by Tami Vinson, Director of Development and Engagement

We were thrilled to open our new playground on Friday, September 6th! Students left our all-school assembly in the gym and gathered round to cheer on our beloved Physical Education and Health Teacher, Mr. Onderdonk, take the inaugural ride down the embankment slide! Kids chanted “Go Mr. O!” all the way down. Afterwards, all students in first through eighth grade got to have extra morning recess time to check out all the new features. 

With the construction timeline extending into the first few weeks of school, anticipation built up each day at recess. Students watched excitedly at the orange construction fence as the crew got closer and closer to completion. A couple students mentioned seeing the construction crew testing out the slide and even noted “They looked like they were having a lot of fun and they deserve it!” From moving boulders to enclose the natural loose parts play area, adding a walkway and safety guards to the boulder scramble, and placing the new tree stumps and tires, the students got to watch it come to fruition. Students were especially curious when the cave was installed! Each day at carline, the kids asked “Is the playground opening today?” 

The delayed construction timeline offered a silver lining. The students’ gratitude for the hard work involved in building the new playground was immense. It made the grand opening celebration all the more exciting and meaningful. Each day since opening it, we have all enjoyed watching the kids engage with the new features. 

With our students’ love for the “forbidden forest” and natural spaces of our campus, we wanted to build off of that appreciation and add elements that connected to nature for children to fill with their impressive imaginations, joyful spirits, and energetic bodies. Research indicates that exposure to natural elements can lower stress, boost concentration, and improve overall mental well-being. By integrating aspects of nature into our play environments, our students can experience the restorative benefits of outdoor play and a connection to the natural world.

Our boulder scramble encourages physical activity, helping children develop strength, balance, and coordination while navigating various heights and surfaces. This play fosters creativity and problem-solving as kids explore different routes and tackle natural obstacles, enhancing their motor skills and overall fitness. As they engage in this controlled yet adventurous play, children also develop critical thinking, spatial awareness, and risk assessment skills. Scrambling is an exhilarating way to build early mountaineering skills and prepares children for hiking in our beautiful Rocky Mountains. We really love that the rocks so easily blend into our hill and are a unique and attractive feature on our playground. Students are also enjoying practicing their balance and agility as they walk across the boulders surrounding the new loose parts play area. 

Fun fact: all of the boulders used in the scramble and play area were sourced from our Rocky Mountains – the Floyd Hill area of I-70 to be exact! Thanks to the generosity of Kraemer North America, who is managing the Floyd Hill construction project, we were able to attain all our unique boulders used in the scramble and the border around the loose parts play area. A big heartfelt thank you to Mack parent, Matt Hogan for arranging this in-kind donation! This aspect of the project highlights our commitment to building with sustainable materials and trying to do our part for our environment. In addition, our safety guards around the scramble are made from recycled rubber and amount to saving 31 tires from going into a landfill!

Our new embankment slide integrates seamlessly into our hill, maximizing our outdoor space while delivering endless thrills. The slide not only offers excitement but also sparks scientific curiosity. Climbing the hill builds potential energy due to gravity, which is transformed into kinetic energy when sliding down, effectively demonstrating concepts of acceleration and velocity. Additionally, the slide engages both proprioceptive and kinesthetic responses, making it a dynamic tool for illustrating various branches of mathematics, including geometry. Beyond the fun, it encourages physical activity, helping children stay fit while developing essential motor skills and coordination.

The cave offers a quiet place where students can enjoy a bit of downtime on the playground. That being said, within the first week of the grand opening, a group of students wanted to know how many kids would fit in the cave. The magic number was 11! We also added small natural wooden tables with seating for students to read a book, play chess with a friend, or incorporate into their imaginative play. It’s been wonderful to see students enjoying these tables in the loose parts play areas and near the front patio. 

Our loose parts play area fosters creativity and promotes peer interaction, enhancing social cohesion. These versatile materials ignite children’s imaginations, encouraging them to creatively integrate various components into their play. Loose parts facilitate open-ended learning and enhance problem-solving skills. Tree stumps, repurposed tires, rocks, and tree cookies provide limitless opportunities for imaginative exploration during recess.

These playground updates are part of a multi-year plan of enhancements to our outdoor areas for learning, exploration, and discovery. We set out to create environments that encourage free and imaginative play, physical activity, and team building. We wanted to make the best use of our open spaces and opportunities for students to take in the fresh air and connect with nature throughout the day. 

This project would not have been possible without the generous support of our community of donors. We extend immense gratitude to all those who contributed with generosity to the Mack Fund and playground project. Thank you for helping to bring these plans to life for our students! 

We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Eric Crotty, our playground designer, whose creativity and dedication brought this project to life. Eric’s thoughtful design beautifully integrates natural elements into our play space, creating an environment that encourages adventure, learning, and connection with nature. We also appreciate our construction partners at JPL Cares for their work in installing our new playground features. This truly was a community project from start to finish!

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Since 2014, Mackintosh Academy middle school students have participated in the

The WAC is open to middle and high school students from across the globe who work in teams to create innovative solutions. As part of this competition, students consult with subject matter experts to learn about the root causes of a specific global issue, and how it impacts communities. They then design solutions to address the problem and implement community service projects to contribute toward solving the issue. On WAC Event day, student teams present their work to a panel of judges for feedback and scoring. They also take a Global Quiz to assess their knowledge of world issues.

In the week leading into spring break, our Mackintosh middle school students completed and submitted their video presentation on the global issues they had researched. A panel of volunteer judges reviewed these videos and then conducted Zoom interviews with each team. The WACadamia Nuts took third place in the competition for their project focusing on bat conservation. This group investigated the impact of disease, climate change, habitat shift, and human interaction upon the at-risk bat population. As their service project, they built two bat houses to place in local areas to help provide more roosting sites for bats. Their project video is available for viewing here.

The other Mackintosh teams participating in the competition were:

• We’re WAC in Business -This team investigated how climate change affects indigeous populations in Alaska who are having to relocate. Their service included student design artwork (sculpture, watercolor, and digital downloads) to help raise money for those forced to relocate.
• The WAC Meisters – This group researched how kelp farms can help mitigate ocean acidification due to climate change, which is increasing the oceans’ dead spots. They baked cookies and breads with kelp-derived products to have a fundraiser to support organizations that are researching and using kelp farms for environmental support.
• WACamarines – This team examined how lionfish, an invasive species, are affecting Florida’s coral reefs and the surrounding ecosystem. They planned a recycled boat raingutter regatta to raise funds for lionfish mitigation groups.
• Project Chomolungma  – This group delved into a dirty topic – the waste that is left by tourist climbers in the Khumbu Valley, where. Mount Everest (Chomolungma) is found. They made handmade soap to sell to the Mack community to support an organization within the Khumbu region that works to clean up the waste.
• WACxolotls – This group studied axolotls, an endangered species whose home habitat is Lake Xochimilco in Mexico. The water availability for the lake and Mexico City is at a crisis level, greatly affecting the people, habitat and the animals that live within it. The team created plush lovey dolls in the form of the axolotls and sold them to community members to raise funds for an organization working with farmers near Lake Xochimilco to improve environmental conditions.
  

All of the students worked hard to research their chosen issue, interview experts in the field, synthesize the information into a presentation, and create a service project to address the issue. Mackintosh middle school teacher Joe Pausback recognized the value of the experience for all students, saying, “As a teacher, guiding students through WAC feels sort of like driving a big bus down a steep hill and midway down throwing the steering wheel out the window and then watching what happens.  From start to finish each project grows organically and as a teacher my role becomes facilitation.  Each group winds up in their own unique place with their own challenges and needs.  For me the first week or two is hard getting the students to connect with each other and get moving in the same direction.  The best moment usually happens about two weeks in, when each group finally is connected and vested in their project and no longer needs teacher guidance to remain on task. I also love when the students start setting up and conducting their interviews. Another challenging part is keeping up with the expectations from the World Affairs Challenge administration. They have a schedule for when they need certain discrete tasks completed from each group and getting all the pieces down at the right time takes focus and finesse. For some reason this year, the due dates always seemed to come a little before the students were really ready for them.”

Kelly Kates, Mackintosh performing arts teacher and student service coordinator, also supported WAC students. She reflected, “Since it was the first time working with WAC for me, I was really excited about the students having the opportunity to address real world problems and to really have an impact,  It was inspiring to hear about all of the different projects.  It also gave me the opportunity to see our students in a different light as they were so professional while interviewing different people for their projects. Also, during the collaborative question, I got to sit in on all of the interviews with the judges. I took great pride in the fact that every team was told their video was one of the most creative the judges had seen – and I think having 4 of the top 10 teams reflects that.”

The World Affairs Challenge was founded in 2010 as part of what is now the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. The WAC started as a community outreach program to educate students and teachers about global issues. WAC is merging with World Denver, another nonprofit organization that works “to strengthen and expand the community of engaged global citizens and organizations in Colorado through education, cross-cultural exchange, and personal interaction.”  Both WAC and World Denver align with Mackintosh Academy’s mission as an International Baccalaureate school that aims to empower students to make a difference in the world.

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On November 4, 2021, Mackintosh Academy in Littleton, Colorado was awarded Climate Action Project School of Excellence. Only 250 schools globally were recognized because of their intense work on climate education in a whole-school approach. The recognition was awarded by Cartoon Network Climate Champions and Climate Action Project.

Cartoon Network Climate Champions is a climate change awareness initiative that sets out to inspire kids to take on daily challenges that collectively can make a big difference to the health of our planet. It has been developed in collaboration with WWF, a world-renowned environmental organization.

Climate Action Project is a free, global education project that was launched by Take Action Global, an education nonprofit based in the USA, involving 2,700,000 teachers and students across 146 countries. The project aims to help students learn about the climate crisis in authentic ways and disseminate solutions online.

The recognized schools submitted their work for the past year and met extensive criteria, including a school-wide commitment to climate education and student solutions.

All Mackintosh Academy middle school students in grades 7 and 8 researched climate change at a local and global level and developed possible solutions as part of an intensive worldwide six-week study. As part of this process, they collaborated with students around the world to share ideas and solutions. Mackintosh students are now drawing on this research and collaboration to develop action projects that could help solve climate change. These projects will be shared on a digital platform with the Climate Action Project. Some of the ideas Mackintosh students developed include having children in elementary schools around the world pledge to plant trees, taxing and removing subsidies for coal and gas while providing greater subsidies for replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies, and working with businesses and governments to limit deforestation.

Diane Dunne, Mackintosh Academy Head of School: “We are thrilled to have been honored with this award, but more importantly, we are enormously proud of our students who are not afraid to tackle big problems and come up with real-world solutions. As students in an International Baccalaureate World School, our Mack kids shine brightest when they put their knowledge to work in contributing to real change in the world.”

The selected 250 Climate Action Project Schools of Excellence were announced on November 4, 2021 during Climate Action Day, an annual online live event attended by 250,000 people globally. The event speakers included HRM Prince William, President James Alix Michel, Seychelles, Rick Davis, NASA, Matt Larsen-Daw, WWF, HRM Princess Esmeralda, Belgium, Juan Pablo Celis Garcia, UN Environment Programme, and other world leaders, climate scientists, and activists.

The winners were announced by Dan Russell, the voice actor behind several characters in Cartoon Network global hit series The Amazing World of Gumball, and Nandi Bushell, an 11-year-old musician, an influencer and passionate climate advocate.

HRM Prince William said, “We need youth’s creativity to repair our planet. We need students to invent and to innovate – to think beyond where we are now and to be optimistic about our future.”

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By Tari St.Marie, 5th and 6th Grade Teacher

What do you do when the world hijacks your unit of inquiry? 

It started quietly enough, during our unit of  inquiry into Revolutions. My fifth and sixth grade students asked: Are all revolutions good? What if the revolution doesn’t work? Can you have a revolution without a war? 

Actually, yes, you can have a revolution without a war – we do it every four years in the United States when we elect a new president. We respond to the people’s wishes for their government peacefully instead of going to war.

That was October 12, three weeks before the election. Many of my students were paying attention to this election; they were very aware of the candidates and of their families’ perceptions of them. And after the election, their questions began to focus – they wanted to understand what was happening. Why hasn’t a president been declared? What is election fraud? Do elections always happen this way?

Our unit of inquiry shifted from Revolutions to Government: studying the very institutions that we were watching play out. The students read the Constitution to learn the powers and the limitations given to the branches of government, and their questions became more pointed: Why is President Trump saying the election was wrong? What is the role of the Supreme Court? What is the purpose of the Electoral College? Can these systems really overturn the vote?

And with these questions, I put away my planned lessons and allowed their questions to become the unit of inquiry. Their focus, while still on the United States government, became more of a deep dive into how Constitutional powers were actually playing out in real life than in what each branch of the government could do. They wanted to know if the election was wrong, so they learned about the power of the United States  judicial system and researched cases in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. They learned about legal standing and voting observers and evidence. They read newspaper articles from different perspectives, attempted to make sense of the legal language of court cases, and they reflected on the lawsuits alleging voter fraud that the courts put aside for lack of evidence or lack of standing. 

They learned about the United States legislative branch by understanding that the legislature doesn’t have much of a say in presidential elections. They understood that states get to make their own election rules because those rules aren’t in the Constitution. They learned that states with certified results and no outstanding lawsuits are considered to have Safe Harbor, where Congress can’t question their Electors. They combined their research into the election lawsuits with their understanding of the role of Congress in elections and created a video for their senators, expressing their reasoned reflections that Congress should not try to do a job it isn’t set up to do, even if the President says they can or should.

At the beginning of January, the students’ –and the country’s – engagement was high. So much talk about overturning the election. Stopping the steal. The students were frustrated with many adults who didn’t understand that the United States government was working the way it should: Concerns were heard, but dismissed for lack of evidence. State laws had been followed and certified. All that was left was for Congress to certify the votes of the Electoral College. 

The Electoral College was their main entry point to the Executive Branch. They read the Constitution where the Electoral College was created and debated if this was still an idea we should use today. They read the statutes that explained how the counting of the electoral votes was to proceed, secure in the understanding that the election was over, because Congress had no role in doing anything but counting and certifying the electoral votes. They were excited to see this long process come to a close. And many of them were watching at home while, during the counting of the electoral votes, a mob breached the Capitol building. Like so many of us, they were stunned, wondering how this could happen when all the systems were doing their jobs. 

I heard many opinions about how I handled this unit. Many of my teacher friends outside of Mackintosh felt I had gone too far, that I had risked inserting bias into the discussion, or that I should have focused on the powers and limitations of the branches of government rather than engaged in current events that my students may not have been able to comprehend. 

But the International Baccalaureate tells me that student inquiry fuels agency and action. And what is education for, but to empower students to enable understanding that will help them to create the world they will need? 

What do you do when the real world hijacks your unit of inquiry? You let the students lead. 

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By Sam Pausback, Mackintosh Academy Class of 2017

(Note: Sam and all of the other students mentioned are Mackintosh Academy alums from 2017-2020.)

When I was in 7th grade I had a rather silly ambition; I wanted to hike from the front door of my house in Littleton to the front door of my grandparents’ house in Snowmass. For a good many years this remained more or less an idle dream that I’d bring up every once in a while but never act on. That is until this summer.

I texted my dear friend Quinn, and together we began to plan. Over the course of two weeks we scraped together the outline of a backpacking trip, we planned meals, determined our route, and coordinated with friends to join up with us along the way. After two weeks of preparation, we were prepared, we took up our packs, and set off for the great unknown. To put it simply, we had no clue what we were getting ourselves into.

The first few days proved far more challenging than we’d originally anticipated. As we hiked up Waterton Canyon, we bumped into a group of several other hikers. It was lucky we did, it turned out that Bear Creek, the one reliable water source for the next 12 miles, was bone dry. We loaded up on water, bracing ourselves for a dry couple days. With nearly 10 pounds of water weight each we staggered off. At Bear Creek we got a tip off from a random guy on a bike that we could access water after a ten minute hike. The next day we passed the South Platte; it was a truly brutal day. The sun was hot, we were passing through a burn scar, and we each had to take 10 pounds of water again. From there the going got easier, we entered Lost Park and water became much more plentiful. The distance began to fall away as our bodies grew stronger, we slowly got our trail legs beneath us.

In no time at all, we were hiking down the switchbacks that lead into Breckenridge. It was the first hard day since the South Platte, Quinn and I were tired and it’d been a hot long day. It was also the day Gillian was planning to join us. After she joined us, we hiked another three miles into camp. This, it turns out, was lucky, as the next day we were set to go over a pass and it would’ve been an incredibly difficult day at its original 13 miles. The next day we were up bright and early to hike Walker Pass and camped that night in the Copper Ski Resort. Two days and 20 miles later we arrived at Tennessee Pass. Gillian left us and Henry and Ember joined our crew of merry folks. We had entered our final day on the Colorado Trail. It was on the shores of Turquoise Lake (more of a navy in my opinion) that we were set to make our first fateful steps into the unknown away from the well marked Colorado Trail. At least that was the plan.

Our next move was to follow a winter trail up to Skinner’s Hut. The one problem, we couldn’t find it. We had traveled nearly 10 miles that day and we were all exhausted, so we decided to make camp for the night. That’s when we encountered our second “spot o bother.” Turns out, teenagers eat a lot. Seated there, our plans already awry, Quinn and I realized we didn’t have enough food. After some frantic attempts to contact my parents, a brief hitchhiking trip, and a lot of discussion, we finally got an emergency restock planned. The challenges did not end from there, but we trail hopped our way through the backcountry of Aspen.

Several times we didn’t have a trail and had to bushwack our way, relying on instinct as much as map and GPS to guide us. It was in this way that we finally entered Lenado, Colorado  (a town of approximately 5 people), a band of tired wayfarers. In Lenado we were met with hospitality and kindness, meeting unexpectedly with a few old family acquaintances. The next day we were in Aspen, eating in our first restaurant after nearly 20 days on the trail. We camped on the Buttermilk Ski Aria (semi-legally), and in the dead of night Ember saw our first bear of the trip! After many hard days of travel, our goal was in sight. Hemmed in with flames, our schedule had to be moved up a little. It was that afternoon that we finally entered Snowmass Valley, re-tracing familiar ground. And finally, with tired eyes, we saw our goal. The finally few steps simply flew by as we walked up the driveway to my grandparents house.

Sitting in the car on the drive home, I reflected back on what we’d done. This had been a trip I had been dreaming about for nearly four years, and I had just finished it. Now, after nearly 20 days of continual walking, we finally had a chance to sit and reflect. All of us sat there in our separate worlds. I can’t speak for my companions, but I found myself dwelling on the first day of the trip, the excitement I had felt, as well as the uncertainty. We had all grown so much from that first day, both in strength and character, and even as I began to drift off, I smiled a little to myself content in what we had accomplished.

The post Mack Alums Make Epic Hike from Littleton to Snowmass appeared first on Mackintosh Academy.

?Get up and walk around the yard when you need a break
? Print and post your schedule where you can see it
?Keep your space organized “so you are not a hot mess” ?

Click through to the slideshow for more tips!

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When Social Distancing is “Normal Life”

Selah C. is an eleven-year-old former Mackintosh Academy student who was born with a condition that puts her at higher risk for respiratory illnesses. Recently she shared her tips on social distancing from the point of view of someone who lives with a chronic illness.

What most of us are experiencing for the first time in the COVID-19 pandemic, Selah has lived with her entire life. Her mom Sarah says, “We’ve already learned how to live in quarantine and social isolation except for in the safest situations. It’s not easy, but we’re used to it by now and it’s second nature.”

With Selah’s family’s permission, we are sharing her advice here.

Selah’s Tips on Thriving in Isolation

“Apparently most people don’t live like I do, which is not really a revelation, but to me I can’t imagine what a normal life is, if there even is one.

I’ve been in the hospital a lot. All my life I have been living extremely cautiously, because I know what happens if I make a couple of small mistakes like forgetting to wash my hands or touching a door knob and then scratching my face. Even just a cold can turn into pneumonia for me. I never hang out with anyone even remotely sick, and most times when I’m in the hospital I’m contagious, so I can’t leave my room for days on end.

Thank you, Selah, for sharing your words of wisdom with our community!

For more information and tips on how to help kids with social distancing, please visit these sources:

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/coronavirus-social-distancing.html

https://broomfield.org/3125/Activities-While-Social-Distancing

https://newywithkids.com.au/family-fun-social-distancing-coronavirus/

We will be covering this topic, sharing more student and family perspectives, and highlighting activities and student work as our staff continues to provide hands-on, inquiry-based experiences for our students via MACK FLEX, our flexible learning platform. Follow us on this blog, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to stay tuned.

Want to learn more about our school? Here’s a good place to start.

The post Tips on Social Distancing from an 11 Year Old Expert appeared first on Mackintosh Academy.

According to Washington University, “Service learning refers to learning that actively involves students in a wide range of experiences, which often benefit others and the community, while also advancing the goals of a given curriculum. Community-based service activities are paired with structured preparation and student reflection.”

This year’s eighth graders chose a variety of projects that reflected their own interests as well as the needs of the communities they served. Whether working with Ethiopian adoptees, food-insecure communities, or rescue kittens, they were able to fulfill the aims of the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years projects, to encourage and enable students to:

• participate in a sustained, self-directed inquiry within a global context
• generate creative new insights and develop deeper understandings through in-depth investigation
• demonstrate the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to complete a project over an extended period of time
• communicate effectively in a variety of situations
• demonstrate responsible action through, or as a result of, learning to appreciate the process of learning and take pride in their accomplishments.

Faculty mentors shepherded the students through the process of selecting a project, doing background research, and writing a research paper that included a formal bibliography of works cited.

The heart of these service learning projects was, of course, the fifteen or more hours of direct service that the students were required to perform. This allowed the students to connect with members of the communities they served and have a direct sense of how their work impacted others.

• The MYP community projects included:
• creating a nonprofit mentoring organization Wodaj for Ethiopian adoptees in Colorado and building a website for the group
• volunteering at Break Bread Littleton, an organization that builds meaningful relationships among neighbors through a free weekly community meal
• fostering kittens with Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue
• working at the GrowHaus, a nonprofit indoor farm, marketplace, and educational center in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood

The eighth graders presented their projects to the entire school at an assembly, inspiring younger students with their commitment and hard work. All of them reported that the community project had been a beneficial experience: one student shared that this project “helped me come out of my shell and talk to people,” while another said,”This is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”

As a key part of Mackintosh Academy’s International Baccalaureate curriculum, service learning opportunities such as the Middle Years community project provide students the chance to make an impact on the world – right here, right now!

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Mackintosh Academy Littleton third and fourth graders recently completed their “Where We Are in Time and Place” International Baccalaureate unit of inquiry, focusing on the history of Ancient Greece. This unit invited them to explore how the people, beliefs and values of the past influence who we are today. Rather than slogging through dry tomes for facts and figures, students collaborated on the questions they wanted to explore: “Why study ancient Greece? Where can we find ancient Greece’s influence in our lives today?” Lead teacher Lula Guilbert and associate teacher Heather Thomas guided them through ancient history with wisdom and focus.

Finding history in the modern world!

The answers the class found were astounding. From math to mythology to architecture to cuisine, students investigated and discovered that the Greeks have left a lasting mark on modern Western culture. Students noticed Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns in Denver architecture, and learned about concepts such as Pythagorean triangles and Golden rectangles. Some students with personal connections to Greece brought in family heirlooms and shared their stories with the class.

In Physical Education, the Greek Olympics were a focus. Students learned about the ancient games of the Olympics, and participated in some lively simulations of chariot races, discus, javelin, long jump, and equestrian events. This unit nurtured the bodies as well as the inquisitive minds of these young learners.

As so often happens at Mack Littleton, what’s being learned in the classroom spilled over into the students’ playground time as well. Sparked by their interest in Greek mythology, the children created role-play games at recess and built “artifacts” from ancient Greece such as helmets, shields, telescopes, and Trojan horses.

Sharing knowledge with the community

The culminating project of the unit, and one of the highlights for students and teachers alike, is the Greek Agora, where Greek history comes to life. Agora, which literally means “gathering place or assembly,” was a central public space in Greek city-states. Students built their own version of this market/meeting place. Sporting chitons (Greek robes) they created themselves, students showed off visual displays and interactive elements to share their knowledge of Greece with the Mackintosh community, including students from other classes, faculty, and parents. Presentations included Greek monsters in mythology, the Trojan War, astronomy, and Pythagoras. A selection of Greek food added extra flavor to this event.

Via the inquiry-oriented, hands-on nature of this International Baccalaureate unit, the third and fourth graders traveled through ancient history to discover themes, concepts, and connections developed by the Greeks that are still very much alive today.

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When you think of your middle school memories, what comes to mind? Awkwardness and braces? Pushing your way through crowded hallways? Hours spent memorizing math equations and highlighting dry history textbooks?

Mackintosh Academy’s Middle Years students look back on their middle school years with a different lens.

One recent graduate said, “I’m the only kid in my high school who didn’t hate middle school!” Our alums often reflect on how unique their middle years experience was, and how it helped them to be confident, well-prepared high school students.

In this student-created video, Mack Littleton’s MYP (Middle Years Programme) students share their own words about what makes a Mack education different: inquiry-based curriculum, hands-on learning, service trips, dedicated teachers, and a close-knit, supportive community.

As an International Baccalaureate Middle Years school, Mackintosh Academy’s middle school is more than just curriculum – it’s community! Our students have the opportunity to thrive in an environment tailored for them. They get to solve real-world problems. They learn to be critical and reflective thinkers. They work with teachers who truly know and care about them. And perhaps most importantly, they develop a true sense of belonging.

Curious about what a Mack education might do for your child? Contact our admissions team to find out!

Not quite ready to contact us yet? That’s okay! Learn more:

Quick Facts about Our School

Academic Overview

Admissions

FAQ

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