Ursa Minor Learning Year 9

“Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation.” -Atifete Jahjaga

Subject headings are linked to pages listing options for expanding those topics of study. We are also working on listing options to the main curriculum on these pages.

History

• National History: Early Republic to Reconstruction
  • The Story of American Freedom by Eric Foner (Ch. 3-5)
  • T2 The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
  • T2 After Lincoln: How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace by A. J. Langguth
• National History Primary Sources
• World History: Charlemagne to the Reconquista
  • The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History by J.R. and William McNeil
  • Practicing History: Selected Essays by Barbara Tuchman
  • T3 A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman
• World History Primary Sources
• Biography
  • T1 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Citizenship

• Government and Economics
  • American Politics Today by William Bianco and David Canon
  • The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner
• Plutarch
  • T1-2 Alexander
  • T3 Caesar
• Philosophy
  • The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps (1-72 Pre-Socratic to The Hellenistic, skip 31)
• World Religions
  • The World’s Religions by Huston Smith (Ch. II)
  • T1 Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction by Kim Knot
  • T2 Zoroastrianism: An Introduction by Jenny Rose
  • T3 Jainism: History, Society, Philosophy and Practice by Agustin Paniker
• Current Events
  • Student should be keeping up with current events.

English

• Literature
  • T1 Beowulf
  • T1 Selections from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
  • T2 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • T3 Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Elliot
• Shakespeare
  • T1 Much Ado About Nothing
    
  • T2 Henry VI
  • T3 The Winter’s Tale
• Poetry
  • The Odyssey by Homer
  • The Norton Anthology of Poetry
• Grammar and Composition
  • The Magic Lens II
  • The Word Within The Word II
  • Academic Writing II
  • 1/week Essay
  • 3/week Written Narrations

Recitation 

• Memory Work
  • 3 poems per term
  • 1 passage from Shakespeare per term
  • 1 passage from The Odyssey per term

Languages

• Latin
• Two Modern Foreign Languages

Science

• T1-3 Natural Philosophy – Biology
  • MIT OpenCourseware’s Intro to Biology
    • Campbell Biology (11th Edition)
      • This is the current edition of the textbook. The OpenCourseware Bio class is taught with the 8th edition, which you can find used for much cheaper than the current version.
    • Life Itself: Exploring the Realm of the Living Cell by Boyce Rensberger
• Nature Journaling
  • Weekly entries
  • Illustrated either with brush or pencils
• T1 Chemistry
  • MIT OpenCourseware’s Principles of Chemical Science
    • Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight (7th Edition)
      • This is the current edition of the textbook. The OpenCourseware Chem class is taught with the 4th edition, which you can find used for much cheaper than the current version.
    • Student Study Guide and Solutions Manual for Atkins and Jones’s Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight, 4th Edition
      • Make sure you purchase the study guide that is the same edition as the textbook you buy.
  • MIT’s Chemistry Behind the Magic Lab Demo Videos
    • These are great videos of various lab experiments.
  • The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things by Cathy Cobb and Monty Federolf
  • Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray
• T2 Medicine
  • House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox by William H. Foege
• T3 Engineering and Innovation
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
  • Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margaret Lee shetterly
• T1-3 Geography
  • The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

• Map Drills
  • Locate places from Current Events and mark on map
  • Locate places from History, Literature, and Science readings and mark on map
  • Consider how the physical geography of these locales impact these events

Math

We like The Art of Problem Solving math sequence which follows from their Beast Academy for younger kids. They offer math beyond the traditional algebra to calculus path, which we include in our sequence. There are plenty of math curricula out there and most of them can be used just fine with UML.

• AOPS Number Theory
• AOPS Intermediate Algebra

Logic

• James Madison Critical Thinking Course
• James Madison Critical Thinking Course Teacher’s Guide

The Feast

• Art
  • Artist Study
  • Art History
    • The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich
  • Artistic Practice
    • Artistic Pursuits, High School Book 1
• Music
  • Composer Study
  • Singing
    • Two songs in modern foreign language
    • Two folk songs
  • Instrument
    • Continue practice and musical theory
• Handwork and Life Skills
• Physical Education
  • Pick something your student enjoys doing. We suggest a martial art, but yoga, running, or a team sport would also work here.

Free Reads

1. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
4. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
5. Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
7. Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings : Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles by Zora Neale Hurston
8. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
9. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
10. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
11. Little Brother by Corey Doctrow
12. M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
13. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
14. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry (Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief)
15. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin
16. Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas

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