Authors’ Corner is a workshop for students who love to write. We write about what is important to us in imaginative fiction, true stories about our lives, and poetry. Using freewriting, we practice following our thoughts to discover what ideas we have in our minds. As we read stories aloud we identify how the authors create vivid characters and engaging plots. Students complete long fictional stories, using what they have learned about plot structure, specific sensory details, metaphors and similes, and dialogue. Field trips to a “haunted house”, cafe, and the beach allow students to draw inspiration from their experiences in the world.

Our study of anatomy will consist of hands-on student projects—including students’ constructions of life-sized models of themselves from the inside out—and dissections of animal bones, skin, muscles, hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and eyes (all fresh specimens from a local inspected meat-packing house). We will also study some related chemistry, art, mythology (e.g., Achilles’ heel), and history. Parent volunteers are encouraged and welcome to participate in our class.

In this course, we will learn about simple machines: levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, inclined planes, wedges, and screws. We will study their origins, usefulness, and relationships to other machines. We will have hands-on opportunities with simple machines, draw pictures, and make our own models. While learning that gadgets are based upon the principles of simple machines, we will try to “stump” one another with unusual gadgets. We will learn about Ruben Lucius “Rube” Goldberg and his famous gadget cartoon pictures. As homework each of us will design and build a simple working model of his or her own Rube-Goldberg-inspired gadget. After working a little at home every day in order to plan, assemble, and complete our final course projects by the last day, we will then present them for our Open House.