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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

2012-13 Courses.  See “Forms” Page for a Sign-Up Sheet for these courses.

 

 

DEBATE AND LAW:  Monday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Learning Center.  Do you like to argue?    Do you think you'd enjoy being an attorney or a witness in a mock trial?  We will have the best of both worlds as we start the year with a debate tournament, and finish with a Mock Trial at the Guilderland Courthouse.  Come and learn the basics of argumentation and public speaking.  Procedure for choosing members of the team will be explained at the first meeting on October 1.  See the "Announcements" section of this website to see this year's championship debate round.


MATH OLYMPIAD, Tuesday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Learning Center.  This team (limited to 35 students) meets in coaching sessions once a week from October through March, to learn math word problem-solving strategies in preparation for once-monthly tests called "meets."  Meetings begin October 2.  

HISTORY:  Wednesday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Learning Center.  In this course, you will choose a topic, research, and create a product for National History Day competition.  The product can be a paper, exhibit, website, performance, or documentary.  This project is time consuming and requires effort, but will teach you research and presentation skills that will lead you to success not only for History Day, but for future courses in high school and college!  Many of our student have gone all the way to the national level of this competition.  See the Links page for the National History Day website, and download the file below if you would like to know more about this program.  Independent study option is available.  Meetings begin October 3.

VERBAL CHALLENGE: Thursday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Learning Center, October-January.  This course will prepare you to take the Verbal SAT.  You will expand your vocabulary, learning hundreds of new words.  You will also learn Greek and Latin roots that will help you to guess the meaning of words you do not yet know.  You will also learn more about grammar and how to edit sentences and paragraphs on a test.  Games and activities will make this course fun, but it will also require work outside of class.  If you approach this course sously, it will pay huge rewards in the future.  Meetings will begin October 11.


NEWSPAPER CLUB:  Friday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Computer Lab, October-June.  Do you like to write?  Make a difference by being a reporter, photographer, or artist, for the FMS School Newspaper, The FMS Random Times.  You will be assigned stories to write and you will learn a great deal about writing, editing, and how newspapers operate while helping to build school spirit and share important news.  For more information about what the newspaper is like, see this year's last edition at https://sites.google.com/site/thefmsrandomtimes/.


FUTURE ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS:  Thursday mornings at 7:45 a.m., Learning Center, Beginning in February. You will learn basics of engineering principles and some basics of architecture.  This class is a hands-on experience with engineering projects, but you will also learn about city infrastructure by creating a SimCity.  If there are more than 25 signups, there will be a tryout project for this class and you will receive information on the tryout in December.  Meetings will begin in February for those who are selected from the tryout. 

MATH COUNTS:  Tuesday activity periods.  This course will coach you to build the skills/concepts you need to handle the challenging math content in the Math Counts Competition.  This will take you a step above what you thought was possible in math.  Homework will be required to prepare you to compete to become a member of our school's team.  A runoff will be held in December to choose the four team members and four alternates who will represent our school at the regional contest.  Once team members have been selected, coaching sessions will be expanded to 3:30-5:00 during January, February (and part of March if the team makes it to the State level of the contest).  For more info, visit www.mathcounts.org.  Meetings begin October 11.

PHILOSOPHY:  Access period.  For sixth and seventh grade, Philosophy is now a part of the Humanities class that students registered for by July 31.  For eighth graders, sign-up for philosophy classes during access is available on the Sign-up form (Forms section of this website).


READING:  (Sixth Grade).  Reading class pullout.  Read and discuss short stories or novels in a deep, though-provoking, thought-shaking way.  You will learn to appreciate and enjoy reading and will progress in your ability to critically analyze themes and content.  You may sign up to be considered for one of these groups but the final decision will be up to your teachers.  


8th Grade READING/WRITING:  Access periods.  the focus is nonfiction, humor, persuasive writing, and other informational works of literature.  This course will help prepare you for high school and college reading and writing tasks.

 

CHESS:  Thursday activity periods.  This course involves everyone from beginner to expert, ends with a school chess tournament, and is coached by Mr. Flynn. 

WORKSHOPS:  One-morning or one-day events on a specific topic or skill.

CREATIVE WRITERS:  Do you want to write a novel, play or short tory?  Are you interested in getting your writing published?  Workshops will be announced in the fall, but sign up to make sure you are notified about opportunities.

SIXTH GRADE MYTHOLOGY WORKSHOP:  In this one-day workshop, learn more about Greek myths, engage in games and activities, and write your own version of a myth which you will present as a skit.

GRADE 7 and 8 PHOTOGRAPHY:  In this one-day workshop, learn how to photograph portraits, edit using Photoshop, and create a photo story.  



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ENRICHMENT
Farnsworth Middle School
6072 State Farm Road
Guilderland, NY 12084