Tag: small class size

More Hands-on Opportunities

(JR intubating a “patient” prior to surgery)

The annual Minorities in Health Sciences Symposium, held at Esperanza College of Eastern University, provided students from Sophia Academy and numerous other high schools in Philadelphia with the opportunity to explore the many varied options in the health sciences field.

Morning speakers passed on great nuggets of information. What do our students remember?

–That when you feel a panic attack coming on, placing your right hand firmly over your chest will simulate the feeling of a hug. That four hugs a day are necessary for life, eight are necessary for growth, and a minimum of twelve hugs each day are necessary to thrive.

–That Jefferson Hospital and Esperanza College have a PACE program which gives students full-time jobs at Jefferson while they take pre-nursing or pre-med courses at Esperanza. And that Jefferson provides scholarships for tuition in addition to the jobs. Win-win.

–That there are many ways to the future and everyone can take the path that works best for them.

The afternoon sessions were completely hands-on as students could choose between dissection, virtual reality, healthy cooking, extracting DNA and much more. Our students compared healthy and diseased retinas under microscopes, used VR to rescue victims of a car crash, handled real human brains with the eyes still attached, and practiced forcing the brain and eye to work together while looking in a mirror to draw a star. Now, that was hard!

Welcoming New Teachers

For a school dedicated to awakening genius through creative discovery, it is important to find teachers who have caught the vision and love being pushed to be their best. Our new teachers this year fit the bill. Let us introduce Ms. Melody Heath (Temple U), new teacher of science and math, Mr. Aaron Vander-Collins (Liberty U, Rutgers), our new teacher of music.], and Mr. Jabarr Graves (Chatham U) new teacher of art.

Field Trips to Finish Well

Sophia Academy’s school year is hurtling to a close. As we continue to delve into history and science, math and literature, we also take time to learn outside the classroom. This spring, our field trips included an art-based trip to the Schuylkill River and its hiking trails, a science trip to Eastern University’s planetarium and observatory, and a hands-on trip to a New Jersey egg farm where we helped care for animals and made home-made pizza.

Looking for material for a natural sculpture a la Andy Goldsworthy
Building a natural sculpture
Learning to control the telescope from the computer
Dr. Bradstreet, Astronomy professor, explains how the telescope follows the sun

J-Term a Hotbed of Activity

Creating shields and crowns, trees, and costumes

J-Term 2022 at Sophia Academy focused on writing, producing, and acting in plays and videos. After studying myths and legends of the world, one class turned a classroom into a car repair and body shop as they brought the legend of John Henry to life. The other class started from scratch, writing their own script, then creating the props, costumes, and set, and finally producing a play for invited guests. Real-world skills learned ranged from sewing to video-editing.

Standing up for the little guy

Now Enrolling

Sophia Academy@ICHS, an arts-based high school for students with language-based learning differences is now enrolling for the 2017-2018 school year.  Students entering grades 9-11 are encouraged to apply.

     A hands-on, multi-sensory curricula that weaves visual and performing arts into standard subjects helps students with dyslexia and dyscalculia learn well. Contact us via this website or by calling 267-577-8020.