero Luminoso, Incas, Vargas Llosa, and Fujimori.

Week 8
Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Patagonia, Jorge Luis Borges, Evita Peron. W.H. Hudson, gauchos, the Paraguayan War 1865-1870, Salvador and Isabel Allende, Pinochet.

Week 9
Brazil. Amazonia, Os Sertoes, African slavery, Pele, rubber, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Carnival.

Week 1
Geography of China. Influence on its history. Legendary China. Myths and legends. Middle Kingdom. Shang and Zhou periods. Bronzes, oracles, art of earliest China. Chinese religion and philosophy. I Ching. Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism. Analects of Confucius, the Tao te Ching, Journey to the West.

Week 2 - 3
Ch'in dynasty. Unification of China. Shih Huangdi, "mandate of heaven." Civil service exam, scholar gentleman. Great wall of China, Han dynasty. Sui, Grand Canal, science, gunpowder, printing, paper money, T'ang poetry, T'ang civilization: China at its most cosmopolitan. Sung, Mongols (Yuan dynasty), Kublai Khan, Xanadu, Marco Polo, Ming dynasty, porcelain, landscape painting, Ming xenophobia.

Week 4
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Manchu but gradually underwent Sinification. Chinoiserie. Macartney's unsuccessful mission to China in 1793. Opium War, 1840-1842, unequal treaties. Taiping rebellion, weakness of later Qing, influence of Christian missionaries, treaty ports, Sino-Japanese War, Treaty of Shiminoseki 1895. Boxer Rebellion, 1900. Sun Yatsen, Jiang Kaishek, Mao Zedong and the birth of Communism in China, the Long March, Yenan, World War II, victory of the Communists, October 1, 1949.

Week 5
Korean War, relations with the USSR, Sino-Soviet split, Cultural Revolution, Vietnam War, Nixon's trip to China, death of Mao, September 1976. Madame Mao and the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping, Tibet and the Dalai Lama, China's embrace of capitalism, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tien An Men, Three Gorges Dam (Yangtze).

Week 6
Geography of Japan. Shintoism, influence of China, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, samurai warriors, Commodore Perry's mission to Japan, 1853. Lafcadio Hearn, Noh and kabuki theatre, Japanese woodcuts, Japanese art in general, haiku.

Week 7
Meiji Japan. Race to catch up with the West. Defeat of China, 1895. Defeat of Russia, 1905 (first defeat of European power by Asian state, widely cheered throughout the continent). World War I. May 4th movement in China to protest Japanese gains at Chinese expense, 1919. Japanese militarism, earthquakes, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hirohito, World War II, Rape of Nanjing, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

Week 8
Occupation of Japan. General Douglas MacArthur. Japan forswears war. Economic miracle. Ethnic homogeneity, baseball, Liberal Democratic Party and its monopoly of power, Mishima, Kurosawa.

Week 9
Korea. Geography. Influence of China and Japan. Buddhism. Rule by Japan after 1895. Division into North and South Korea after WW II. Korean War, flash-point of Cold War, economic success of South. Hermit kingdom of Kim Il-Sung. Famine in North and economic recession in South.

Week 1
Geography of India, map, influence on history of India. Way in which what was once merely a geographical term came to denote a religion. Ganges, Indus, monsoon, Himalayas, peoples and languages. Aryan invasions or settlements, Dravidian peoples, aborigines. "Sanskritization," Vedas, caste (varna and jati), Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Jainism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Alexander the Great.

Week 2
Mauryas, Ashoka, Guptas, Harsha, Kalidasa, bhakti, Vedanta. Shiva, Vishnu, Shankara, coming of Christianity to Malabar, coming of Islam, Mahmud of Ghazni, Alberuni, Delhi Sultanate.

Week 3
Mughal India, Babur, 1526. Akbar and the Din i-Ilahi, Shah Jahan, Taj Mahal, Shivaji and the Marathas, Deccan Sultanates, Vijayanagar, Portugese and Goa, Guru Nanak and Sikhism.

Week 4
The coming of the British, the East India Company, wars with France, Dupleix, Tipu Sultan, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Permanent Settlement of 1793, indigo, tea, spices, abolition of sati and thuggee, Indian mutiny/Sepoy rebellion/beginning of the war for Indian independence? 1857, "martial races," effects of Mutiny, British Crown takes over governance of India, Governor-General to Viceroy.

Week 5
Brahmo Samaj, "Bengali Renaissance," Indian National Congress, 1885. World Congress of Religions in Chicago, 1893, and Vivekananda. Rabindranath Tagore, Arya Samaj, Morley-Minto, "divide and rule?" Separate electorates for Muslims, Curzon and the partition of Bengal, Jallianwallah Bagh, Gandhi, Tilak, Nehru, Jinnah, independence and partition, Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, Hindu-Muslim violence (communalism).

Week 6
Independent India and Pakistan, Congress Party, States Reorganization, Kashmir, Non-Aligned Movement, Indira Gandhi, 1971 War with Pakistan and independence for Bangladesh. The Emergency, Indira voted out and then re-elected, storming of the Golden Temple, assassination of Indira 1984, Rajiv Gandhi, assassination of Rajiv 1991, Mandal Commission, backward castes and other backward castes (OBC's), communalism, BJP, Vajpayee, Benazir Bhutto, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Tamil-Singhalese war, Theravada Buddhism, Nepal, Bhutan.

Week 7-8
Southeast Asia. Geography. Burma and Buddhism, Burmese Days (Orwell), Vietnam, French Indochina, Dien Binh Phu, Geneva Conference, 1954. South and North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam War, Cambodia, Khmers, Angkor Wat, Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, The Killing Fields, Thailand, Philippines (Spain and the U.S.), Indonesia, Dutch East Indies, spice islands, Java, Islam Javanese style, Sukarno, Suharto, Bali and Hinduism, Malaysia and Singapore.

Week 8-9
Australia and New Zealand. Geography. Abel Tasman, Anthony Van Diemen, Captain James Cook, aborigines, Port Arthur, convicts (transportation) - after American Revolution no place for Britain to dump its convicts. Botany Bay, January 26, 1788, First Fleet, gold rushes, wool and merinos, Federation, emancipists, World War I and World War II, Gallipoli and ANZAC Day, My Brilliant Career, Dorothy Mackellar, Robert Menzies, land rights, end of imperial preference. New Zealand: Maoris, pakehas, Treaty of Waitangi, February 6, 1840, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin.

Week 1
Geography. Arab folk-tales, Pre-Islamic setting, Judaism, Rome, Byzantium, Christianity, Jerusalem sacred to all three religions. Languages and people.

Week 2
Muhammad (570-632, the Prophet, hijra (622), Mecca, Medina, Kaaba, "five pillars of Islam," hadiths, first four caliphs, Ali - fourth and son-in-law of the Prophet, assassinated 661. Karbala 681 and Hussein. Shia and Sunni. Sind to Gibraltar by a century after death of Muhammad.

Week 3
Civil war, Umayyads and Damascus, Abbasids and Baghdad, Thousand and One Nights, Moorish Spain, Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Persians, Avicenna, Averroes, Omar Khayyam, Sufism.

Week 4
Turks, slaves then slave dynasties, Mongols, Seljuks, Crusades, Rumi, Ottoman Turks, Janissaries, Safavi Iran, Mughal India, Mameluke Egypt, Taj Mahal, "Isfahan is half the world," art and architecture of Islam, Russia, Balkans, Indonesia, China, East and West Africa.

Week 5
Western dominance. Indian mutiny, Muhammad al-din al-Afghani, Sirhindi, Wahhabis, humiliation of domination by West, "sick man of Europe," World War I, defeat of Ottoman Turkey and abolition of Caliphate, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and secularization Turkey, abolition of fez and veil, Sykes-Picot, Balfour Declaration.

Week 6-7
Arab-Israeli disputes, Judaism, Jewish diaspora, ghettos, Theodor Herzl, Zionism, Dreyfus Affair, anti-Semitism, Balfour Declaration, Holocaust, partition of Palestine 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. Intifada, David Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Irgun, V. Jabotinsky and revisionism, Camp David Accords, Yasser Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Nasser, Sadat.

Week 8-9
Islamic world today. Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Algeria, oil, Islamic fundamentalism, Afghan-Soviet War, Muslims in Europe and the U.S., Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.

Week 1
Geography. Nile, Congo, Sahara, Rift Valley, veldt, political map of modern Africa.

Week 2
Egypt, Kush, Punt, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and "solar monotheism," the Roman Empire, Carthage, Augustine of Hippo, Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt, Black Athena.

Week 3
Coming of Islam. Egypt, Spain (from North Africa), Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Timbuktu, Ashante, Benin. Art and architecture of Africa.

Week 4
Africa and the slave trade. Unsuitability or unwillingness of Native Americans as work force. Portugal and Prince Henry the Navigator, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Virginia 1619, Roots, Amistad. Philip Curtin.

Week 5
African diaspora. U.S., West Indies, Brazil, now Britain, France, and Canada. Tobacco, cotton, invention of the cotton gin 1793, sugar, 1834 slavery outlawed in British Empire. 1863, Emancipation Proclamation. 1888 abolition of slavery in Brazil, question of African survivals. Melville Herskovits. Liberia.

Week 6
European imperialism. British East Africa, Portuguese Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea. French West and French Equatorial Africa. Belgian Congo, German Tanganyika and Southwest Africa, Dutch settlement of South Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Richard Burton, Speke, Livingstone and Stanley, Gordon of Khartoum, Mahdi, "the Dark Continent," World Wars I and II, decolonization, Congo Conference 1884, Italian imperialism in Ethiopia. 1896, Adowa.

Week 7
Wole Soyinka, Alan Paton, Chinua Achebe, Leopold Senghor, Mark Mathabane, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee. West Africa and focus on Nigeria, Congo, Patrice Lumumba, Mobutu, Kabila, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Cameroon.

Week 8
East Africa. Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, Mau-Mau, Masai, Uganda, Idi Amin and the expulsion of the Indians, 1971. Tanganyika-Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, North and South Rhodesia, Zambia and UDI, Zimbabwe, Ian Smith, Robert Mugabe, Sudan, and Mozambique.

Week 9
South Africa. Bushmen and Hottentots, Boers, British, abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, Great Trek, Zulu Wars, Shaka, gold, diamonds, Johannesburg and Uitlanders, Cecil Rhodes, Jameson Raid, Boer War and mafficking, National Party, apartheid, Nelson Mandela, Xhosa-ANC, Zulu-Gatsha Buthulezi's Inkatha Party, Kaffir Boy.

Overview
The biology curriculum at Renaissance School will guide students on an exciting exploration of life on Earth, with a constant emphasis on the relationship between structure and function in our incredibly diverse array of life forms. Students will begin their study of biology by examining basic characteristics common to all living systems: how cells-- the original units of life-- maintain a stable internal environment, obtain energy, and reproduce. As students repeat for themselves Pasteur's experiments disproving the spontaneous generation of organisms, they will more fully grasp our current models for how life originally arose. By studying single-celled organisms the way Anton van Leeuwenhoek did-- with a simple, low-power microscope-- students begin to understand and appreciate the cellular basis of all life. We will investigate how the basic structural plan of cells can be modified for different ways of life; our examination of a wide range of cell forms in single-celled to multicellular organisms will demonstrate how "division of labor" and cell specialization are associated with increasing complexity of living things.

We will examine how the structure and reproduction of DNA provides the basis for inheritance in all forms of life on Earth by constructing 3-dimensional models of the DNA molecule, as Watson and Crick did in 1953. Modern-day applications of DNA technology such as bio-engineering, gene therapy, and forensics will also be surveyed. Students will use living plants, simple animals, and even their own families to study patterns of inheritance-- how genetically-specified instructions are expressed in living organisms. How the process of evolution is based upon the unique character of individuals and patterns of change in species over time will provide a framework for an introduction to theories and practice of classification. Students will discover the vast range of forms and adaptations in life on Earth, from the simplest single-celled organisms to the most complex multicellular plants and animals. In analyzing the relationship of structure to function, students will learn how many different types of organism interact with their environment and with other living things.

Our survey of the diversity of life will culminate in a review of how the different human organ systems function and interact to satisfy our requirements for life and health. We will conclude our study of life on Earth by examining relationships among organisms in different environments, with emphasis on the unique impact of human activity on natural ecosystems. The study of biology relates in many ways to the students' own experiences, and we will exploit a variety of opportunities for enriching their educational experience with field trips to local habitats, research laboratories, and animal hospitals. The biology curriculum at Renaissance School will immerse our students in the living world around us.

Summary
Students will begin their study of biology by examining basic characteristics common to all living systems: how cells-- the original units of life-- maintain a stable internal environment, obtain energy, and reproduce. We will investigate how the basic structural plan of cells can be modified for different ways of life.

Summary
We will examine how the structure and reproduction of DNA provides a molecular basis for inheritance and survey how genetically-specified instructions are expressed in living organisms. The unique character of individuals and patterns of change in species over time will provide a framework for theories and practice of classification.

Summary
Students will discover the vast range of forms and adaptations in life on Earth, from the simplest single-celled organisms to the most complex multicellular plants and animals. We will learn how many different types of organism interact with their environment and with other living things.

Summary
Our survey of the diversity of life will culminate in a review of human organ systems and requirements for life and health. We will then examine relationships among organisms in different environments, with emphasis on the unique impact of human activity on natural ecosystems.

Overview
The chemistry curriculum at Renaissance School will introduce students to the world of matter and energy through a historical journey in which students rediscover for themselves the basic chemical laws and relate these fundamentals to specific chemical applications in their own lives. Students will begin their study of chemistry by surveying the structure and properties of atoms and the relationships within chemical families. By personally retracing the process by which Mendeleyev constructed the periodic table of the elements, students will gain a vivid appreciation of the meaning and usefulness of this magnificent graphic tool. After studying how variations in nuclear structure produce isotopes, both stable and radioactive, we will examine the role of isotopes in applications as diverse as the uranium and hydrogen bombs, in biological research, and in medical diagnosis and therapeutics.

Students will investigate the dynamic properties of matter to discover how individual atoms interact to form molecules. We will examine the nature of chemical bonds, patterns of bond formation, and the quantitative character of chemical reactions; and the significance of pH will receive special attention. As Antoine Lavoisier did in the 18th century, our students will be able to formulate the law of conservation of matter by burning magnesium. The use of mathematics will inform our study of chemical solutions, the gas laws and kinetic theory, thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. Students will discover how chemical processes can be predicted, measured, and interpreted quantitatively by using additional classical experiments from history, such as deriving Charles' and Boyle's laws by manipulating simple gases, or finding Gay-Lussac's and Avogadro's explanation for laws of combining volumes through the quantitative hydrolysis of water.

We will complete the year with a survey of chemical processes in living systems. Students will discover how the special chemistry of carbon forms the basis of the major classes of biological molecules, and they will explore the roles of different macromolecules in the structure, function, and nutrition of living things. The special characteristics of water that establish this compound as the "universal solvent" for living systems will receive special attention. The nature, occurrence, function, and dynamics of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats will be surveyed from both the chemical and the human perspective. Throughout this course, students will read the scientists' own writings in order to recreate original experiments and derive famous equations for themselves. When students relate these historical discoveries to recent ones, they will truly see farther as, in the words of Isaac Newton, they "stand on the shoulders of giants."

Summary
The nature of matter, its forms and its changes, is founded in the fundamental structure of the atom and in patterns of energy transfer. Students will begin their study of chemistry by surveying the structure and properties of atoms, relationships within chemical families, and variations in nuclear structure that produce isotopes, both stable and radioactive.

Summary
Students will investigate the dynamic properties of matter to discover how individual atoms interact to form molecules. We will examine the nature of chemical bonds, patterns of bond formation, and the quantitative character of chemical reactions; and the significance of pH will receive special attention.

Summary
The use of mathematics will inform our study of chemical solutions, the gas laws and kinetic theory, thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. Students will discover how chemical processes can be predicted, measured, and interpreted quantitatively by using classical experiments from history.

Summary
We will complete the year with a survey of chemical processes in living systems. Students will discover how the special chemistry of carbon forms the basis of the major classes of biological molecules and explore the roles of different macromolecules in the structure, function, and nutrition of living things.

Overview
At each grade level, students will read literature, employ various forms of literary criticism, study vocabulary and write and present expository essays and creative pieces that correspond, in subject matter, style and/or in period and place, to their historical study at Renaissance School. At each point along our historical literary journey, we will examine and practice the literary techniques (such as point-of-view, characterization, plot, setting, etc.) that we discover in the pieces we read. Of course, students will study English grammar in the context of their own reading, speaking and writing. Where connections exist, English students will interpret what they read through the lenses of French, science, visual arts, dance, mathematics, music, and drama. In all cases, we will seek to recognize the ways in which literature as art represents and illumines the cultural context that inspired it.

Along with their study of the Ancient Near East in history, students will study vocabulary and read a variety of excerpts and complete written pieces that shed light on that historical period. For example, students will read and compare the Gilgamesh Epic to the Old Testament creation stories. As they study the world of Ancient Egypt, students will continue to consider the human need to understand origins as we study vocabulary, read, write about, create and perform our own Egyptian myths. Intensive etymological studies as well as reading, discussing and writing about Greek drama will provide students with an awareness of the wealth of moral-philosophical thought the Greeks bequeathed to the world. Greek drama, ranging from Euripides to Aeschylus and from Socrates to Plato and Aristotle. In addition, we will study the critics from whom Western literary criticism emerged, Plato and Aristotle. As students study Rome, they will read their choices of various works from and about both the Roman Republic and Empire, such as Cincinnatus at the Plow, Julius Caesar, Aeneid, Antony and Cleopatra, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Julian the Apostate, and the neo-Platonists. Iliad and Odyssey.

As students enter the Middle Ages in their history class, in English they will begin studying vocabulary and reading pieces that express the religious and philosophical ideas of that time in works such as St. Augustine's City of God. With their brief encounters with Islam, Moorish Spain, Byzantium, and Russia, students will become familiar with their choice of Arthurian legends, Robin Hood, Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales, Abeland and Heloise, The Lion in Winter, among others. T.H. White's Arthur Becomes King of Britain, Thomas Malory's The Marriage of King Arthur, and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur, Geoffrey Hill's Merlin and Edwin Muir's Merlin will be choices. Martin Luther's Here I Stand personalizes the Protestant Reformation. Mystic writings, such as those by Meister Eckart, et. al.), also provide insight into what led to the religious revolution. A Man for All Seasons and Utopia also will be choices. Student writing will include an expository piece comparing and contrasting Luther's stance against the Catholic Church and Prometheus' stance against the gods (read earlier in the first quarter). As students study the Spanish Inquisition in their history class, we will read Cervantes' Don Quixote and possibly Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and/or Othello.

Exploration journals of Massachusetts explorers, and Pilgrim's Progress will correspond to students' historical study of the world of 1600. Students also will discuss John Locke's notion of tabula rosa. Students will select either A Tale of Two Cities or Candide or to accompany their study of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Students also will discuss Rousseau's Social Contract. Such British Romantic poets as Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Coleridge will join Pushkin (The Bronze Horseman) and the Grimm Brothers to form the literary constellation from which students may select pieces to accompany their historical study. Darwin's Origin of Species. Vocabulary (etymology) studies will capitalize on the evolutionary quality of the English language (i.e., Old, Middle, modern, and future English). Writing activities will include creating one's own words and creating character sketches of primary figures in the age of Darwin. As students study Europe between the wars, they will read, discuss and write about various writers of that time, such as Elie Wiesel, Hermann Hesse, Eugene O'Neill, Albert Camus, and Orwell, among others. We will introduce Marxist literary criticism as we read Orwell. Vocabulary study will draw words from the texts and from the historical period.
Extension: Schindler's List, Dr. Zhivago, A Farewell to Arms, etc.

Students will employ historical criticism to interpret and discuss Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits (both the novel and the film). In addition, students will study her blend of the real and supernatural as they use this technique to write their own creative pieces. In conjunction with their ecological study, students will read the poetry of Pablo Neruda (Residence on Earth). His poetry demonstrates his movement from a symbolist to a surrealist to a realist. General Song will allow students to apply Marxist literary criticism. Students also will study fantasy in works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude). This will allow students to learn about and practice archetypal literary criticism.

We will read both East Asian literature and pieces influenced by East Asia. Students will encounter representative texts from such religious/philosophical traditions as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. In addition, students will learn about the current conflicts between Tibet and China and will view and discuss Paul Wagner's Windhorse. In conjunction with our analysis of Windhorse, we will begin to explore the film a s literature through studying current Asian-American drama and documentaries by Spencer Nakasako.

Students will read from the ancient Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, two of the crucial works for the entire Hindu tradition. Tagore's poetry, short stories, popular songs and visual art pieces will provide a sort of "westernized" version of the eastern philosophy students will encounter in their history class. We will apply formal, philosophical, and historical literary criticism to our texts as we join in close dialogue with the music department.

To get a sense of the Islamic world, students will read various texts that express the religious/philosophical/psychological understandings of Islamic peoples. The Koran as well as the hadiths, or sayings traditionally attributed to the Prophet, will teach students about Muhammad's life story as well as familiarize them with Islamic religious, political, social and personal conduct. Students also will taste Islamic culture through folktales and Sufi parables, among others.

Students first will read selected essays from Roland Barthes' Mythologies to inform their deconstructionist literary criticism. We will read, discuss, present and write about literature and film that reflect conflicts in South African history. Students will address slave trade and European imperialism, for example, as well as modern African issues through examining African visual and performed art as well as literature (such as Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country) and film (such as Amistad). For insight into the impact European culture has had on African society, students will read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, among other pieces. Soyinka's use of tribal myths and Western literary forms will enable students to study formal criticism as they gain further insight into African culture.

1st Quarter
In the first quarter students will learn how to greet one another, ask who someone is, ask where someone is, how to order food and drink at a cafe, describe people and things, tell what classes and subject they take, name objects in the classroom, tell time, date and numbers, ask yes and no questions, describe things they do after school, tell their likes and dislikes, talk about their family and home, compare French and American schools and houses.

Language structure and grammar:
Verb conjugation: forms of etre (to be) and avoir (to have) in the present tense,
regular verbs in the present tense
Subject pronouns
Possessive adjectives (part 1)
Adjective agreement
Definite and indefinite articles
negation

2nd Quarter
In the second quarter the students will learn to order food at a restaurant, shop for food, find out prices, ask for the quantities they want, look at French and U.S. food shopping customs, tell or ask where people go, give locations, tell what belongs to whom, tell things they are able to do, speak about traveling, airports and flights, railway stations and trains, about summer leisure activities and sports. They will compare French and American attitudes and customs regarding food and leisure, and observe differences between air and train travel in France and America. In parallel to textbook studies, the students will also learn a few modern poems and begin to appreciate French culture from the inside.

Language structure and grammar:
Irregular verbs in present indicative forms: ALLER and its use as "Futur Proche",
FAIRE, POUVOIR, VOULOIR and verbs ending in IR and RE
Contractions of prepositions
Possessive adjectives (part 2)
Interrogative adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives
Partitive articles in the affirmative and negative

3rd Quarter
In the third quarter students will learn to identify, describe and shop for articles of clothing, express opinions, make observations and compare people and things. They will learn to describe their daily routine and personal grooming habits, what people do to stay fit, speak about cars and driving, soccer and other indoor and outdoor sports. They will talk about winter activities, resorts, skiing and ice skating, and use the past tense in doing so. They will compare shopping, fitness and driving habits in France and in the U.S. They will continue to explore poetry and themes dear to modern French poets.

Language structure and grammar:
Formation and use of the comparative and superlative
Reflexive verbs
Reflexive pronouns
Who and whom questions
Formation of questions with inverted word order
Formation and use of "passe compose" past tense

4th Quarter
In the fourth quarter students will learn to talk about health and medicine, describe symptoms of illness and parts of the body, have a prescription filled, compare French and American medical services and attitudes towards health. They will discuss movies, plays and museums, and contrast French and American cultural activities. They will identify cities, countries and continents, learn to check into and out of a hotel, describe past actions, talk about money and spending habits and analyze differences in spending habits between French and American teenagers. Students will be ready to tackle scenes from some of the most accessible theater plays of the French language, such as The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco.

Language structure and grammar:
Pronouns used as direct and indirect object
Use of pronouns in negative constructions
Past participles
Affirmative and negative imperative
Formation of passe compose with etre
Agreement of past participle with subject when conjugated with etre.

1st Quarter
In the first quarter students will review all the key structure points and vocabulary topics presented in French Level I. This review can be adapted to the needs of a class featuring new students with no prior knowledge of French. In level II the students will follow the same thematic approach as in level I but will explore in greater depth and detail the various aspects of each theme.

They will learn words and expressions related to postal service and letter writing. They will talk about the life of suburban families, daily routines, household appliances and home activities. They will learn phone etiquette and practice talking to an operator. They will learn to cope with complications when traveling by train in French speaking countries. First elements of literature will be presented in excerpt from Victor Hugo and Jules Verne.

Language structure and grammar:
Relative pronouns que and qui
Agreement of past participle with a preceding direct object
Present indicative and past participle of verbs with spelling changes
Use of reflexive pronouns in reciprocal constructions
Passe compose of reflexive verbs
Formation and use of the imperfect
Contrasting uses of the passe compose and the imperfect

2nd Quarter
In the second quarter students will talk about hair styles, features, cosmetics and perfumes. They will learn about accidents, injuries, doctors, hospitals, and medical procedures. They will talk about equipment, services, personnel, and procedures aboard a commercial airliner, and describe the various activities of a bustling airport. They will travel to Martinique and other French-speaking islands in the Caribbean. They will explore road travel, various traffic situations, pedestrian traffic, how to give and ask for directions and express location. Students will be able to enjoy some of the finer fruits of French culture by reading selected poetry by Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Language structure and grammar:
Demonstrative and interrogative pronouns
Nouns and adjectives that form their plurals with x
Relative pronouns ce qui and ce que
Use of object pronouns with the imperative
Comparatives and superlatives
Future tense and its uses
Use of direct and indirect object in the same sentence

3rd Quarter
In the third quarter the students will learn about features of garments and types of materials, about taking their clothes to a laundry or dry cleaner, and about taking care of their clothes when traveling or camping. They will learn to use the Parisian public transportation system, metro, bus, RER and talk about festivities, holidays and celebrations of all kinds such as weddings. They will talk about school facilities and personnel and contrast French and American school activities. They will learn to talk about music and about playing all sorts of musical instruments. Students will read and perform some scenes from a few hilarious plays by Moliere as well.

Language structure and grammar:
Conditional of regular and irregular verbs
Complex sentences containing different verb tenses combinations
Causative construction with faire + infinitive
Pronouns en et y, and their uses
Subjunctive mood and its forms in the present tense
Use of subjunctive to express wishes, preferences and demands

4th Quarter
In the fourth quarter students will learn about good and bad social and table manners, how to address people appropriately, how to express emotional reactions to the actions of others as well as compare good manners and socially acceptable reactions in France and the U.S. They will learn about the French culture of North Africa, and about the North African influence on French culture. They will explore farming, farm animals, and agriculture in France and contrast it with its American counterpart. They will discuss professions and trades and learn how to write a resume and present themselves in job interviews in a French context. They will read excerpts from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and enjoy some more poetry from Jacques Prevert, Robert Desnos, and Mallarme.

Language structure and grammar:
Use of the subjunctive after expressions of emotion or doubt
Irregular verbal forms in present subjunctive
Forms and uses of the past subjunctive
Special uses in the indicative mood
Use of the subjunctive in relative clauses and as an imperative

Overview
We believe that students learn most effectively when actively engaged in the learning process and when they understand the real-life applications of what they are studying. To this end, our mathematics curriculum constantly attempts to intertwine experimental data with theoretical concepts, and to illustrate mathematical connections with other disciplines.

During their 9th grade year of study, students examine geometry from multiple perspectives, including formal geometric proofs and hands-on applications. Topics include the planning and writing of traditional proofs, classic straight-edge and compass constructions, as well as Archimedes' proofs by compression. Projects involving the design and construction of toothpick bridges or geodesic domes emphasize the use of scale drawing, and demonstrate practical applications of geometry. The historical context of geometry, from Archimedes to Buckminster Fuller and M.C. Escher, is examined. Emphasis on the fluent application of both metric and standard systems of measurement continues throughout the school year.

During their 10th grade year of study, students explore the world of Algebra, with an emphasis on functions as mathematical models. Our Algebra II curriculum progresses from linear and quadratic equations through logarithmic and irrational functions and conic sections. Studies also include sequences and series, probability theory, and conclude with an introduction to the fundamentals of trigonometry and trigonometric functions. Through extensive use of the Texas Instrument TI-83 graphing calculator (and it's associated data collection sensors), students frequently generate and analyze data. In this way, they are able to create and manipulate many examples of linear, quadratic, or even exponential relationships. As time allows, the TI-83's internal programming language is explored. Our Algebra II curriculum lays a solid foundation for future pre-calculus course-work.

1st Quarter

Assessment and Review of Skills

• Computations with decimals, integers, and fractions
• Connections between fractions, decimals, ratio, and percent
• Coordinate plane fundamentals
• Graphing skills
• Measurement skills

Fundamentals of Geometry

• Terminology
  definitions
  postulates
  mathematical reasoning
• Proof
  segments, lines, angles
  planning and writing proofs
• Lines and Planes
  parallels, transversals
  angle sum theorems for triangles
  angle sum theorems for polygons
• Design Applications
  Bridge Design and Construction

2nd Quarter

Congruency and Similarity

• Congruence
  defined
  in triangles
  proofs and theorems
• Applications of Congruency
  triangles
  parallel lines
  inequalities with triangles
• Similarity
  defined
  using ratio and proportion
  in triangles
• Right Triangles
  proportions
  Pythagorus and Pythagorean theorem
  tangents, sines, cosines

3rd Quarter

Circles

• Terminology
• Tangents
• Arcs
• Chords
• Angles and segments

Geometric Constructions

• Basic constructions
  segments
  angles
  bisectors
  perpendicular and parallel lines
  circles
• Loci
  simple
  compound
  in constructions
• Greek connections
  Archimedes
  Method of Compression (discovering Pi)

4th Quarter

Measurement

• Linear measurements and area
  • methods of measurement
    systems (metric, standard)
    conversion between systems
    linear, area, volume
• Perimeter and area
  • in polygons
    rectangles, trapezoids, parallelograms, general quadrilaterals
    similarity
  • in circles
• Surface area and volume
  in prisms, pyramids
  in cylinders, cones, spheres
• Application
  • Buckminster Fuller and the Geodesic Dome
    why domes - surface area: volume ratios of structures
    designing and building domes

Coordinate Geometry

• Segments and lines
• Distance formula
• Proofs
• Mappings - reflections, rotations, symmetries, composite mappings
• Applications
  Symmetries of the Square (group theory)
  Escher and tessellation

1st Quarter

Fundamentals

• Computational skills assessment
• Algebraic concepts review
  absolute value
  variables and expressions
  linear equations
• Properties and Proofs

Linear Functions

• Equations-graphs-tables: interconnections
• Systems of linear equations
  • solution methods
    linear combination
    graphic
    matrices
  • systems as mathematical models
  • systems with three or more variables
    matrix solutions
• Inequalities
  systems of inequalities
  linear programming

Polynomials

• Multiplication and division
• Addition and subtraction
• Graphs of equations
• Methods of factoring
• Solving equations by factoring

2nd Quarter

Polynomials (continued)

Quadratic Functions

• Graphs
• Parabolas
• Quadratic formula
• Completing the square to find vertex of parabola
• Equations from graphs
• Mathematical models

Exponential and Logarithmic Functions

• Exponentiation
  operation
  properties
  negative and zero exponents
  radicals and fractional exponents
  scientific notation
• Inverses of Functions
• Logarithmic Functions
  base 10 logarithms
  natural logarithms
  Mathematical models

3rd Quarter

Exponential and Logarithmic Functions (continued)

Irrational Algebraic Functions

• Definitions and examples
• Simple radical form
• Equations
• Functions
• More than one independent variable

Conic Sections

• Circles
• Ellipses
• Hyperbolas
• Parabolas
• Equations from geometric definitions
• Systems of quadratic equations

4th Quarter

Higher Degree Functions and Complex Numbers

• Cubics and other equations
• Imaginary numbers
• Complex numbers
• Complex solutions of quadratic equations (quadratic formula applications)
• Mathematical models

Sequences and Series

• Arithmetic and geometric sequences
• Arithmetic and geometric means
• Series
  arithmetic and geometric
  convergence
• Sequences and series as mathematical models
• Factorials
• Binomial series
• Binomial formula (Newton)

Probability and Functions of a Random Variable

• Terminology and two counting principles (and/or)
• Permutations and combinations
• Properties
• Functions of a random variable
• Mathematical expectation

Trigonometric and Circular Functions (optional extension topics)]

• Measurement of arcs and rotation
• Definitions
• Graphs
• Sinusoidal
  graphs
  equations of sinusoids from their graphs
  as mathematical models
• Inverse trigonometric functions
  definition
  evaluation
  as mathematical models
• Trigonometric properties and identities
• Composite argument properties
  even and odd functions
  multiple argument
  half-argument
  sum and product
  linear combination of sine and cosine
• Simplification of trigonometric expressions
• Trigonometric equations