Course Descriptions

LSI Math 7 and 7/8 are dynamic, problem-based courses in which students engage with the California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics through exploration, collaboration, and real-world application. Students learn by solving meaningful problems that connect mathematical concepts to authentic contexts. Students participate in hands-on learning experiences that strengthen understanding and critical thinking. Instruction is grounded in key beliefs: 

- Everyone is a math person
- Speed is not important
- Mistakes grow your brain
- There is more than one way to solve every math problem
- Problem solving is what we do when we don't know what to do

In a co-taught, team-based environment, students develop a sense of belonging, curiosity, and ownership of their learning. Through consistent practice in reasoning, communication, and collaboration, they build the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed for success in high school and beyond.

In alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and project based learning, students will discover the world of science through inquiry, investigation, and analysis. Exploring Chemistry, Cells, Ecology and the Earth history students will develop critical thinking skills to be able to design and engineer different styles of frameworks to generate solutions to understanding scientific principles, laws and theories. 

World Arts blends Social Studies and Language Arts through hands-on, real-world learning. Students strengthen reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills while analyzing primary and secondary sources and making meaningful connections between the past and the present world.

A key highlight is the course’s community engagement: students collaborate with History San José and showcase their work in a public end-of-year exhibition, receiving feedback from local community members. Interdisciplinary projects with math, science, and other subjects help students interpret data, understand chronology, and see how the world’s stories connect.

Through authentic projects and presentations, students build critical thinking, literacy, and cultural awareness—preparing them to be empowered, engaged citizens ready for high school and beyond.

Lighthouse is our student leadership elective. Lighthouse helps students to internalize the New Tech Network model and learn the Lobo School of Innovation norms. Lighthouse provides students with a path to help them navigate their world through enlightening, student-driven projects. In Lighthouse, students will build understanding of the LSI way - we will study why, what, and how we learn the way we do.

Students will learn through a Problem-Based Learning (PrBL) approach that emphasizes deep understanding, flexible skills, and real-life problem solving. Using linear algebra, they will analyze scenarios and make meaningful predictions based on their mathematical reasoning.

Accelerated students will delve even further into key 8th-grade concepts while also taking on the challenge of completing the 9th-grade Common Core State Standards. This advanced pathway prepares them to confidently enter 10th-grade math.

Both classes will build a strong foundation for continued success in future coursework in high school and beyond.

In this hands-on, inquiry-driven course, students explore core concepts in physical, Earth, and life sciences through real-world projects and scientific investigation. Guided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), students engage in questioning, modeling, data analysis, and evidence-based reasoning to understand forces and motion, energy transfer, Earth’s systems, genetics, and human impacts on the planet. Through collaborative, project-based learning, students take on the roles of scientists and engineers—designing solutions, presenting findings, and developing the critical thinking and communication skills needed for success in high school and beyond.

US Narrative is the eighth grade blend of English Language Arts and US History. English Language Arts skills and conventions work their way in all History and Language Arts content to ensure all learning is rigorous, thought-provoking, and meaningful. All historical content is explored and researched in-depth through the analyzing of primary and secondary sources, note taking during lecture, formal writing assignments, and expressed throughout the course of the students’ project deliverables. Students craft their project deliverables, which take any form depending on the project and individual student creativity and agency, and practice oral communication skills as they present on exhibition day. Students working with the content will use their Agency, Collaboration, Knowledge & Thinking, Written Communication, and Oral Communication to develop their vocabulary and literacy skills in order to be ready for high school, as well as being informed, productive members of society. 

In the Lighthouse elective, students hone leadership skills, oral communication skills, and refine agency work while practicing the norms of Lobo School of Innovation. Students practice both mentorship and leadership skills through interactions with incoming LSI students and the community. At the conclusion of the school year, students will present a ‘give-back’ capstone project.