Through the science lab specialty curriculum, Lower School students are provided with an opportunity to actively engage in science inquiry. In designing the science curriculum, RHSM has been guided by the standards of science education promoted by the National Science Foundation.

Our “hands-on” science program has strong laboratory and field components. The curriculum physically and mentally engages the students in problem-solving, encourages the formation of conceptual linkages, and nurtures the development of a lasting understanding of key ideas in science.

At each grade level, students study four to seven major topics per year, with roughly equal emphasis in life, earth, and physical science disciplines. The curriculum builds upon itself, so that topics and concepts that are introduced in early grades are revisited again in more depth in later grades.

As much as possible, RHSM places the learning of science in a real world context, closely connecting field trip experiences and students study topics with “science” they encounter in their daily lives. Students ask questions of interest to them, design methods to test their questions, collect and analyze data, and reach conclusions. Functioning in the role of scientist, the students experience first hand the excitement of discovery.

At each grade level, students participate in laboratory work designed to foster:

• Process skills: manipulating objects; using equipment; observing, measuring, and collecting data; sequence of steps; controlling variables
• Analytical skills: reasoning, deducing, inferring, thinking critically
• Communication skills: writing, presenting data, organizing information, illustrating scientifically, using diagrams
• Conceptualization of scientific phenomena