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Academics - Upper School
Intensive Learning
Learning does not confine itself to the classroom. Throughout their education, MFS students experience active opportunities for growth that take them off campus.
For one week each March, regular classes are suspended for "Intensive Learning," when Middle and Upper School students and teachers engage in an in-depth study of a specific subject, often involving off-campus research. This long-standing MFS tradition – which dates to the mid 1970s – allows teachers and students to break out of the structure of formal class periods and traditional study by subject disciplines (math, English, history) for a time of experiential learning in out-of-classroom settings. Both students and teachers are freed to see themselves in a new light: as life-long learners, students of the world around them.
Spring 2011 Intensive Learning
Many of the programs focus on service learning. Groups of students will travel to Camden each day to engage with various service organizations. Other groups will participate in a Recycle, Collaborate and Create program where they will create art work form recycled materials, which includes a clean-up/salvage day and a trip to the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. MFS is committed not just to service work, but also to service learning, which means that students study the causes of and possible solutions to the problems and issues with which they are engaged.
There are various opportunities to participate in Intensive Learning abroad which include a Paris trip, a Mexican language program, a Costa Rica service trip for Grade 11 and a Renaissance Culture and History trip to Florence. Many of these trips will include language immersion programs.
The Intensive Learning topics for each grade were:
Grade Level |
Intensive Learning Subjects |
5 |
Chinese culture in U.S. 19th century seaport – students will travel to Chinatown and to Mystic, CT. |
6 |
Zoo design—students learned the habitat requirements for specific animals, and designed and constructed miniature zoos. The class visited the Philadelphia Zoo and Cape May Zoo. |
7 |
Musical Theater—students worked on all aspects of a theatrical production, and performed it for their parents. This year’s show was called Reasons to be Cheerful. |
8 |
Environmental Education—included trips to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Learning, and YMCA Camp Mason in Hardwick, NJ. |
9 |
Chinatown and Philadelphia Neighborhood Study —students will discover the challenges faced by the people who live in Chinatown between keeping the old traditional family life and surviving in this new country. The students will also visit Philadelphia Community Development Center (PCDC) and two schools, Holy Redeemer School and Chinese Christian School. In the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study, students will explore two adjacent Philadelphia neighborhoods, Northern Liberties and Kensington, and will focus on understanding how and why the former prospered so much, while the latter has struggled after the destruction of the employment base in manufacturing there. |
10 & 11 |
Students choose one week-long program out of numerous options, which include from “Exploring Homelessness” to “Farm to Fork”. Grade 11 may also participate in Habitat for Humanity. |
12 |
Senior Retreat and class bonding |
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