Delphi’s Science Program Director, Dr. Diane Fisher, Ph.D in Environmental Biology, has been teaching at Delphi for 14 years. Dr. Fisher has helped to build Delphi’s professional, fully equipped science lab that is home to diverse well-loved animals, from a talking parrot to a 7-foot-long boa that is afraid of rats! It contains computers, robots, a skeleton and many other anatomical models, many microscopes, flying mylar shapes, fossils and all manner of scientific toys and books.
The program results in students who can think and form their own ideas about scientific principles and concepts, a prerequisite to success in any scientific endeavor and to the application of scientific principles in life. A, newly-minted doctor and Delphi alumnus recently wrote to us, “I credit you with my gains thus far and for that I thank you dearly.” Our graduates include doctors, engineers and NASA scientists who have graduated from some of the most prestigious colleges in the nation.
Lower School
At Delphi, Science means doing right from the start. The youngest students do many science projects, such as hatching button quail chicks, growing a garden, or studying tadpoles as they transform into frogs. Even these early students have Delphi’s fully-equipped science lab available to them, should their project require it. Once in the higher levels of the Lower School program, students work in the science lab learning about topics from air pressure to the animal kingdom with the help of Dr. Fisher. They also enjoy fun science lab projects weekly, from mixing colored light to make white light and beautiful colored shadows, to blowing up sodas with Mentos or mixing oozy substances with mysterious properties. LEGO robotics classes are periodically taught for students as young as 7 years old who aspire to participate on one of Delphi’s award-winning FIRST LEGO Robotics teams when they are old enough. The message here is (to quote a young student), “Science rocks!”
Elementary School
In the Elementary School, they complete a wide range of required and elective science courses. Every course involves the students applying what they learn, so naturally each will work one-on-one with Dr. Fisher in the science lab. It’s one thing to read that there are single-celled organisms in the Kingdom Protista, and quite another to watch them attempt to gobble each other up on your microscope slide. Every student learns about the many different life forms on planet Earth by studying a number of them that live in the science lab, and becomes proficient with simple machines and engines, basic electricity and microscopes before leaving Elementary School.
Middle School
In Delphi’s Middle School, students learn many of the fundamentals and lay the groundwork of basic laboratory technique. This helps them to work intelligently and safely when they delve more deeply into Chemistry, Physics and Biology in High School. Science curriculum in the Middle School includes courses covering elementary Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Electricity and Microscopes and Microbes, where they hone their skills with the microscope while choosing among hundreds of possible microscopic investigations. Students choose three other areas of interest from subjects ranging from a study of simple electromagnetic devices to solar energy and its application, to learning how to dissect. In short, basic skills needed to enable the student to succeed in High School Science and beyond are practiced and attained while the student is given the opportunity to explore from among a wide range of entertaining possibilities in the Science lab.
High School
Students in High School complete a core requirement of two Physics and three Chemistry courses, followed by required Biology. Many electives are available ranging in difficulty from relatively short and simple courses on topics such as solar energy to several substantial courses requiring up to 120 hours of study each in Physics or Chemistry. In these latter, the student experiments extensively, in some cases replicating famous experiments and designs a final experiment at the end of each course. Investigations on these advanced courses may include the use of specialized equipment such as Geiger counters or spectrometers. Elective courses are also available in biology topics such as genetics and biochemistry. Once more, experimentation is considered essential. On the Genetics course, for example, students breed fruit flies and follow the distribution of traits just as Gregor Mendel did when he discovered some of the most fundamental rules of Genetics. Additional experiments include the study of patterns of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, mutations in tobacco seedlings that result in the lack of chlorophyll and the reactions of ultraviolet-sensitive yeast to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation.
