In seventh grade, the following curriculum components are introduced:
- Math: Algebra; mathematical thinking/theory; geometry proofs
- Language Arts: Creative writing; grammatical mechanics; critical thinking through study of literature and informational texts
- Science: Physics: mechanics, physics projects; physiology: circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems; introduction to chemistry
- History & Social Studies: End of Middle Ages; Age of Exploration; the Renaissance; projects and oral reports
- Geography: Geography of South America
- Handwork: Hand sewing, embroidery
- Woodworking: Initiation and Precision: May include a project such as a bowl
- World Language: Continuing world language with reading and writing, grammatical study and language structure, and historical and cultural study. Focus is on Latin America.
- Visual & Performing Arts: Continuing music and drama; visual arts may include art history; calligraphy; clay modeling; perspective drawing; principles of drawing (negative space, texture, etc.); painting; soapstone carving
- Movement/Physical Education/Games: Team games and team building, trust building games, complex strategy
The seventh grade can be a tremendously challenging and rewarding year for the children. The seventh grader stands on the brink of puberty. Not only are great physical changes taking place, but a major shift in cognitive development is also under way. The children are enthusiastic to express themselves and to assert their independence more strongly. Self-awareness and social relationships become a primary focus.
The study of the Renaissance, Reformation, and the Age of Exploration reflects what the children are experiencing within themselves. This period of history is well depicted through the biographies of leading historical figures; these replace the stories of earlier years, but are related with equal care and with rich details that allow the students to have a living experience of the time. The children learn biographies of great figures who went against the traditional, prevailing views of their day in their own search for truth, freedom, and self-expression. Through studying the lives of Galileo, Martin Luther, Christopher Columbus, Elizabeth I, and others, the children find reassurance that in their struggle to become themselves they also can contribute to the world.
The Renaissance, which in Europe spans the years from approximately 1400 to 1700, was the beginning of a whole new way of looking at the world. The transition from medieval to early modern thinking that this period exemplifies represents a change in consciousness from viewing the world as a symbolic representation of the spiritual world–to the empirical testing of the world through sense experiences. Exact measurement and factual accuracy and new conceptualizations of how the world works became central to thought and culture. Individualism found its expression in artistic and intellectual achievements. The European continent was overtaken by great intellectual and political upheavals, as the old world gave way to a striving to discover a new world both around and within themselves
The study of geography continues to explore an expanding world, and may include South America.
In the Language Arts, the child will continue to develop and strengthen listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills while studying biographical stories and written documents from the Age of Exploration, the Italian Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. The student’s inner life is now deepening, a process that is supported through creative writing, giving further opportunities for the development of perspective and individual voice through an exploration of wish, wonder, and surprise.
The basic concepts of algebra and plane geometry are the predominant subjects of the Mathematics curriculum in the seventh grade. The general application and transformation of formulae and equations in practical life situations form a central part of mathematical study. Conscious work with geometric proofs continues, building up through triangles and parallelograms to deductive proofs of the Pythagorean theorem using shear, reflection, and rotation.
Work continues with physics. The study of physics becomes more complex, extending sixth grade studies and including an examination of mechanics, usually linked to the growing adolescent body. In mechanics, simple machines are introduced: the lever, inclined plane,wedge, wheel and axle, pulley and screw. The concepts of effort and resistance are presented, and in their calculation the child is reinforced in his/her understanding of ratio. Work in optics, heat, electricity, and magnetism is extended, with an emphasis on the practical application of these phenomena.
The bodily changes that seventh graders are experiencing are also supported through the study of human physiology, health, and nutrition. The seventh grade curriculum includes physiology units on, among others, the circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. At this age the children are particularly able to look at issues of health and nutrition in an objective way. The class considers those factors that foster health or illness in the human being, including an exploration of how various substances can promote one or the other condition.
Work with chemistry also begins in the seventh grade, with students examining the phenomena of combustion, the water cycle, and the nature of acids and bases. They discover through observation the properties of various substances and the ways in which they interrelate. Accurately executed descriptions and drawings are an integral part of this unit. In physics the children study the laws of refraction, reflection, heat, and electricity.
In line with the historical period, the naked eye astronomy of the sixth grade expands to encompass a heliocentric view, with an examination of the conviction and courage of the pioneering Renaissance astronomers.
In the Arts, perspective drawing on the study of both history and mathematics. The child learns how the Renaissance artists used the principles of geometry to develop the laws of perspective, and practices the application of these laws in original drawings. Music instruction is continued at a more advanced level with recorder, choral singing, and/or instrumental ensemble. Perspective drawing can be a wonderful anchor for a child at a time in life when inner perspective may be shaky.
The text above is adapted from the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, with revisions that reflect the MPCS curriculum.