Mass Academy Booklet

High expectations · Bright futures · Small classes · Active engagement

Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science A public school at a prestigious university

85 Prescott Street Worcester, MA 01605 508–831–5859 www.massacademy.org CEEB Code 222504 Director: Michael Barney mbarney@wpi.edu Associate Director: Robert Salvatelli rsalv@wpi.edu College Counselor: Lisa Post lpost@wpi.edu Operations Manager: Audrey Reardon areardon@wpi.edu

NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS It is the policy of the Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science that each qualified individual, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age as defined by law, or handicap, shall have equal opportunity in education and services of the Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science.

Mass Academy of Math and Science is a public school of excellence for 100 academically accelerated 11th and 12th grade students in Massachusetts. We emphasize math and science within a comprehensive, interactive program.

The rigor of junior-year classes exceeds high school honors and AP, with more than 1,200 hours of instruction. Seniors complete a year of college, enrolling in classes at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a nationally ranked engineering school, thus making the Academy the only public school in Massachusetts whose students attend a private university full-time as seniors in high school.

2

Our School The state legislature of Massachusetts founded Mass Academy in 1992 as a public school to serve academically advanced youth in grades 11 and 12 in math, science, and technology. To ensure a balanced curriculum, we developed an equally rigorous preparation in the humanities and world languages. The result is a junior-year program that is rich in project-based assignments, technology, teamwork, and inquiry-based learning, and a senior-year program that is the same as the freshman year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Overall, small size—about 100 students—and high expectations create a community that is serious yet informal, demanding while supportive.

4

Admission Each year the faculty selects approximately 50 students for the junior class. New students are not admitted to the senior class. The applicant pool represents about 80 schools, public and private, in central Massachusetts. The acceptance rate is under 50 percent. Most candidates are high honors students in their home schools. Each year several students choose to attend the Academy in spite of being academically ranked #1 in their grade at their sending school.

5

Junior Year Program All students take the same courses, except for electives. Class size rarely exceeds 16 students. Active engagement characterizes everything. The school day runs 8 to 4, except Wednesdays, 8 to 12, when most students do community service. Required courses follow: Physics uses a mathematical approach to investigate connections between concepts, equations, and graphs. Through classroom discussions and collaborative work, students learn mechanics, gravitation, electricity, magnetism, waves, and harmonic oscillations. With guided supervision, students are required to design and build their own labs. Students analyze their data using statistical methods, and report findings in magazine-style printouts, poster boards, PowerPoint slideshows, among other formats.

Mathematical Modeling shows how mathematics is used to analyze and model the natural and man-made worlds. In the process, the student learns the properties and applications of algebraic, geometric, trigonometric and statistical functions and techniques that appear in traditional high school mathematics, up to and including calculus. Eschewing a textbook approach, the course teaches, through open-ended problem solving, extensive computer simulations and collaborative work.

7

Humanities is the study of Western Civilization from its origins to the present, with a primary focus on literature and a secondary focus on history, philosophy, and the arts. Students learn the methodology needed to demonstrate their understanding of literary and non literary movements and influences via formal essays, discussions, group projects, and class presentations.

STEM I and II (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are two sequential courses that promote scientific research and engineering methods. STEM I requires students to conduct independent research: review the literature, develop researchable questions, relate evidence and inference, make conjectures, design experiments, and iterate and communicate so that students start to think like young scientists, engineers and mathematicians. The outcome is a schoolwide science fair exhibit with advancement to state and international science fairs for the best projects. STEM II requires students to work in small teams to engineer a new product or process, usually an assistive technology device. Students utilize the engineering design process to search patents, apprentice in shops and labs, build prototypes, and demonstrate their products to a panel of expert judges. Each year, patent applications and, from time to time, patent awards emerge from these classes.

8

French and Spanish: The goal of these courses is oral proficiency. Both the Intermediate and Advanced classes are student-centered and project–based.

Class discussions and activities take place exclusively in French or Spanish.

Homework assignments are often submitted electronically using studentmade podcasts or as short presentations. Class materials include authentic literature, poetry, theatre, film, music, historical texts, and legends. Other activities may include movie making, independent research, special projects, games, and international conversation exchanges via the Internet. Students are assessed authentically and based on individual progress.

Computer Science develops computational thinking skills such as algorithm development and problem solving. Major areas of study are hardware, web development, discrete mathematics, and programming using AppInventor.

Students design their own websites and build mobile apps to gain practical experience.

Science and Technical Writing demands that students value purpose, clarity, organization, mechanics, and even appeal when writing about topics in science and technology. Assignments consist of research papers, short essays on topics in science and nature, and technical reports. Students participate actively as both writers and self-editors, and their writing is drafted, re-written, and, in some cases, submitted for publication. All students publish in our online journal The Scientia Review (scientiareview.org).

9

Electives (1 per quarter) allow students to explore topics of interest with less intensity than core courses. Recent electives include drawing, watercolor, programming, cooking, turbo kickboxing, photography, music, astrophysics, German, creative writing, electronics, wind energy, poetry, movie making, mock trial, and robotics.

Community Service: Each student is required to contribute a minimum of 50 hours of community service per year. This service represents an opportunity for the students of the Academy to acknowledge the support of the citizens of the Commonwealth by working in a direct way with the disadvantaged members of our society.

ExtraCurricular Activities (school sponsored): •

American Computer Science League

• Coffeehouses/Dances • Drama (Massachusetts High School Drama Guild) •

FIRST Robotics

• Gay-Straight Alliance •

Math Team

•

Mock Trial

•

Speech and Debate Club

•

Student Government

•

WPI Concert Band

• Yearbook

SEnior Year Program Seniors enroll full-time at WPI and complete a year of college: 12 courses, three per term, one each in science, math, and humanities. Seniors usually select freshman- or sophomore-level courses, but Academy students have done well in upper-level classes, including graduate work in mathematics. In addition, seniors complete an independent study project.

Science: The most common choices are physics, chemistry, computer science, biology, and mechanical engineering.

Mathematics: The most common choices are the four-term Calculus sequence or, for the more advanced students, the Introduction to Analysis sequence.

Humanities: Of the four required courses, two must be in English.

Preferred classes include Shakespeare, Intro to Poetry, American Literature, and Elements of Writing. Sometimes students partially fulfill the four-course requirement with one or two classes in the social sciences, such as American History.

Senior Independent Study Project: SISP requires students to pursue a subject that is new to them outside of the classroom. Example projects include American quilt-making, EMT training, learning Japanese, glass blowing, ballooning, interning in a UMass Medical School lab, and starting

11

a web page development business.

class of 2013 profile •

Enrollment: 44 (29 male, 15 female)

•

6 National Merit Finalists

•

10 National Merit commendations

• Highest SAT scores in the state

13

•

12 Massachusetts State Science Fair participants

•

3 International Science Fair participants

Recent College Acceptances and Enrollment Babson College

6

4

Florida Institute of Technology

9

2

Bentley University

2

1

George Washington University

6

1

Boston College

9

2

Georgetown University

3

1

81

15

Georgia Institute of Technology

13

4

2

1

Harvey Mudd College

4

0

13

0

Hofstra University

2

1

9

4

Johns Hopkins University

12

4

4

2

Lehigh University

4

2

19

5

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy 4

2

12

1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5

5

Clark University

7

4

McGill University

8

2

Colgate University

3

1

Mount Holyoke College

2

2

College of the Holy Cross

3

0

New York University

7

2

Columbia University

5

3

Northeastern University

60

19

Cornell University

25

13

Northwestern University

7

3

Dartmouth College

6

3

Ohio State University

2

0

Drexel University

13

1

Olin College

5

4

Duke University

2

2

Polytechnic Institute of NYU

6

1

Embry-Riddle College

2

2

Boston University

Bowdoin College Brandeis University

Brown University California Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University

Red Numbers: Accepted Blue Numbers: Attended Providence College

4

1

University of Michigan

1

0

Purdue University

2

0

University of New Hampshire 4

1

Reed College

1

1

University of Notre Dame

3

1

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

46

5

University of Pennsylvania

2

1

Rochester Institute of Technology

17

3

University of Rochester

9

3

Simmons College

3

1

University of Texas

2

1

Skidmore College

4

2

University of Vermont

14

1

Stevens Institute of Technology

3

1

University of Virginia

3

1

Swarthmore College

2

2

Vanderbilt University

1

1

Syracuse University

5

0

Villanova University

3

1

Tufts University

17

3

Washington University

4

2

Tulane University

4

2

Webb Institute

1

1

United States Air Force Academy

1

1

Wellesley College

8

5

University of Arizona

3

1

Wesleyan University

4

2

University of Connecticut

10

0

West Point

1

1

University of Illinois

3

1

Williams College

3

2

University of Massachusetts (Amherst) 94

17

Worcester Polytechnic Institute 171

49

University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth) 3

1

Yale University

3

3

Mass Academy of Math and Science at WPI, Grad

graduating classes from 1993 to 2013 841 students 106 towns 7 counties 1 or more

17

5 or more

10 or more

duating Classes from 1993 - 2013, 841 Students, 106 Towns, 7 Counties

20 or more

100 or more

D

The Academy is a member of the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools for Mathematics, Science & Technology and is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.