Back when I was in sixth grade when I was 12, I was learning a lot, especially in the fields of math and science. The name of the school is Billinghurst Middle School, and it's in the Washoe County School District, in Reno, Nevada. The programs there for science and math were extremely well thought out. You had six classes a day, four required classes, and two electives. For the required classes you would switch between two teachers. For instance, a schedule might be Reading, Math, English, and Science, with two extra electives during the middle of the day. Reading and
English were one teacher, and Math and Science was another teacher. These teachers worked together, so if science needed to do a lab, we might skip Reading or English to have extra time, and then the next day we would have a test in Writing or English the next day. To advance in Math, you did not skip a year, or combine a year of classes, you simply took another elective of advanced math. What you would then do is have the normal math class before the advanced class, and then in the advanced class you would build upon what you learned in the normal class. Technology, Engineering, and Science were all one class. There were often hands on labs where you were given materials and told to do a specific task, usually given with some direction and hints.The lab I liked the most was a lab where we were given glue, flat toothpicks, and round toothpicks. We were instructed to make a bridge to see what shapes are the strongest and how much weight they can hold. The group I was in had the best bridge. This is a fact, because when the teacher put weight on the bridge, it didn't break, not with all the weight he brought to accurately measure. I think that in the end, all Science and Math classes need to integrate more hands on labs, with Math being more about Engineering, and, well, Math, and Science being more oriented on Technology, as well as Science.
