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STEM at Chadwick immerses students in exciting and experiential learning that prepares them for success out in the real world.

Learning by doing gives students a deeper, more conceptual understanding of their lessons. 

Chadwick Middle School introduces your child to a new level of academic challenge in preparation for advanced coursework in the Upper School. Academic engagement is built on Chadwick’s Core Competencies — critical and creative thinking, character, courage, communication, collaboration and cultural competence. These guiding principles form the basis for challenging and invigorating learning. Chadwick Middle School students have ongoing opportunities to express their creativity through projects and collaboration. Each new challenge and experience breeds character-building skills along the way. 

STEM in the Middle School

In the Classroom

All Chadwick Middle-Schoolers are required to take at least one STEM course in addition to their standard science and math curricula, with the goal to ignite their scientific imaginations and prepare them to pursue advanced classes in the Upper School.  

Students get to choose between engaging STEM electives like web design, culinary chemistry and other experimental, project-based options and interdisciplinary skills like coding and engineering. 

 

Middle School Academics

 

 

Broader Curriculum

  • MS Web Coding Lab

Students use the Processing.js language to learn control flow, object-oriented principles and debugging techniques. By the end of the trimester, they’re able to devise their own game and deploy it to the Web.

  • MS Electronics Lab

This elective educates students about circuits, programming and debugging techniques using the Arduino interface. By the end of the trimester, they’re able to combine their knowledge of physical technical components and programming skills to create their own projects.

  • MS Coding Club

Students learn a variety of programming languages to get a solid understanding of computer science concepts. They then design and implement their own web or mobile app utilizing real-world programming, processes and tools.

  • AstroGro

In this elective, students grow crops in self-sustained 3D-printed pods. They code an app to monitor their crops’ health and communicate with other students what care needs to be given and what chores have been done.

  • SEAL

SEAL challenges students to devise novel ratios of metallic alloys to attempt to split water molecules. At the end of the spring semester students present their work at a Caltech conference.

Teams and Clubs

  1. VEX Robotics
  2. Coding Club
  3. Math Club
  4. Technovation
  5. Rube Goldberg Santa Monica Pier STEAM Competition

 

Megan McEwen, PH.D. Upper School Science Teacher
They have to tinker and they have to try things and they have to fail at those things sometimes and bounce back and try something new and try and analyze their work. This is the place to do that.

Dive deeper into Chadwick's Middle School courses.

middle school curriculum