Religious Studies and Philosophy Graduation Requirement*

Nhu Gonzalez Hoang Department Chair ngonzalezhoang@nmhschool.org

Please see the Curriculum Guide (bit.ly/3ZqXnd9) for complete course descriptions.

NMH science teachers and courses emphasize learning by doing. You’ll start with physics, tackling projects and designing labs that investigate energy, matter, and motion. By starting with the principles underlying everything in science, you’ll be better able to understand all the other science you learn. That includes biology and chemistry; electives such as astronomy, engineering, environmental studies, bioethics, or forensic science; and all our advanced courses.

We offer many opportunities to take science out of the classroom and into the lab, out to the forest, down to the NMH farm, and off campus. You might study acceleration by riding a roller coaster at Six Flags, milk a cow and assess the milk’s nutritional quality, or get involved in campus composting. In Forensic Science, you might study the evidence in an unsolved murder and ask a local writer how he uses forensic science in his mystery novels. Or you can visit dinosaur tracks and other nearby geological wonders.

In our interdisciplinary New Zealand travel program, students take Environmental Studies or Geology and hike over volcanic slopes and warm their feet in thermal pools while learning the cultural practices of the indigenous Maori people. Astronomy students spend time in our observatory; one year, they discovered an uncatalogued Kuiper Belt object in the same region of space where “planet nine” may exist. And members of our Science Club design and build whatever they can dream up in our Maker Space.

NMH’s College Model Academic Program allows many students to dive into two lab-based science classes in the same year. While some students explore different sciences, others immerse themselves in one subject, starting at the introductory level in the fall and moving smoothly through an advanced level in the spring of the same year.

With all of these opportunities and faculty with a broad range of backgrounds, science at NMH is innovative and inspiring. It can prepare you for a career or satisfy a curiosity. It’s all about making connections among the different science fields and between your academic studies and the real world.

See our flowchart for possible progressions through the science curriculum.

9th grade Physics (PHY 211) and Robotics (PHY 115) (1/2 credit elective)

BIO 417 Human Physiology

BIO 451 Bioethics

CHE 417 Forensic Science

ENV 411 Environmental Studies

ENV 415 Environmental Studies: An International Perspectice

ENV 417 Geology

Env 419 Science of Farming

PHY 416 Engineering Physics

PHY 417 Astonomy

PHY 418 The Physics of Global Energy

PHY 421 Physics II

10th grade Biology (BIO 311) or Honors Biology (BIO 321)

11th grade Chemistry (CHE 311) or Honors Chemistry (CHE 321)

Advanced electives at 500 or 600 level, college-level courses requiring completion of core curriculum

BIO 531 Advanced Biology: Biotechnology

BIO 532 Advanced Biology: Field Studies

CHE 521 Advanced Chemistry

CHE 611 Environmental Applications of Advanced Chemistry

ENV 521 Advanced Environmental Science

PHY 531 Advanced Physics: Mechanics

PHY 631 Advanced Physics: Electricy and Magnetism

Mona Martinez Seno Department Chair mseno@nmhschool.org

Please see the Curriculum Guide (bit.ly/3ZqXnd9) for course descriptions.

NMH’s visual arts courses give you a dizzying choice of media and techniques, so you can create artwork as varied as linoleum prints, digital images, pastel drawings, ceramic vessels, and three-dimensional assemblages. Many of our courses have multiple levels, which allows students to develop skills and learn foundational art and design vocabulary before applying these to their own independent work. Our advanced-level classes (2D Portfolio, 3D Portfolio, and Drawing and Painting) provide opportunities for student-artists to develop an individual portfolio for college applications.

NMH graduates have gone on to institutions like the Parsons School of Design, the Tisch School at NYU, the Maryland Institute College of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Rhode Island School of Design.

All visual arts courses are taught in the Rhodes Arts Center. Classroom instruction is supplemented by optional open-studio hours during the afternoon and evening, and it’s during this time that many students begin to explore individual ideas and themes that are collectively presented in a studioclass environment.

One of the truly special things about studying art at NMH is that you’ll be surrounded by inspiring work from all disciplines. The walls are lined with art donated by alumni, work by artists represented in the gallery, and student works that were awarded Purchase Prizes. The exhibits in theGallery at the Rhodes Arts Center feature the work of artists from our community and from around the region.

In addition to being surrounded by great art, you’ll be surrounded by dedicated teachers who maintain studio space in the Rhodes Arts Center. When they’re not helping you with your work, they’re making their own. You’re all artists in the same community, sharing ideas and encouragement and celebrating one another’s creativity.

Academic Courses

• Advanced Drawing and Painting Portfolio

• Advanced 2D Portfolio

• Advanced 3D Portfolio

• Arts Foundations in the Visual Arts (9th-graders are required to take a foundations course in visual arts or performing arts.)

• Ceramics I, II

• Darkroom Photography I, II

• Digital Photography I, II

• Drawing and Composition I, II

• Graphic Design

• Illustration/Visual Storytelling

• Intensive Studio

• Painting I, II

• Sculptural Forms I, II

• Two Dimensional Design

• Video as Visual Art I, II

Cocurricular Courses

• Beginning with Clay

• Digital Drawing

• Exploring Watercolor

• Illustration

• Plein Air Painting

• Portrait Sculpture

The NMH world languages program helps students develop the strong language skills needed in today’s global society.

You’ll learn how to communicate in the target language you choose, using it to discuss, read, and write about current events and a wide array of meaningful and relevant topics.

Our classes are engaging, highly interactive, and centered on you. While mastering the language’s intricacies, you’ll also explore the social patterns, value systems, traditions, and cultures of the people whose language you are learning.

The target language is used extensively in the classroom from introductory to advanced courses. You’ll build proficiency through hands-on tasks in group- and self-guided projects. You can also practice the language in a relaxed atmosphere at weekly language dinner tables. Study through the advanced level is offered in Chinese, French, Latin, and Spanish. Advanced students have the opportunity to teach French or Spanish to local elementary school students once a week throughout each semester.

Thomas Bloom Department Chair tbloom@nmhschool.org

413-498-3493

Please see the Curriculum Guide (bit.ly/3ZqXnd9) for complete course descriptions.

Academic Courses

• Chinese I, II, III, IV

• Honors Chinese II, III, IV

• Advanced Studies in Chinese: Contemporary China and Chinese Culture

• Chinese VI: Chinese Literature

• French I, II, III

• Honors French II, III, IV

• French IV: Service-Learning Project

• French IV: Contemporary Issues in the French-Speaking World

• Advanced Studies in French: The Francophone World in Depth

• Contemporary French and Francophone Culture Through Literature and Film

• Latin I, II, III

• Advanced Latin Literature: Politics

• Advanced Latin Literature: Empire

• Spanish I, II, III, IV

• Advanced Spanish I

• Honors Spanish II, III, IV

• Spanish IV: Service-Learning Project

• Advanced Studies in Spanish: Equity and Inclusion Across Hispanic Culture

• Advanced Studies in Spanish: Latin American Literature

Some of NMH’s exciting and enriching opportunities are nowhere near campus. They’re in places like Brazil, Costa Rica, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, and across the United States.

Our travel program is aligned with our school’s mission and includes components that are relevant to our values of inclusivity, learning for life, and service. When you participate in one of our travel programs, you are out in the world engaging with local or international communities and developing your cultural competencies. You travel for one to three weeks, gaining incredible insights and new perspectives on yourself, your own culture, and the world at large.

Each program focuses on specific themes. For instance, the sophomore interdisciplinary travel program visits locations such as Brazil, South Africa or Spain and Morocco on a rotating cycle. Students in this program are simultaneously enrolled in World Religions and World History, which is NMH’s Humanities II program. Other programs take us out into the world during March break. Our program in Costa Rica is a hands-on expedition that focuses on conservation and ecology while also serving local communities.

Other travel opportunities include the Model United Nations program, in which students participate in MUN conferences across the U.S. and the globe. Activities abroad can include anything from visiting favelas in

Travel Programs: travel@nmhschool.org Web: bit.ly/3ZOSc6n

Brazil to learning dance and drumming in Ghana to visiting the Hassan II mosque in Morocco. All of our programs include service-learning projects, and many offer opportunities for independent research projects. Whether you’re writing critical analyses or personal narratives, exploring indigenous community political issues or the role of Islamic art, you’re sure to gain insights you simply couldn’t have gotten at home.

Participation in our travel programs is selective and by application only. Participants pay a program fee in addition to NMH tuition. The programs vary each year, depending on enrollment and staffing.

2022-23 Travel Programs:

• Brazil: Humanities II program

• Model United Nations Conference

• Costa Rica: Conservation and Ecology in the Osa Peninsula and Cordillera de Talamanca

Joe Latimer Director jlatimer@nmhschool.org

Please see the NMH website (bit.ly/3YrnIGG) for more information

Students have a variety of experiences after graduating from NMH. The vast majority of our students will head off to a four-year college or university in the fall.

As college counselors, our relationships with students and families are grounded in trust, truth, honesty, and integrity that is meant to be sustained over time. Our work with students is collaborative. We communicate with parents and family members in a timely manner. And as a team of six college counselors, we tap into each other’s expertise to support students and families throughout the process.

We offer fall and spring programming, including college fairs and presentations from college representatives and financial aid officers from a variety of schools, ranging from liberal arts colleges to Tier 1 research universities, from conservatories to technical institutes, and from military academies to universities in other countries.

Given the diversity of our student body, our programming, and the 1:1 counseling we provide, we are sensitive to the needs of every student, including those who are the first in their family to attend college, LGBTQ+ students, low-income students, students from communities that are underrepresented at college, students who have learning differences, and international students who navigate the process with additional nuances.

Amid the changing landscape around test-optional and test-blind policies, we offer guidance to students about whether and when to take standardized tests, prepare for them through test-prep, and advise them on whether to submit scores. The college admissions landscape is constantly changing, and we remain on top of current trends in college counseling by attending and presenting at regional and national conferences and other professional development opportunities.

The foundation of our work with students, families, and admissions representatives from colleges and universities comes from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling’s (NACAC) Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admissions. Our staff are also members of the New England Association for College Admissions Counseling and the Association ofCollege Counselors in Independent Schools, where we have access to an extraordinary amount of resources and expertise.

We understand that some families will decide to seek college counseling from an independent source. While we believe this is unnecessary, it’s in the best interest of the students we guide and support for there to be an alliance among all parties, as conflicting advice will only increase anxiety in a process that is already stressful. We ask that you email your college counselor with the name and contact of your independent counselor if you chose this avenue.