High School
High School Academic Curriculum System
Moonshot high school goes from grades 9-12. The high school curriculum is based on the new Chinese high school curriculum standards, referring to and integrating the Common Core State Standards and Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Disciplinary Courses
Based on the school mission, Moonshot Academy has developed a bilingual curriculum that is mainly based on National Chinese Curriculum Standards, referring to and passing the AP international curriculum system certification, and balanced Chinese characteristics and the admission requirements of overseas universities.
Disciplinary courses are mainly in projects and seminars, using a combination of online and offline learning scenarios. On the basis of meeting the academic ability required by the University, they promote learners to think about the links between subject knowledge, personal life and the real world, and constantly cultivate learners' ability of autonomous learning and teach for not teaching.
Moonshot Academy has six divisions and two centers, providing a wide range of subject choices including core and electives to help learners build a solid academic foundation.
The disciplinary courses of Moonshot Academy adopts the class-selection system, learners choose courses difficulty level according to their academic level. The course numbers 1001, 2001, 3001, 4001 correspond to the course difficulty of grades 9, 10, 11 and 12; 5001 corresponds to AP difficulty and 6001 corresponds to post AP difficulty.
Moonshot Academy offers a total of 18 AP courses and AP Capstone Diploma Program.
Moonshot Project
The Moonshot project is an extension of the subject curriculum that encourages learners to use subject knowledge to systematically solve real social problems. It includes the Onboarding Project for the lower grades and the Capstone Project for the senior grades: the former involves biology, chemistry, humanities, history and other disciplines, and the latter covers academic research, artistic creation, public welfare projects, and so on.
Featured Courses
The moonshot honors course includes courses in four areas: self-awareness, systems thinking, introduction to Chinese cultural history, and western philosophy. It is a compulsory course for MSA learners.
The setting of the honors course is designed to support learners to touch the fulcrum of human civilization from the four sections of self, system, east and west. The course leads learners to stand in the light of wisdom of human civilization, conduct more reflection and observation, and constantly think about the power needed by individuals independent of society to pursue ultimate value. In this way, learners can continue to build cultural confidence and global understanding in a rapidly changing world.
Competency-based Education
Learners learn here as if they are working in the real world—they are mathematicians, scientists, engineers, writers, artists, athletes. They produce real works in real situations, and gain comprehensive ability and thinking habits that are not limited to subject knowledge.
Performance Assessment
Traditional exams = knowledge = what the learner knows
Performance assessment = ability = what the learner can do with what he or she knows
Different from traditional exams, performance assessment is more like a complete ability profile, based on the student's Artifact (work) to assess how well he or she has mastered a certain ability. This assessment is not just about simple knowledge points, but the "core literacy" that students gradually develop during the learning process, such as analytical and creative thinking, complex communication - oral and written expression, leadership and teamwork skills, information technology and mathematical ability, global perspective, etc.
Industrial-style education has several notable features: mass production, quantitative records, and homogeneity. For the sake of efficiency, in the past, we used simple "numbers" to present the growth of each child. We have to admit that such a quantification method has indeed helped us achieve the effect of rapidly increasing the population education rate at a certain stage.
But growth beyond numbers has been hidden. Performance assessment is to make these individuals who have been hidden for a long time grow, to be seen and cherished again.
Click to view our performance assessment tasks
Defense System
Every learner has a graduation portfolio, which contains a summary and review of their own learning and development exploration at each stage.
The defense system supports learners to continuously accumulate works in their portfolios at different stages, vividly display and summarize and review their own learning development, and systematically demonstrate the degree to which learners have achieved their own training goals at different grades.
At the same time, defense can also significantly improve learners' ability to gain the trust of others through self-statement. The defense also provides an opportunity to ensure that all teachers have a common understanding of the expectations and requirements of performance assessment, and to calibrate their assessment of learners among themselves.
Defense timeline:
The 9th grade learners complete the project presentation and observe the defense of the senior learners;
The 10th grade learners complete the Track defense to clarify the direction of professional development in the senior grades;
The 11th grade learners complete the Target defense to clarify the choice of the next stage of university application;
The 12th grade learners complete the Moonshot defense and are allowed to graduate.
Bilingual Education
Behind language is a set of behavioral, thinking, and social patterns. The charm and function of bilingual education lies in giving learners another possibility to understand the world and themselves. Moreover, long-term follow-up studies have shown that bilingual learners perform better than non-bilingual learners in many aspects such as standardized test scores, cognitive flexibility, concentration, multitasking ability, creativity, and so on.
The 12-year immersion bilingual teaching model of MSA integrates content and language. Learners learn the concepts, content and skills of the subject as well as developing language skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing and application. The school supports learners to naturally and solidly grasp the application of two languages in both life and academic situations, and to understand the Chinese and Western cultures behind these two languages.
Our goal is to enable middle school learners to seamlessly connect to high school at home and to abroad, and to seamlessly connect to the language level of top overseas universities when they graduate from high school. Competency-based education enables learners to understand the essence of Chinese and Western cultures and thoughts, and to find their own Chinese identity in a multicultural and multi-value-oriented community background.
Proportion of Bilingual Teaching
Under the guidance of the seven bilingual course setting standards of the authoritative Center for Applied Linguistics in the United States, the ratio of bilingual teaching time of MSA is set in a U-shaped curve, which also follows the principle of balanced development of Chinese and English bilinguals, and is combined with the acquisition rules of different age groups for the two languages, language learning environment, as well as the graduation destinations.
Bilingual Community Environment
Providing learners with a diverse, cross-cultural, and highly inclusive immersive bilingual community is an essential element in creating a high-quality bilingual education program. Not only can bilingual communities increase the exposure of acquired languages outside the classroom through increased opportunities to use languages, but they can also create different learning scenarios for students to develop unique behavioral, thinking, and social patterns through language acquisition.
When we design a bilingual teaching model, what we consider the most is not how many English classes, Chinese classes, or how many foreign teachers we have, but with a hope that learners can participate in a global system as much as possible, so that language can go beyond the language itself and become a true lifelong partner.
In addition to implementing a scientific-based and rigorous bilingual teaching model, our approach to creating an immersive bilingual community environment also includes exploring bilingual community service opportunities in the Beijing area and opening up long-term international exchanges. Thus, we provide enriching channels for learners to contact and serve the world through both languages. We support families through school to home communication and parent classes, in order to boost parent understanding of bilingual development and learning processes.
Teaching Team of the Middle School
After entering High School, learners will experience a leap in difficulty in both academic courses and accompanying interdisciplinary programs. At the same time, they are surrounded by a group of educators who are eager to encourage learners to constantly break through barriers and meet more challenges. These educators have passion for education, show enthusiasm and are constantly learning new teaching strategies.
The teaching team of High School graduated from well-known domestic and foreign universities such as Harvard University, Peking University, Brown University, University College London, Yale University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. More than half of them have a master's degree or above.
Development Guidance of the High School
Coaching System
A trusting relationship is key to learners finding meaning and academic rigor at school. Coaching system is learner-centered, where learners develop meaningful relationships with a personal coach, receive guidance in academic and extracurricular activities, and prepare for life after high school.
Matching and Communication Mechanism
After the learners enroll, they will be matched with personal coaches who match the learners' strengths and areas of expertise according to their personalities. Several learners and a coach form a coaching team, who hold weekly coaching meetings to follow up and support the learners' academic development and personal growth. When learners encounter any problems or challenges in school, they can turn to a personal coach for support in a timely manner. Personal coaches are selected from among subject teachers.
Four coaching areas
- Learners can continue to explore personal interests on the basis of accurate self-awareness;
- Learners can manage their own goals, time and energy;
- Learners can gain a sense of safety, trust and empathy;
- Learners extensively participate in social practice activities inside and outside the school.
The above learning goals are achieved through a series of coaching sessions and activities that will accompany them throughout their high school career.
Development Guidance Class
Learners in high school will face multiple pressures from academics, further education, and projects. We have built a development guidance curriculum system to cultivate learners' knowledge, skills and understanding in self-awareness, self-management, relationship and social interaction, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. Courses are carried out in the form of group coaching, coach-learner 1 on 1, special workshops, community discussions, peer cooperation tasks, and individual defenses.
Every school year, the development guidance course research group of the high school will reflect on the curriculum practice and give guidance on the development guidance course for the new school year. For each grade, the grade leader and personal coaches will take into consideration of the situation of the students to plan the semester courses in detail. The high school will organically combine the course objectives and forms, and invite teachers, students, counselors, psychological centers, and external experts and partners to implement the lessons.
The most authentic and diverse scenes are the best soil for the physical and mental development of learners.
College Counseling
The school has launched a logical and progressive guidance system for higher education since the 9th grade. The guidance system can ensure that learners can, based on a more in-depth self-exploration, produce a "Matching University Checklist" that covers professional interests, social environment, natural environment and other dimensions before writing essays. It can also support each learner in constructing an application story that respects facts and best highlights their own characteristics.
College Counseling Course
The College Counseling Office provides corresponding guidance courses for higher education according to the needs of different grades. It can help learners solve common problems in the process of entering a college, support learners to explore themselves and overseas universities, understand the factors that overseas universities refer to when selecting applicants, so as to master the specific methods of finding matching institutions, and rationally use internal and external resources to pursue further education. At the same time, the College Counseling Course will cooperate with other departments of the school to support learners in the activity planning of MSA and guide the follow-up narrative documents.
College Guidance Counseling
The College Counseling Office provides targeted guidance to learners and parents every semester. The frequency of guidance increases gradually through the grades to ensure that the legitimate needs of learners and families are met. During the consultation, the College Counseling Office will guide learners to plan their own individualized study path according to their own situation, including course selection recommendation, on-campus and off-campus activity planning, examination timeline recommendation, selection of matching universities, preparation of application materials and guidance. At the same time, we will guide learners to uphold an honest attitude and ensure the authenticity of the materials.
Connect with Oversea Universities
Through mutual visits with overseas universities, organizing and participating in university exhibitions, and establishing connections with overseas universities by participating in professional organizations and conferences, the College Counseling Office will enhance the popularity and recognition of MSA in overseas institutions. The College Counseling Office regularly organizes learners to communicate with overseas universities, participates in online and offline university exhibitions, and invites university admissions officers and current students to share in special sessions according to learners' university aspirations. The College Counseling Office ensures that learners and families have the opportunity to directly communicate with overseas universities, and gain an in-depth understanding of the characteristics and latest admissions trends of each university.
Graduates
178 students have graduated from MSA in the past 5 years, and 55 graduates will enter their dream universities for further study in June this year.
They went to a bigger and farther world, including comprehensive universities and art colleges such as Emory University, Rice University, Washington University St. Louis, New York University, Columbia University (Trinity College dual degree program), University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, University of Minerva, Rhode Island School of Design, Berklee College of Music, in the USA; Imperial College London, University College London, University of Edinburgh, in the UK; University of Toronto, in Canada, Emlyon Business School, in France, University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and University of Sydney, in Australia. Graduates also matriculated into top American liberal arts colleges such as St. John's College, Reed College, University of Richmond and Macalester College.
Mental Health
Psychological support is becoming a way to explore oneself and promote personal growth. The Mental Health Office of the High School is committed to cultivating all community members, including learners and teaching staff, to identify accurately, treat correctly, and respond positively to different manifestations and phenomena related to mental health.
Mental health work focuses on prevention, and builds a growing community with adaptability and resilience by improving learners' mental health cognition and social-emotional abilities early.
The Mental Health Center provides the following support to community members:
- Provide training and retraining for learners and faculty members on campus safety and mental health cognition and response every semester;
- Regularly evaluate learners' social emotional literacy, and provide targeted courses and guidance accordingly;
- Cooperate with external professional institutions to carry out professional activities and workshops to improve learners' special mental health related skills;
- Carry out psychological club activities led by mentors, increase mental health knowledge, and develop self-awareness and adjustment skills;
- Regularly carry out theme education activities and research;
- Provide mental health assessment services in response to the needs of community members, and generate and analyze social-emotional competency data before and during schooling;
- Keeping the mental health files of all learners and adhering to the principle of confidentiality;
- Provide basic one-on-one mental health guidance and advice services;
- Facilitate referrals of community members in need to off-campus professional agencies.
Development Guidance Team of the High School
We want learners to benefit greatly from a meaningful relationship, whether with themselves, with others, or with the world. The development guidance team of the Secondary School is the bridge in this relationship. They use the roles of coaches, mentors, counselors, and mental health teachers to build a growth relationship with learners beyond the classroom and academics.
Experiential Learning Program of the High School
Experiential Learning Program (ELP) is an extra-curricular learning program that every secondary school learner will participate in every semester. Like a bridge, it connects school and society, action and thinking, knowledge and experience for learners.
Off Campus Learning
We advocate experiential learning projects that allow learners to leave the school campus and enter the real-world. By connecting with real problems in society and people from near and far, learners can understand and experience multiculturalism and build a sense of global citizenship which allows reflection and action-taking toward each individual's social and environmental responsibilities.
Solving Real-World Problems
Learners will travel to various places and interact with groups of different identities to solve real-world problems. External experts and mentors also facilitate learning through projects and research in a variety of fields such as art and humanities, media influence, science and technology, architectural planning, social welfare, and sustainable development.
Experiential learning integrates three important components of project-based learning- first, investigagtive research phase, second, experience phase, and third, reflection stage3of research, experience, and reflection, and cooperates with high-quality social resources for project research and development.
After-School Programs in the High School
After-school Clubs
In High School, in addition to providing students with sports, art, science, social and cultural clubs, we also support learners to create and operate clubs spontaneously. The school will provide support in resources, venues, operation management, etc.
International Tennis Academy
International Tennis Academy (ITA) is a special sports training program of MSA. Adhering to the concept of integrating sports and education, we expect tennis to bring students health in both body and sportsmanship.
ITA implements layered teaching, and recruits students of different ages and foundations. We also welcome learners who have no tennis foundation but would love tennis to join ITA.
Training System
The training system of ITA consists of three parts: tennis skill training, physical fitness training and sportsmanship.
We will guide learners to continuously improve their tennis skills such as ball control, volley and pace, and continuously improve their physical fitness in terms of resistance, speed, agility, basic strength and endurance while focusing on developing the sportsmanship they gain from tennis, such as perseverence and a friendly, competitive spirit.
Training Mode
According to the learner's age group, tennis skill level and future development direction, we have designed personalized layered training:
1st grade: 2 tennis lessons + 1 strength class per week
2nd grade: 3 tennis lessons + 1 strength class per week
3rd grade and above: choose "3 + 1 program" or "5 + 2 program" according to individual need
Awards
2022 the 16th Beijing Games Tennis Youth Competition Group: 3rd place in singles, 3rd place in doubles, and 1st place in teams;
2022 Beijing Youth Championship Tennis Men's Group C: 3rd place in singles, 5th place in doubles, and 1st place in teams;
2022 the 3rd Financial Street Cup UTR Youth Tennis Certification Tournament U14: men's champion;
2022 UTR Olympic Forest Park Flying Cup Youth Tennis Certification Tournament U14: men’s champion;
2022 Heilongjiang Provincial Games: men's doubles champion;
2022 Heilongjiang Provincial Games: 6th place in men's singles;
2022 Youtuo Cup Youth International Tennis Points Tournament: runner up;
2021 Tsinghua Cup and Beijing International School Youth International Tennis Open U10: men's singles runner-up;
2021 Heilongjiang Running Youth Cup Tennis Tournament: 5th place in men’s singles;
2021 National Open Cup Tennis Open U12: men's champion;
2021 Diamond Cup Junior Tennis Challenge U12: champion of finals, champion of one weekly tournament, runner-up of two weekly tournaments;
2020 Zheng Jie Cup U12: Final Four;
2020 China Open Youth Tournament U11: champion;
Tennis 123: champion and runner-up in different levels;
China Tennis Association Nike National Youth Ranking Tournament Shenzhen Guangming Station U12: men's singles champion;
Discovery Cup Tennis Open U12: men's singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Fuzhou station: singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Fuzhou station: singles and doubles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Shanghai station: singles champion;
China Open Youth Tournament U14 Shanghai station: singles runner-up;
China CITIC Bank Youth Tennis Tournament (Beijing Station) U12: men's singles champion;
China CITIC Bank Youth Tennis Tournament (Beijing Station) U12: men's singles runner-up;
Selected into the National Youth Tennis Team;
World Youth Tennis Tour sixth station U11: champion;
World Junior Games UWG: team champion;
To be continued...
Coaching Team
The coaching team is composed of 10 senior coaches in the tennis field, including Chinesenational first-level athletes, Chinese national first-level referees, former Croatian national youth team coaches and former Croatian national team athletes.
These coaches also have an identity as educators. Not only will they teach children tennis skills, but, more importantly, they will pass on sportsmanship to win games on the inner court- the heart.