Elevate Your Middle School Experience with Education Unlimited's A+ Summer Program - Access Premier Curriculum Online or In-Person!
A+ Middle School is designed for ambitious students who want to excel even further. Geared towards students with A's and B's in their current classes, our program offers an advanced curriculum to take your skills to the next level.
Each summer, new curriculum themes help to make learning fun, hands-on and engaging for our middle schoolers.
This year's theme is Mystery Summer.
Mystery Summer
Conspiracies! Crime! Murder! Theft! In the Mysteries track, students will become gumshoe readers and first-rate sleuths. Students will learn to identify fallacies of reasoning, distinguish between evidence and inference, and detect subtle clues and hints. Students will read mystery masters, such as Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Christie, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in addition to more contemporary writers of detective fiction.
In this course, students will also learn the basics of crime scene forensics and how to employ deductive logic as a way to piece together evidence to identify a culprit. In one week, students will learn about code breaking, fingerprinting, blood examination, and ink and handwriting analysis. Armed with a detective’s most significant tools- the skillful power to pose leading questions and the ability to magnify deceptively insignificant details, students will break codes, take prints, and analyze the evidence in order to solve a final camp-wide mystery.
From the perfect crime to the clue that unravels the entire plot, writing a detective story is one of the best exercises for young writers because it requires thoughtful plot development and meticulous story mapping. With the help of top-notch writing instructors, students will author their own slice of detective fiction for fellow students to solve in a final reading that will have everyone trying to figure out “Who Dunnit?”
In Reading, students read “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie, as well as many other suspenseful texts. Students also solve several “mini-mysteries” throughout the week using their newfound skills.
In writing, students will craft their own mystery story over the course of the week, using their knowledge of plot devices and inserting intentional clues for the reader. This is the capstone project which in the end will be a polished piece that will be read aloud to families.
In Science, students will become forensic scientists, solving real-life crime mysteries. Students will dust for fingerprints, learn how to blood type, and immerse themselves in the exciting world of forensics each day.
Students will start their day by engaging in brain challenge tournaments, such as brain benders, physical challenges, and trust exercises, to help students start their day with critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. By instilling these essential skills in our students, we aim to prepare them to be successful lifelong learners who are well-equipped to navigate the challenges of middle school, high school, college, and beyond.