Arts & Science Focus

At Crosswinds School, we take our Art and Science focus areas very seriously. We believe strongly that art and science are not simply subject areas but opportunities for students to engage in meaningful, hands-on learning. We look at everything in our curriculum through both an art (creative) and a science (inquiring) lens. Through residencies with community artists and scientists and an enriched art and science curriculum, students begin to think and see their world as artists and scientists do. Graduates report being far ahead of their high school peers in these focus areas.

ART: At Crosswinds we believe that art is one of the important ways students learn and interact with the world. Students at Crosswinds are exposed to a variety of artistic fields including Music, Drama, Creative Writing, Dance, and Visual Art.

The visual art curriculum exposes students to a variety of media and artistic ideas. Students in grades 6-8 take two semesters of visual art each year. Art in 9th & 10th grade is an elective class. Classes include projects in painting, computer art, sculpture, clay, and photography and offer students experiences with art history and the elements and principals of art. These art classes work to integrate with core team content areas. In addition, core subject teachers strive to integrate art in all areas of the general curriculum. Students are encouraged to create, invent, transform, and generate meaning in their artwork. These skills will serve them well as the minds of the future.

SCIENCE: Science at Crosswinds is an inquiry based, hands-on, interdisciplinary program. We meet all Minnesota standards in living systems, earth systems, and physical systems. Students starting in 6th grade and proceeding through the Crosswinds science program will be prepared to enter 11th grade science.

6th Grade: Students at this level are introduced to the process of inquiring and experiential science. During each quarter, they are introduced to a new area of science; geology, cells and microscopic life, machines and forces of motion and plants and water quality.

7-8th Grade Living systems: Focuses include: “Who am I, who are we” as individuals (genetics) and as a species (human anatomy). We also look at urban environments — living and nonliving. We focus on the effects of pollution on an urban system. We teach students to identify problems and issues and take steps to tackle social and environmental issues through action projects. Another focus is on the cultures and neighborhoods in the urban community.

7-8th Grade Earth systems: Once again we begin our focus with “Who am I, Who are we” by looking at where we come from through evolutionary and geologic time. We also focus on the movement of the Earth (plate tectonics) and the relationship between land and people/animals, and agriculture, looking at weather systems, land use, and plant life. Finally we look beyond our earth to space — again focusing on agriculture and alternative growth plants (horizontal agriculture, aquaculture, and hydroponics), along with learning about other planetary systems and space travel.

9th Grade: One half of the ninth grade year is spent learning principles of chemistry such as matter, periodic table and chemical reactions. The last half includes principles of physics including thermal energy, electricity, magnetism and light.

10th Grade Life Science: This course introduces biological concepts and prepares students for further science coursework in the AP and IB programs. Coursework contains detailed study of living systems covering content from molecules to ecosystems, focusing on structure, function and interaction at all organizational levels. There will be emphasis on investigating learning through laboratory inquiry and written analysis to develop the necessary skills.