Departments

In ELA, the CommonLit curriculum is being used. This curriculum is broken down into units which focus on the themes of characters who change and grow, failure and success, and embracing our differences. There is also a novel study for The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Each unit has a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, with a focus on specific standards that will be mastered as the units progress. At QUMS we believe in assigning creative projects that align with the curriculum to provide students with a well rounded education where they can express their understanding in various ways. 

In Social Studies we use the NYCDOE-created Passport Curriculum. New York City educators created it for our students, and it is meant to prepare children for the global community. The Passport to Social Studies Grade 6 curriculum, which is based on the New York State Social Studies Framework, is “ The Eastern Hemisphere.” Students study the geography and history of the Eastern Hemisphere, including the development of cultures, civilizations, and empires; interactions between societies; and the comparison of trends in government and economics. It also incorporates some elements of other social sciences. Students are provided the opportunity to explore belief systems across time and to examine the foundations of democracy.

In 7th Grade, students are introduced to current world affairs and are able to juxtapose them with historical events in the United States before the U.S. Civil War (1861) that helped mold our present-day environments.  7th Grade Humanities is driven by a curriculum that is aligned to our priority standards and taught through an interdisciplinary approach. Through the use of the CommonLit Curriculum in English Language Arts and Passport to Social Studies, students are taught to meet and exceed state and city standards using skills and methodologies that infuse these two core subjects. Document-based questions using fictional and non-fictional pieces bring both curricula to life and provide students with a way to connect literary and historical writings in a personal way. These create avenues for them to engage in a meaningful way and expand their writing and thinking skills. Literature and student-driven research are integrated to give students an individualized experience of depth and academic rigor. This program is founded on three major tenets: critical thinking, effective communication, and ethical action which will celebrate and demonstrate the culmination of students’ academic journey at Queens United Middle School.

 

8th grade Humanities is an interesting course that encompasses both ELA and Social Studies. For ELA, we use the CommonLit curriculum which exposes students to various fiction and non-fiction texts. These texts range in length, complexity, and themes. The goal is to create a wide appeal that will engage students while helping them to develop the critical thinking and ELA-specific skills that will propel them forward in their academic careers.  

For Social Studies, we use the Passport to SS curriculum, which aims to cover a broad range of people and events in American history from the end of the Civil War to roughly World War 2. Our focus is to expose students to multiple viewpoints and perspectives throughout history while covering both major and lesser known events. Our overall approach at Queens United is to develop well-rounded scholars who ask questions, articulate themselves, and show compassion towards the world around them. Through academics, we seek to grow as both students and humans.

In harmony with our vision of every QUMS student meeting and exceeding New York State standards, our accelerated students have opportunities to earn high school credits and sit for Regents examinations-- tests that are required for high school graduation. Earning Regents credits and passing Regents exams in middle school increases our students' opportunities to take Advanced Placement and other high-level courses in high school.

The U.S. History Regents curriculum is a two-year accelerated course that focuses on the history of the United States as follows:

• Grade 7:  The pre-colonial period (16th Century) through the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865)
• Grade 8:  The Reconstruction Era (1865) through the present day.

The backbone of 7th grade Math focuses on the four critical areas of:

• Understanding and applying proportional relationships. Students extend their understanding of ratios and develop understanding of proportionality to solve single- and multi-step problems.
• Understanding operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations by extending addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to all rational numbers, maintaining the properties of operations and the relationships between addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division.
• Solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions and working with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume; and drawing inferences about populations based on samples.
• Working with random sampling to generate data sets and learn about the importance of representative samples for drawing inferences.

8th grade math brings the 6th and 7th grade curriculums full circle. A deeper connection of key foundations is made. The main topics that are covered include Expressions and Equations, Linear Relationships and Functions, Graphing, Geometry and Problem Solving using real world application. Scholars progress from application of concepts to analyzation and critique.

In harmony with our vision of every QUMS student meeting and exceeding New York State standards, our accelerated students have opportunities to earn high school credits and sit for Regents examinations-- tests that are required for high school graduation. Earning Regents credits and passing Regents exams in middle school increases our students' opportunities to take Advanced Placement and other high-level courses in high school.

The Algebra I Regents curriculum is a one-year accelerated course that focuses on the following topics:

• Algebra foundations.
• Solving equations & inequalities.
• Working with units.
• Linear equations & graphs.
• Forms of linear equations.
• Systems of equations.
• Inequalities (systems & graphs)

In our rigorous 6th grade science curriculum, we emphasize the 21st century skills of collaboration and critical analysis as a bridge to higher levels of STEM thinking. We introduce the Engineering Design Process and scientific thinking skills early and continue to cultivate those concepts throughout the program. Technology and Data Analysis are fully integrated throughout our STEM program including our 1:1 laptop program for students in grades 6. This curriculum inspires a love and passion for science through inquiry and discovery and sets the foundation for the rest their science experience at Queens United. They will learn how to collect data, identify patterns, and communicate ideas. Students will also gather knowledge about the natural and human-made world by controlling variables and designing solutions to problems.

Unit 1: Microbiome

Essential question: How can having 100 trillion microorganisms on and in the human body keep us healthy?

Students work as junior researchers to explain why a fecal transplant cured a patient suffering from C. difficile infection. They develop arguments to justify continued research of this new treatment.

Unit 2: Metabolism

Essential question: How do the trillions of cells in the human body get what they need to function, and what do cells do with the things they absorb?

Students work as medical students to explain why their teenage patient, Elisa, feels tired all the time. They learn how body systems work together to provide the trillions of cells in the human body with the molecules they need.

Unit 3: Phase Change

Essential question: How can the appearance of a substance change without it becoming a different substance?

Students work as junior chemists for a fictional agency, The Universal Space Agency, to investigate the mystery of a methane lake on Titan, one of Saturn’s moon. During the unit, students work to understand phase changes and to gather evidence to explain the disappearance of the lake.

Unit 1: Geology on Mars

Essential question: How can we search for evidence that other planets were once habitable?

Students work as junior planetary geologists for the fictional agency, The Universal Space Agency.  To determine if Mars was once habitable, students observe satellite images and analyze Mars rover data for evidence of past liquid water on its surface.

Unit 2: Force and Motion

Essential question: How do forces affect motion?

Students work as junior physicists to determine why a pod, rather than docking at a space station as it normally does, moved in the opposite direction. Students will investigate the relationship between force and change in velocity. They will also learn about the equal and opposite forces applied during collisions.

Unit 3: Force and Motion Engineering Internship

In this unit, students work as mechanical engineering interns. They use their knowledge about forces and collisions to design a pod to air-drop emergency supplies to people in a disaster zone.

In harmony with our vision of every QUMS student meeting and exceeding New York State standards, our accelerated students have opportunities to earn high school credits and sit for Regents examinations-- tests that are required for high school graduation. Earning Regents credits and passing Regents exams in middle school increases our students' opportunities to take Advanced Placement and other high-level courses in high school.

The Living Environment Regents curriculum is a one-year accelerated course that includes topics such as:

• Scientific Method.
• Scientific Measurement & The Microscope.
• Characteristics of Living Organisms.
• The Structure and Function of Cells.
• Biochemistry & The Enzyme.
• Evolution.
• Mitosis & Meiosis.
• Reproduction.