We love the opportunity to challenge each student to their highest potential! At REALMS we have several ways to ensure that our highly talented students have plenty of opportunities to tackle advanced level work:

Honors Options & Assignments:
For highly capable students at REALMS  our teachers make a point of offering (and often requiring!) additional and/or alternate assignments that take the core academic classroom work to a new level. Often these assignments incorporate a higher degree of critical thinking, interdisciplinary projects, or application of concepts to real world problems.

An Example - Mr. Beck invites a small and eager group of his 7th grade students to complete an additional homework task: read a book called Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Weiner, and join several lunch time discussion groups. This book, and the thought provoking discussion questions posed by Mr. Beck, leads students beyond science curriculum at the time (genetics and adaptations) and into rich discussions focused on the compelling concepts and implications surfaced in this high level book.

Honors "Flexorator" Class:
Twice a week we group students not according to their grade level but according to their academic needs and interests. In this "Flexorator class" (can you tell we invented the word?!) we have the opportunity to group highly capable and motivated students together to pursue open ended and interdisciplinary projects and academically above-grade level tasks.

An Example - Recently, students in our Honors Level Flexorator classes have been working on interdisciplinary projects related to the Bend Research "Inventerprise" and the Disney Channel's "Planet Challenge" contest.

Extra-Curricular Activities:
Examples include "Battle of the Books" in which teams of highly motivated REALMS students get together, each with a faculty adviser, and read their way through a list of 12 books (a mix of fiction and non-fiction) over the course of the Fall and Winter. Prepared for battle, these teams then face off in a school wide competition featuring questions from each of the different books on the list in an attempt to reach the regional and statewide competitions!

A second example is an after school "Mathletes"  program in which a small group of students tackles advanced level math problems together. Math in this setting is challenging, fun, creative, and even sometimes a little competitive. These students prepare for participation (voluntary of course) in school wide and regional "Math Counts" competitions.

Online Math Curriculum: