Horizon 2025 - Flipbook - Page 18
MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS
Patricia Gallaher, Head of Middle School
Eighth-Grade Trip
Seventh-Grade Science: Heart Dissection
In April, Shelton’s eighth-grade class
embarked on a four-day journey to
explore Boston’s historic landmarks,
museums and sites. Highlights
included the Boston Tea Party
Museum, the Freedom Trail, Boston
Common, Plymouth Rock and the
Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Students
capped off their adventure with a
behind-the-scenes tour of Fenway
Park, Boston’s
famous Duck
Tours and a visit to
Harvard University.
This semester, seventh-grade science classes studied the
circulatory system through a hands-on pig heart dissection.
Because of its similarity to a human heart, the pig heart
offered students an invaluable opportunity to study
chambers, valves and connecting blood vessels. Dr. Christine
Stiles, mother of seventh-grader Christopher Stiles, joined
three class periods to lead a demonstration and discuss
heart diseases. This unforgettable experience deepened
students’ understanding of anatomy and their appreciation
for science.
Seventh-Grade Trip
Seventh-grade students explored Texas history, ecology,
science and team-building through two day-long
experiences. In Waco, they toured the Dr Pepper Museum,
created personalized soda in a chemistry lab and applied
their math skills at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame before
enjoying lunch. The other trip took them to the Fossil Rim
Wildlife Center in Glen Rose for a guided tour, hike and
ecology lessons. They also enjoyed lunch at Hammond’s
BBQ and visited Big Rock Park to walk in the footsteps of
dinosaurs.
16
NOVEMBER 2025
THE HORIZON
SHELTON SCHOOL
Exploring Arts, STEM and More in Electives
Middle School students took Visual Art, Ceramics, Band and
Drumline, Drama, Piano, PE and Dance, Vocal Music, STEM,
Coding, Life Hacks, Digital Photography, Woodworking,
Podcasting and
Esports. Seventhand eighth-grade
Ceramics students
explored hand-building
techniques and the
potter’s wheel. Eighthgrade podcasting
students learned to
plan, record and edit
using GarageBand.
Musical theatre
students presented
“Into the Woods Jr.” in the
fall and “Annie Kids” in the
spring. Fifth- and sixth-grade
students in drama, vocal
music and dance performed
throughout the year, while
STEM students in all grades
worked on projects requiring
creativity, collaboration and
critical thinking.
LEGO Robotics Team
The Middle School LEGO Robotics team designed and
programmed a robot to complete missions on an oceanthemed map for the First LEGO League challenge. Students
also engineered a prototype AI submarine to explore ocean
depths. They
met with an MIT
oceanographer
for feedback,
then presented
to a panel of
judges. The team
competed in
the qualifier in
December and
a showcase in
February, where
they earned
second place.
