Northwest Academy Exploratory (8th Grade) students flex their intellectual and artistic muscles, working with increasingly complex and challenging material and projects.  These students experience a high-school caliber curriculum that prepares them to achieve with confidence when they enter ninth grade.

In English, students hone their writing, comprehension, and analytical skills and are introduced to increasingly challenging literature. In Modern Conflicts and Earth Science classes, students examine the relationships between scientific resource management issues and world conflicts. Arts electives offer choices in Music, Dance (modern and jazz), Visual Art, Digital Photography, and Theatre (Shakespeare). In the teacher-guided High School Lab/Study Hall, students sharpen work habits they will need to succeed in high school.  In Math, students are evaluated and placed according to their skill level, typically in Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2.  Students may take an optional World Language course, choosing from Mandarin, Spanish, or French, at the Introductory through Fluent levels.

Exploratory students culminate their middle school experience with a thesis project for Modern Conflicts, which assesses each student’s writing, critical thinking, and work habits. This project includes the development of a 7-10 page thesis by each student and an artistic response project on the international issue they have studied. The Exploratory Retreat allows students more in-depth study of an environmental topic relevant to their classroom studies in Earth Science.