The high school courses provide opportunities for each student to become proficient in mathematics. Teaching and learning will focus on:
Math courses require students to be responsible for and actively involved in their own learning. Our math program requires students to effectively demonstrate the outcomes found in Pennsylvania State’s Academic Standards for Mathematics, as well as the Haverford Graduation Outcomes.
Successful students are responsible for content-specific performance outcomes. Students will use:
Technologies of graphing calculators or computers to support their mathematical development
Sound mathematical reasoning to develop conjectures and support conclusions.
Students must learn to communicate effectively using appropriate English, symbolic notations, tables, lists and graphs. Writing assignments will be a part of most math courses. Successful students must find and make connections among mathematical ideas and their applications to real-world situations.
The Mathematics curriculum begins with a sequence of three courses. This sequence of courses is Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, and then culminates in advanced, specialized courses, particularly AP Calculus (AB and BC) and AP Probability and Statistics. Completion of four courses Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Algebra 3 or Precaluclus is required for graduation. Students are eligible to take Probability and Statistics after completion of Algebra 2. The calculators used in all courses are any of the TI graphing calculators (TI 83, TI 84, TI-nspire). The TI 89 is needed in the AP Calculus courses.
Science Program:
The Secondary Science program uses as its guidelines for science conceptual understandings and instructional practices the PA Academic Standards for Science and Technology, PA Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology, the National Research Council (NRC), National Science Education Standards, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the Haverford Graduation Outcomes. Coherence and connections across grade levels and science disciplines are integral aspects of the curriculum. The teaching and learning process emphasizes an inquiry based science process with students working collaboratively in groups (3 or 4), the integration of technology, writing in journals, hands-on activities and problem solving.
The High School Science program builds on the middle school courses and contains required sequential courses with prerequisites. Students begin with Inquiry Into the Physical Setting (IPS), which is taken concurrently or after the completion of the IAG I math course. The required courses for graduation are: Inquiry Into the Physical Setting (IPS), Chemistry, and Biology. Students have a variety of elective courses available including an AP curriculum in the disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics or ecology.
Once the recommended core curriculum is successfully completed, students will have the prerequisite conceptual science understandings and only then may proceed to the more complex levels of the remaining science courses. Students may choose from these strands of science studies: Biological (Anatomy & Physiology, Genetics, and AP Biology), Environmental (Ecology, Marine Biology, and AP Ecology). and Physical Chemistry or Physics (Organic Chemistry, AP Chemistry, Physics, and AP Physics).
