Friends School Haverford’s Technology Curriculum Builds Technology Adventurers.
Over the course of their academic careers, students at FSH grow familiar with using computers, iPads, and other technology as tools for gathering and communicating information. Our complementary media literacy curriculum probes the visible and invisible ways technology shapes and shifts our lives. Come visit, and see our tech-savvy students explore how technology can expand their academic and extracurricular worlds.
First and Second Grades
First and second grade students visit the computer lab weekly. During class time, students explore how computers can enhance their academic experience. First and second graders play educational language arts and math games, practice math facts with the First in Math program, and begin learning how to touch type. Their experiences in technology class build students’ confidence in working with computers in an academic context.
Third and Fourth Grades
iMovie and Garageband and PowerPoint–oh my! In third and fourth grades, students continue to use technology to learn and communicate. They explore programs that supplement language arts, math, social studies, and science curricula, and learn introductory computer programming through Scratch, a open-source software program developed by MIT. As third and fourth graders grow more comfortable with computer programs and peripheral devices, they also take more responsibility for their work on the computer and the technology available in the computer lab.
Fifth and Sixth Grades
Fifth and sixth graders are encouraged to be media-literate computer problem-solvers. Fifth grade students get under the hood of an old computer and dissect the machine to explore how computers work. Sixth grade students team up with Bryn Mawr College’s Computer Science Department to get a crash course in robotics and programming. Students continue working with programs they have used in previous years and are encouraged to independently choose what programs will best supplement their academic curricula. Technology classes include a Digital and Media Literacy component, in which students learn to decode and understand the media that shape our everyday lives.
Seventh and Eighth Grades
In seventh and eighth grade, technology class takes place every day: during social studies class, while working on math problems, when writing a journal entry for language arts, or exploring a new science concept. Technology is woven into the fabric of the seventh and eighth grade curricula. Seventh and eighth graders are comfortable using their MacBooks and iPads during designated class times as tools for researching, writing, and computation. Students explore presentation programs, audio recording, and video and image production as means of presenting academic information. In collaboration with the librarian, students conduct online research, learn how to verify information and cite sources, and discuss plagiarism of online resources.