The Meridian Academy curriculum is built around three main interdisciplinary courses: Humanities, including English, literature, art and drama, history, and the social sciences; Mathematics, Science, and Technology; and Spanish. Within the classroom, hands-on learning occurs through the purposeful blending of theory and practice. Students engage in activities such as explaining local history, building inventions, debating public policies, repairing bicycles, making maps, carrying out United Nations simulations, and metalsmithing. In Spanish, students work to develop competence speaking a second language while learning about Spanish-speaking cultures the world over. Studio and performing arts, health, community service, and physical education are integrated within and across these three core courses.
Humanities
Course 1 - Heroes and Villains
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Course 2 - Media and Journalism
The focus of the Media and Journalism course is an analysis of the evolution of various forms of media including newspapers, magazines, radio and television and how they impact society. The study of narrative voice and connection to audience play a significant role in guiding discussions. Students study the art of written and visual media and produce their own newspaper and video documentaries.
During the first half of the year, students look at community, regional, and national news outlets and question what forces drive each outlet, paying specific attention to the relationship between audience and content. Students use this information to produce their own newspaper, designed for middle-school students. Students also examine how the Internet, specifically blogging and access to free news sources, has changed the way we receive our news.
A piece of the print curriculum also looks at the role advertising plays in directing media and develop their own advertising campaign for a new or modified product.
During the second half of the year, students apply their narrative skills to the field of documentary video. Students watch documentaries produced for a variety of outlets to learn how different directors produce stories for different audiences. They learn how to develop a story on film and edit video to create a compelling 5-minute documentary of a topic with both contemporary and historical implications.
Course 3 - American Historiography
Students study United States History from a historiographic perspective in order to understand that history is not a collection of facts, but rather an evolving discipline with a variety of perspectives. Students examine how misinformation makes its way into history curricula and how and why we have mythologized our history.
Students use a history text to learn the traditional version of historical events that is put forth in most schools. As a class, students identify the perspectives put forth by the publisher. Students then use primary sources such as literature, newspapers, public records, diaries, artifacts, and artwork to discover that historic events have multiple perspectives. Students ponder whose perspectives are included, why they are included, and whose perspectives are intentionally left out.
Throughout the year, students create their own “Missing Pages” text units and publish them online in a wiki. These entries present the primary source research they have done within a particular era. Students seek out topics that represent individuals, groups or topics not represented in their history book. Students study and write about Native Americans, Colonial America, the slave trade in New England, the American Revolution and the writing of The Constitution.
Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Course 1 - Engineering
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Students work on their design for a snail-paced vehicle in Engineering.
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Course 2 - Doing Research in Mathematics and Science
There are many similarities and differences in the way new knowledge is derived in mathematics and science. In this course, students explore a range of scientific and mathematical settings as they practice asking questions, posing problems, and developing theories about the settings. They grapple with how a conjecture differs from a theorem and a hypothesis differs from a theory as they learn how to be junior mathematicians and scientists carrying out original research. Topics include: Experimental design and the statistical analysis of data, number theory, algebra, geometry, statistics and probability. This integrated biology and mathematics research curriculum includes an ecological research project at the Arnold Arboretum.
Course 3 - Marine Science
Marine Science develops and applies biological, chemical, physical, algebraic, and geometric ideas to the study of the environment. During the first term, students develop an understanding of biomes and how climate and other forces create specific ecosystems. They explore how the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles operate in different biomes. Students gain an appreciation for the interconnected nature of our world and the behavior of humans by exploring the effects of man-made pollution on the environment. The class focuses on marine environments, the properties of water, and water quality. During these studies, functions (linear, exponential, logistic, etc.) are used to model processes such as population growth and light penetration in a lake.
During the second half of the year, the physics of water is studied using concepts of force, pressure, density, concentration, center of mass, and buoyancy. To facilitate their research of a lake or ocean setting, students build a SeaPerch – a remotely operated submersible vehicle designed at MIT, the construction and operation of which involves the above concepts. For their final exhibition, students use their SeaPerch to research a freshwater or saltwater environment. Students present their findings in a report that provides quantitative analysis to support their claims and raise additional questions.
Genomics Elective
Students in grade eight and above can join this ongoing multi-year research experience. With access to cutting edge resources through Tufts University, Northeastern University, and Illumina (a biotechnology company in California), students learn biochemistry, cell biology, and computer programming so that they can analyze the genetic and cellular workings of a bacterium that they obtain from an environment of their choosing. Once students have a pure cell culture, our partners will provide sequencing of each student's organism's genome -- perhaps two million or more DNA base pairs! Students learn the PERL programming language, which is well-adapted to bioinformatics tasks, and apply their programming skills to study this incredible volume of data and make discoveries about their bacterium. Their findings will be shared in a professional database. During their work they will visit labs and have access to Tufts researchers including Meridian parent and computer scientist Carla Brodley and her students. This course is being developed in collaboration with the ARRAYS (Advancing Real Research Among Young Scientists) Project run by Professor David R. Walt at Tufts University.
Spanish
Our Spanish classes at Meridian Academy teach students the language, culture, and geography of the Spanish speaking world. Students develop as language learners focusing on five main themes: communication, culture, communities, connections and comparisons. A varied curriculum with differentiated instruction insures that all students are challenged. Because all Meridian students study Spanish, the language provides a common foundation that permeates the life of the school.
Spanish 1
This class introduces students to vocabulary themes and has them use their growing vocabulary to demonstrate their comprehension by communicating basic needs through conversations, skits, and oral presentations. Students learn to recognize and conjugate regular and irregular verbs. Students explore written Spanish pieces and provide written and oral responses. Throughout the course, students gain a deep appreciation for the language and respect for the diverse community that surrounds us.
Spanish 1.5
This course is a continuation of introductory Spanish. Students expand their repertoire of vocabulary, recognize and conjugate verbs and their irregularities in a variety of tenses, and work with more complex sentence structures. The works that students read and write grow in complexity. Students are immersed in the arts studying works by Picasso and Dalí.
Spanish 2
Level II students demonstrate their increasing linguistic sophistication through conversation and performance. They are able to recognize and conjugate verbs and their irregular forms in a variety of challenging tenses in addition to being able identify when and how to use them correctly. Students examine various works of literature including a piece by Cervantes: Don Quijote (a reader). They produce well defined papers, demonstrating their understanding of vocabulary and themes as well as their grasp of the mechanics, usage, and grammar of the Spanish language.
Art
Our art class celebrates artistic communities, both near and far, the individual style of each art student, and the value of art's processes and its products. Throughout the year we explore art in four contexts: art for the sake of individual expression, art as a cultural clue, art as a symbiotic partner in political and social realms, and art as activism. Within these four concentrations, the elements of art and principles of design are introduced, practiced, and integrated into each assignment. Students become familiar with artists known for their impact. Artistic themes are interwoven with other Meridian Academy classes and students' interests inspire the direction of lessons.
Service Learning
Our service learning curriculum is a natural outgrowth of the respect and responsibility offered to Meridian students. Knowledge used will be knowledge maintained. And knowledge used for the greater good brings true satisfaction in itself. Citizenship within a democracy is characterized by both rights and responsibilities. Within our school, students help to establish, and come to embrace, those rights and responsibilities that will contribute to the intellectual and emotional growth of each member of the community. Students are involved in establishing the goals and rules of the school, and recognize their responsibility in solving problems that they and their peers face.
As students develop a sense of their own abilities to shape the school community, and to create original solutions, they begin to look outward to their local community for ways to address broader goals that their studies have helped them to define. Students at Meridian Academy engage in year-long community service projects designed to help them understand the variety of needs within their community. They meet weekly during Community Action Project (CAP) class time. Once they have immersed themselves in and educated themselves about a problem, they develop novel solutions to their chosen problems. While the traditional approach to student community service requires little application of academic skills or long-term dedication, Meridian’s approach nurtures personal commitment and persistence in community service endeavors. Rather than making community service about one action or one day designed by an external source such as the teacher, students learn how to invest in a project long-term and work towards a lasting solution. During the CAP process, students become truly engaged and excited. They discover how academic learning and real-life problem solving work together and how satisfying such efforts can be when they succeed.
A Schedule That Serves the Learning Needs of the Students
The Arts are Essential: Kids can be creative 
Diversity and Democracy: Kids grow when they work with people with different ideas 
Boston is ideally situated for students to explore both the made and natural worlds. Recognizing that people only seek to preserve what they understand and value, students spend time exploring the woods and coastal areas of their region as well as the architectural and cultural resources of the metropolitan area. These explorations are integrated into all disciplines. For example, natural environments can be central in ecology, poetry, and photography studies and the physical education program includes lifelong outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, running, and swimming. See our News and Information page for a sample of trips and activities.Meridian's extracurricular program is evolving as the school grows. We have been adding activities in response to student interest. Currently, we have the following extracurricular options:
The life of the school - Of course, it is possible that a young student is more concerned with personal rather than global matters. As we strive to develop a global perspective, we can provide more concrete experiences that will help them when they are older teens and more interested in looking outward. Meridian students have important roles caring for the school and setting the standards of behavior that they will strive to meet. The students are not presented with a student handbook, they create and update it themselves, weighing the sometimes conflicting goals of personal rights and responsibility to a community. These discussions are explored in parallel with studies of the U.S. constitution and the ways that different cultures think about freedoms and the common good. When students are responsible for creating the rules, they are much more likely to follow and support them and to feel such a commitment as adults.
Meridian Musings – Excerpt 2
Just the other evening, Public Television's Frontline aired a program on The Teenage Brain. It should be a promotional video for our school. The program demonstrated research showing how the typical early morning high school schedule hinders the learning of teenagers. It then discussed one reason why many school systems ignore this research despite the dramatic improvement that an 8:30 AM start time has on class interactions and student recall of ideas: a later day would interfere with after-school activities. Administrators explained that after-school activities were important because they were the part of school that many students enjoyed and benefited from the most. Meridian's mission addresses these conflicts perfectly. Why are after-school activities so powerful? Because through plays, newspapers, sports teams, and other clubs, students get to develop leadership skills, to work on projects that have meaningful outcomes and genuine audiences, to apply their academic skills in novel ways, to identify and solve problems that interest them, and to fail and try again without risk. Meridian's regular classes incorporate all of these features precisely because they lead to memorable investigations that support and stimulate life-long learning.
Learning That Lasts
What was the topic of your favorite multiple choice test in high school?
Which lectures stand out in your memory?
How many of your tenth grade final exams could you pass today?
Do these questions strike you as absurd? Too often, schools aim at short-term targets. Meridian’s faculty and students are building a school where learning is not only engaging from day to day, but endures and flourishes in the future. We achieve this longevity with approaches that recently prompted parents to write:
“I like all that is going on this year. I'm jealous and would like to be a Meridian student also.”
“Wow! My son couldn't get this at a traditional school. Thanks!”
Meridian has joined with local parents, teachers, and organizations to create learning that our students will remember, be guided by, and apply in the years ahead. We support learning that lasts in many ways that are informed by research on when our minds work most effectively:
Many prospective families ask us about the standardized tests that students must take for college. Because Meridian’s classes are designed to make sure that students are lifelong learners and because we incorporate traditional methods in our classes for the types of learning that they develop effectively, Meridian students will be well-prepared for these cumulative challenges. Since our students will also be strong problem-solvers with a desire to learn more, we know that they will be truly prepared for the opportunities that college and adult life provide.
Doing Science
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
- Antoine de St. Exupery
Science is a vast and ever-expanding quest for origins, principals, and connections. At Meridian, we want our students to be life-long learners yearning to understand and participate in that wondrous enterprise.
In all of our courses, Meridian welcomes its students into the disciplines as junior researchers who ask original questions and discover new knowledge. Within our science classes, students carry out both field and laboratory research and they are aided in these efforts by their teachers who love integrating all areas of science and by university researchers who have partnered with Meridian to share with our students the excitement and purposes of research.
Here are some snapshots of research at Meridian:
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Meridian Academy is a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national network of schools working creatively to build varied community-specific solutions to the following common principles:
1. Learning to use one's mind well. The school should focus on helping young people learn to use their minds well. Schools should not be comprehensive if such a claim is made at the expense of the school's central intellectual purpose.
2. Less is more, depth over coverage. The school's goals should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. While these skills and areas will, to varying degrees, reflect the traditional academic disciplines, the program's design should be shaped by the intellectual and imaginative powers and competencies that the students need, rather than by "subjects" as conventionally defined. The aphorism "less is more" should dominate: curricular decisions should be guided by the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement rather than by an effort to merely cover content.
3. Goals apply to all students. The school's goals should apply to all students, while the means to these goals will vary as those students themselves vary. School practice should be tailor-made to meet the needs of every group or class of students.
4. Personalization. Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct responsibility for more than 50 students.
5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach. The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker, rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves.
6. Demonstration of mastery. Teaching and learning should be documented and assessed with tools based on student performance of real tasks. Students not yet at appropriate levels of competence should be provided intensive support and resources to assist them quickly to meet those standards.
Multiple forms of evidence, ranging from ongoing observation of the learner to completion of specific projects, should be used to better understand the learner's strengths and needs, and to plan for further assistance. Students should have opportunities to exhibit their expertise before family and community. The diploma should be awarded upon a successful final demonstration of mastery for graduation –an "Exhibition." As the diploma is awarded when earned, the school's program proceeds with no strict age grading and with no system of credits earned" by "time spent" in class. The emphasis is on the students' demonstration that they can do important things.
7. A tone of decency and trust. The tone of the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you but I expect much of you"), of trust (until abused) and of decency (the values of fairness, generosity and tolerance). Incentives appropriate to the school's particular students and teachers should be emphasized. Parents should be key collaborators and vital members of the school community.
8. Commitment to the entire school. The principal and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first (teachers and scholars in general education) and specialists second (experts in but one particular discipline). Staff should expect multiple obligations (teacher-counselor-manager) and a sense of commitment to the entire school.
9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning. Ultimate administrative and budget targets should include support for a low teacher-student ratio, substantial time for collective planning by teachers, and competitive salaries for staff.
10. Democracy and equity. The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.
Meridian Academy 1187 Beacon Street Brookline, MA 02446
617-522-1118  |
Meridian Academy admits students of any race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, or handicap to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, or handicap in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
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