Breck School - Mustang Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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Mr. Taaffe prepares for class. 24 Haglin get that flag out of here!

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HISTORY Mr. Steven Kingsbury Mr. Thomas Tierney Mr. Liam Taaffe (Department Head) History The History Department, because of graduation requirements (a United States History course plus one other course in grades 9-12) and the numerous amount of courses it offers (7), allows its students perhaps the greatest amount of flexibility of all departments in organized pursuit of student interests. Despite the variance of courses and even methodology in teaching, the purpose of the History Department remains the same. It is the hope of its teachers that all history students are better able to interpret the causes of historical events and with this ability gain a greater interest, knowledgability, and understanding of the role of history both past and present. World History, covering Ancient to Early Modern History over the span of two years, is the course offered to the 7th and 8th graders. It is taught by all members of the History Department. The Social Sciences are handled by Mr. Kingsbury who offers an Introduction to Social Science (Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology) to 9th and 10th graders, and Advanced Social Science to the 9th thru 12th grades. Mr. Taaffe, the department’s newest member, teaches both Modern European History and Economics Political Science. The latter is a mixture of various types of economic and political systems. It is offered only to 11th and 12th graders. Mr. Tierney, Department Head, teaches the United States History course and serves as liaison for the Advanced Placement Western Civilization course taught thru the facilities of Channel 2 in conjunction with the Hamline University History Department. Mr. Tierney and Mr. Kingsbury have also been involved in work with 20th Century Problems, a co-operatively taught, multi-discipline course being tried for the first time this year under the leadership of Mr. Howard Chilberg of the English Department. (Mr. Coulter is the Science representative for this course.) 23

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SCIENCE As planned and put into current practice, the Breck Science Department provides two things: first, it provides non-science-directed students with scientific facts and methods that can be used in making many decisions in their lives. Science is everywhere around us and the ramifications of its technology are far reaching. Second, it provides science-directed students at Breck with facilities for learning that are excellent. The laboratory facilities, new in 1969, are excellent. The science curricula represent the best current material available. Science in the 7th and 8th grades is taught by all members of the Science Department. Students in these grades are studying the first unit of the ISCS (Intermediate Science Curriculum Study) sequence of scientific investigations. Under this program students learn as scientists learn, by doing things themselves, working with their hands, and doing their own thinking. The teacher acts as a resource person who can be called upon to help and make suggestions only when a student really cannot go on. Such dynamic ideas as force, electricity, magnetism, and other physical occurrences are examined and learned. The lab sciences, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, are taught by Mr. Dedolph, Mr Coulter, and Mr. Lund respectively. The years in which a student may take these courses are for the most part optional. Biology is offered as a study of living organisms and their relationships to one another and to the environment that surrounds them. Biological study is approached from two points of view: one, molecular and the second ecological. Molecular biology has its primary emphasis on the bio-chemical structure of individual species of organisms and their function. Environmental biology is a course in ecology with all the importance to survival of the human individual and species. 25