Outdoor Education: Exploratory.

In the first weeks of school, students take outdoor trips with their classes, each embarking on the same annual adventure as the class before them. Each trip builds personal and survival skills, ultimately culminating in a student-planned, 20-mile canoe voyage to Lake Huron’s Les Cheneaux Islands during senior year.  During these trips students consider their strengths socially and academically, and they spend time in introspection and developing personal goals.

Project-Based Learning: Winter Term.

Winter Term is a unique, project-based curriculum spanning five weeks in January. Students select offering based on their academic and personal interests, and participate in two courses during the term. Recent offerings are as follows: “Food is Love,” “Song Writing,” “Current Events,” “Important People and Places in US History,” “Picture Books,” “Critical Psychology,” “Exploring Advanced Fitness Techniques and Nutrition,” Introduction to Digital Photography,” “Introduction to Robotic Construction and Operation,” “Video Editing,” “The art of Mural and Glass Painting,” “Research Project Independent Study,” “One Great Book—Read a Classic.” Additionally, the following off-campus programs are offered: “Guatemala: Language, Culture and Service Program,” “Marine Biology (in BVI),” “Winter and Outdoor Survival Skills (northern Michigan).”

Interdisciplinary Study: Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

Curriculum at the Leelanau School is planned and executed thoughtfully, using interdisciplinary studies to facilitate understanding, paired with differentiated instruction. As a student studies Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in English, he or she is also learning about the history of class struggles and the photography of Dorothea Lange, respectively, in each of those courses. Students then take a trip to a local migrant worker farm community, and the unit culminates in a trip to Stratford, Ontario to see a performance of the play The Grapes of Wrath. Learning this way provides multiple pathways for memory. Students have a fuller, more substantial experience with history, the arts, politics and literature because of this kind of instruction at the Leelanau School.

Programs like this abound in this close-knit community, and serve our students particularly well.

Course Offerings

Humanities

In recent years the Humanities Department has offered the following courses:

9th: Ancient Humanities
10th: Western Humanities
11th: Modern Literature
11th: (H) Asking Simple Questions
12th: The Search for Meaning
12th: (H) Great Books

History Electives (one-semester):

Native American History

History of Class Struggles

History of Civil Rights

Current Events

Revolutions

History of Rock 'n' Roll

British Monarchies

History of US at War

Additional one-semester classes:

American Government

World Religions

Psychology

Creative Writing

Senior Seminar

Life and Physical Sciences

In recent years the Science Department has offered the following courses:

Biology 1: The Wild World of Plants, Animals and Ecology
Biology 2: Life Big and Small,  Marine Biology (Winter Term)
Biology 3: Human Anatomy, Environmental Science, Earth Science, Chemistry
Physics: Physical Laws and the Universe, Astronomy

Mathematics

In recent years the Math Department has offered the following courses:

Algebra 1: Equations, Variables, and Graphs Geometry
Algebra 2: Systems, Functions, and Complex Equations
Pre-Calculus: Trigonometry, Algebra and a bit of Everything
Calculus: A Whole World of Mathematics
Statistics
Financial Literacy

Computer Programming

Robotics

World Language

In recent years the Language Department has offered the following courses:

Spanish 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Arts

In recent years the Arts Department has offered the following courses:

Beginning Guitar
Advanced Guitar
Songwriting
Advanced Music
Studio Art 1, 2
Advanced Arts

Ceramics

Basic Animation

Photography 1,2,3
Drama

Advanced Drama

Improv