Montessori Middle School
An Introduction to
High Desert Montessori Middle School
“Above all it is the education of adolescents that is important, because adolescence is the time when the child enters on the state of adulthood and becomes a member of society.”
-- Maria Montessori
High Desert Montessori Middle School opened its doors in August of 2006. We have followed the tradition of excellence established at HDMS while adapting our curriculum to the unique developmental needs of the adolescent. We provide an engaging, safe, and dynamic learning environment to educate the whole adolescent. Our philosophy can be summarized with the following education equation:
The Five Tenets of our curriculum:
1. Personal responsibility and integrity
2. Project based learning
3. Pedagogy of place
4. Individualized Learning Plans
5. Community for the developing adolescent
The Three Qualities:
1. Rigor
2. Relevance
3. Relationships
The One Aim:
1. Peace & justice through active leadership
In our first year we enrolled 21 students. In the following two years we will grow as our students do and expand to include eighth and ninth grades with each grade serving about 27 students.
Please review these pages and feel free to contact us with any questions. You can reach us at 624-2800 ext. 106.
The Biggest Little Solar System
in the World
Our middle school class recently embarked on creating the world’s largest scale model solar system. We’ve shrunk the 5.9 billion km of the real solar system down to 564 km going from Reno to Las Vegas. The current record holder is in Sweden which is soon to be surpassed by one in England. Our model will eclipse the English one by nearly 100km. Boston and Peoria are the current US record-holders.
Our model will use Lawlor Events Center at UNR as the Sun with Pluto at 22 cm wide (8.5 inches) in Las Vegas. Mercury, Venus and Earth are all within Reno, Mars is in Pleasant Valley, Jupiter in Minden, Saturn in Hawthorne, Uranus in Tonopah, and Neptune in Beatty. We decided to include Pluto even though it’s been demoted to a dwarf-planet because it is a class favorite and is dear to our hearts (it’s also still a part of the Solar System!).
We are working with schools throughout Nevada to host planets along the route. Each school will create a permanent model according to the scale needed (an actual sphere, a painted mural, a garden landscape...) and we will supply a professionally done display for each station with relevant information for the planet, route map, project overview, etc. The displays would be the same throughout the route to lend consistency and quality to the work. Travelers will be able to see the models at the schools as they drive across our state. Fleischmann Planetarium, which overlooks the Lawlor Events Center, is on board and is giving us outside space for a sign and display to start the tour.
This is a great project for our students that is fun, educational, and interdisciplinary with real-world impact. We have delved into astronomy, used math to scale planet sizes and orbits, used technology and geography to find appropriate locations in Nevada, communicated with other schools, created a website, and given tours to younger students on our mini scale model that’s in front of the school (our practice model). Please check out the student-created website at www.freewebs.com/hdmms that is still being built and improved upon and look for more news about our progress from this site and the student site.
We are looking for support to purchase high quality signs and perhaps to even tour the system as a class once it’s built. If you’re interested in making a donation you may do so via our donation page please contact the school at 624-2800, ext. 100.
Thanks for your interest!
--The Middle School Students and Staff
