Explore: 2025-2026 Course Descriptions

View Class Schedule and visit the Application page for additional details.

“Live sessions are awesome and a huge differentiator from other online offerings. We plan to take other Explore science and writing online courses – one per year.” ~ Parent

Versión en Español >

Explore Middle School Courses

Humanities

• Writing and Young Adult Fiction (ages 9 to 11)
• Writing in the Humanities (ages 10 to 12)
• Critical Thinking in the Humanities (ages 10 to 13)

Mathematics

• Pre-Algebra (ages 9 to 12)
• Algebra I (ages 10 to 13)

Science

• Contemporary Science (ages 9 to 12)

 

HUMANITIES

Writing and Young Adult Fiction (ages 9 to 11)
Live Session 2025-2026: 3:00-4:00 p.m. pacific/Tuesdays
Required texts for this course cost about $40.00
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description:  This course will provide an opportunity for students to hone advanced reading and writing skills while developing solid habits as both consumers and creators of the written word. Students will utilize mentor texts–including short stories and popular young adult fiction novels–to practice close reading, effective annotation, robust discussion, and analytical writing skills. Students will complete several extended essays, focusing on how to write strong introductions, how to integrate and analyze textual evidence, how to move fluidly between paragraphs, and how to write compelling conclusions. Throughout the course, students will delve deeply into the study of major literary elements, exploring how aspects such as theme and characterization shape the narratives we read.

• Learn and employ both fundamental and fine-tuned writing skills.
• Draft short essays that include strong and effective introductions and conclusions, transition fluidly between ideas, and utilize the most fitting pattern of organization.
• Develop writing trait skills including voice, imagery, sentence fluency, word choice, and supporting claims with details and examples.
• Write across genres and adjust writing techniques as needed.
• Determine audience and purpose in writing.
• Develop constructive criticism skills by giving and utilizing feedback to improve writing.

Writing in the Humanities (ages 10 to 12)
Live Session 2025-2026: 4:15-5:15 p.m. pacific/Tuesdays
Required texts for this course cost about $15.00
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description: This writing-centric course will help students develop their own voices and styles as they explore, discuss, and learn to analyze a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. The course will be organized around the purposes that authors may have for writing, and each unit will give students the chance to practice a different writing style aimed at a different audience. The course emphasizes the importance of practice over the quest for perfection, and students will be encouraged to experiment, take intellectual risks, and learn from the feedback they receive from their teacher and peers.

• Explain and defend their point of view while respectfully considering the ideas of others.
• Identify the purpose and audience of short texts and evaluate whether the authors achieved their goals.
• Utilize strong annotation techniques that encourage thoughtful interactions with texts.
• Demonstrate an awareness of different types of writing (e.g., informative essays, personal narratives, evaluations) and adjust their own writing based on purpose, audience, and genre.
• Explain and analyze smaller sections of a text while making connections between its larger ideas.
• Logically structure their writing and effectively utilize transitions to guide readers through their ideas.
• Write fluently while demonstrating mastery of basic grammatical concepts.

Critical Thinking in the Humanities (ages 10 to 13)
Live Session 2025-2026: 4:15-5:15 p.m. pacific/Tuesdays
Required texts for this course cost about $10.00
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description: In Writing in the Humanities (see course description above), students began practicing textual analysis, creative and critical thinking, and written expression; Critical Thinking in the Humanities is a continuation of that with an emphasis on drawing logical inferences based on evidence gleaned from a text, as well as crafting and defending a valid thesis statement based on those inferences. The reading level and course content is equivalent to what might be expected in upper high school courses; students should enter having already developed strong reading and sentence-level writing skills. The class is split into four thematic units: Education, Intelligence, and Learning; Creative and Critical Thinking; Law, Justice, and Vengeance; and Humor, Satire, and Irony. Each unit includes a variety of texts to explore, including short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and songs. For those students who have completed Writing in the Humanities, this format will look familiar; however, the objectives become more challenging in Critical Thinking in the Humanities, particularly in terms of the length and depth of assignments.

Please note, materials for this course are pulled from high school and early college level texts.

Course Objectives:

• Writing strong, analytical paragraphs that analyze both fiction and nonfiction texts.
• Drawing valid inferences from texts and crafting thesis statements based on those inferences.
• Integrating evidence from the text in the form of carefully chosen direct quotes and clear paraphrasing.
• Demonstrating an understanding of the rules of logic to create rational arguments and avoid fallacies.
• Balancing creative and critical thinking to foster “outside of the box” solutions.
• Revising awkward sentence structures to craft more complex sentences clearly.
• Evaluating one’s own writing, as well as the writing of others, to effectively identify areas needing improvement and make useful suggestion.
• Engaging in meaningful and respectful discourse. 

MATHEMATICS

Pre-Algebra (ages 9 to 12)
Live Session 2025-2026: 3:00-4:00 p.m. pacific/Mondays
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description:  Pre-Algebra is designed to prepare students for the Explore Algebra I course. The work emphasizes employing multiple strategies and justifying answers through clear, written and verbal communication. The course includes very little repetition or extended practice on individual concepts and instead focuses on depth of understanding. Students’ problem-solving skills will be strengthened as well as the ability to manipulate rational numbers and variable expressions. Additionally, students will explore real world applications to give relevance to the skills that students are developing.

Course Objectives:

• Think critically and analytically during problem solving.
• Develop written and verbal communication skills needed to justify work.
• Demonstrate understanding of algebraic techniques when expressing written problems as equations and in solving equations.
• Apply mathematics to real world applications.
• Develop an understanding of algebraic concepts needed for future mathematics work.

Algebra I (ages 10 to 13)
Live Session 2025-2026: 4:15-5:15 p.m. pacific/Mondays
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description: Algebra I covers the study of variables, constants, expressions and equations in a problem-centered, rather than topic-centered, format. The course is designed to develop skills necessary to adapt to novel problems and situations. These skills include investigating, conjecturing, predicting, analyzing, and verifying, as well as presentation skills. Concepts are reinforced through increasingly complex problem sets. This course structure demands that students be active contributors in class activities; they are expected to ask questions, share their results with peers, and to be prime movers of investigations. Collaboration is essential as students work through the exercises.

Course Objectives:

• Graph and analyze linear equations and inequalities.
• Identify, graph, and apply relations and functions.
• Solve pairs of linear equations and inequalities.
• Manipulate a variety of expressions and equations, including quadratic functions, polynomials, rational functions, and radical functions.

SCIENCE

Contemporary Science (ages 9-12)
Live Session 2025-2026: 3:00-4:00 p.m. pacific/Wednesdays
The lab fee for this course is $100 with an additional $200 fully refundable deposit after all non-consumable lab supplies have been returned.
Anticipated Weekly Time Commitment: 4-6 hours

Course Description:  This science course will introduce students to basic chemistry and physics principles, however the main focus of this course will not be content knowledge (although students will gain content knowledge through the course) but instead on developing science skills such as: using the scientific method to design and evaluate investigations, writing proper lab reports, conducting scientific research online, evaluating sources and information for validity, using proper laboratory techniques, collaborating with peers, and engaging in the engineering process. These skills are essential for success in higher level science courses. This course includes hands-on science labs.

• Demonstrate an awareness of the nature of science including scientific methods. Show a basic ability to organize, interpret, analyze, and evaluate scientific data.
• Consistently craft basic formal lab write ups including introduction, hypothesis, materials, procedures/methods, data, and forming conclusions.
• Adhere to laboratory safety rules and regulations.
• Complete work fully and on time unless previously collaboratively agreed upon between teacher and student.
• Participate actively and appropriately in both individual and group activities including lab work, and class discussions.