A Closer Look at Sunstone Middle School
Learning Through Inquiry, Work & the Natural World
What does academic learning look like in Montessori Middle School?
At Sunstone, our Middle School curriculum weaves core academics into interdisciplinary units that connect learning with purposeful, real-world work. Rather than studying math, science, language arts, and the humanities in isolation, students integrate these disciplines into real-world projects to investigate, navigate, resolve, create, communicate, and contribute.
In our first unit, The Scientific Method to Economic Independence, students explore their campus as a place to study, work, experiment, and contribute, while developing the applied skills, personal responsibility, and agency to manage their work, support their community, and take increasing ownership of their learning.
We have two components to this unit:
- Ecology & Observation
- Production & Exchange
Academics in Action
Science: Ecology & Observation
Before we can understand the natural world, we have to learn how to observe it.
In Ecology & Observation students learn the scientific method, practice observation, and data collection through weather monitoring and water-quality studies. They also investigate microbes, cells, metabolism and replication, create agar petri dishes, learn to identify species using field guides, and explore how living things grow and change.
This work develops the habits of a scientist: observe, question, investigate, document, and make sense of what you discover.
Math: Production & Exchange
In Production & Exchange, students review arithmetic and percentages while learning the fundamentals of accounting. They create systems to track expenses and revenue, then apply those skills as they plan, produce, and sell products at their market. The market proceeds help fund their week-long spring expedition and community outreach projects.
Math becomes more meaningful when students have a real reason to use it. The Middle School market turns numbers into a tool for understanding how economic systems function within a community.
ELA: Learning to Observe and Communicate
Language arts is woven throughout the unit.
Students are reading Holes, practicing sentence-level writing, and developing both objective and subjective descriptive writing. Their scientific observations become opportunities to practice precise language and communicate what they notice.
The distinction between what we observe and how we interpret what we observe becomes part of their writing and thinking.
Practical Life & Community
Our Middle School students are also learning how to organize their community.
They are establishing routines, learning shared chores, participating in lunch responsibilities, and practicing the planning and follow-through required to learn and work together.
These experiences develop the agency, practical competence, and sense of responsibility students need to manage their work, contribute meaningfully to their communities, approach new challenges with confidence, and navigate adulthood.
Ecology in Action
From Microbes to Andrews Experimental Forest
One of the most exciting parts of this unit has been taking our study of ecology beyond the classroom.
At school, students have been investigating microbes and learning how scientists catalog and understand life. They are growing cultures such as sourdough, kombucha, and mycelium and developing microscopy and observation skills.
Then they took those skills into the forest.
Andrews Experimental Forest became an extension of the classroom, giving students a place to apply what they had been learning about observation, ecology, and living systems. During their expedition, students:
- Practiced close observation and field documentation in an old-growth ecosystem
- Investigated relationships among trees, rivers, plants, and other living systems
- Studied epiphytes and patterns of tree growth in the forest
- Examined the characteristics of life through direct observation of organisms and their environments
- Explored Lookout Creek and the surrounding watershed, connecting classroom study to a living ecosystem
- Climbed Carpenter Mountain, using the landscape as a lens for understanding ecological systems and place
- Met with the resident poet, exploring another way of observing and interpreting the natural world
- Practiced scientific curiosity and evidence-based observation throughout the expedition
- Observed the night sky, including what appeared to be a fireball meteor, and considered firsthand observations of natural phenomena
And Then There Was Dinner
Students not only applied their scientific learning at Andrews Experimental Forest, they developed practical competence and executive function skills that support greater independence.
They planned menus, shopped for ingredients, and prepared breakfast and dinner each day, with meals ranging from French toast and tacos to tofu curry.
Through planning, organization, communication, collaboration, and follow-through, students took ownership of both the work and their collective experience.
Looking Ahead
Throughout the year, our Middle School students will continue to expand their understanding of the world while discovering their place in it.
The next unit moves from the campus into the broader Pacific Northwest, exploring the history of empires in the region and human-salmon lifeways from time immemorial. Students will study trade routes, colonialism, technology, transportation, geography, primary and secondary sources, and salmon ecology while developing research, writing, interviewing, presentation, and citizen-science skills.
Each unit gives students a new lens through which to understand the world while building the academic skills they need for high school and beyond.
Where Are the Academics?
At Sunstone Middle School, core academics align with Oregon’s Middle School science standards and the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English language arts, while going beyond to connect learning to purposeful, real-world work which makes their education meaningful and lasting.
Here is what Sunstone Middle School students are learning thus far:
SCIENCE
Ecology & living systems: relationships among organisms, environments, and ecosystem processes
Microbes, cells, metabolism
Observation & Scientific Method: asking questions, planning investigations, analyzing data, constructing explanations
Earth Science: weather, water quality, and data collection
MATH
Arithmetic: number operations and fluency with rational numbers
Percentages: ratios, percentages, and proportional relationships
Comparing prices and unit costs: ratios, rates, unit pricing, and real-world quantitative reasoning
Accounting, expenses & revenue: applying arithmetic and quantitative reasoning to financial decisions
Data collection and analysis
ELA
Literary comprehension, analysis, and evidence-based interpretation
Descriptive writing: narrative techniques, precise language, and relevant descriptive details
Objective and subjective writing: distinguishing observation from interpretation and developing an appropriate tone
Sentence-level skills: grammar, conventions, sentence structure, and clarity
Research & synthesis: gathering information, organizing ideas, using evidence, and producing coherent writing
Observation & communication : explaining findings clearly and communicating scientific information
EXECUTIVE FUNCTION & APPLIED SKILLS
Planning • prioritizing • organization • time management • budgeting • task initiation & follow through • self-monitoring • cognitive flexibility
COMMUNITY & COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
Collaboration • communication • shared decision-making • coordinating responsibilities • establishing routines • contributing to a shared goal
PE & OUTDOOR EDUCATION
Hiking & sustained movement • exploration and navigation in natural settings • time in the natural environment • outdoor expedition