Supporting Our Advanced Learners to Reach Their Potential (SOAR)
Our SOAR program is where our advanced learners are nurtured and challenged. SOAR provides academic support, social support, and resource identification to help advanced learners in grades 1-10 reach their full intellectual and social potential. SOAR students are given academic support via Blackboard Collaborate™ sessions, with activities designed to carry them beyond the realm of their regular education lessons.
In addition to academic support, SOAR offers opportunities for advanced learners to interact and socialize with other advance learners in a variety of ways! Here are some examples of SOAR exclusive activities:
- LEGO® Robotics: LEGO® Robotics offers innovative technology enrichment to our students in a face to face environment. Students are divided into teams across the state, based on geographic location, and meet for a minimum of six hours per month. Students work as a team to complete challenges on a LEGO®NXT kit provided by PA Virtual. The program culminates at Discovery Days each year, where a final cumulative challenge takes place.
- Literature Explorers: Literature Explorers provides students with the opportunity to read and discuss books through Blackboard Collaborate™. Our SOAR students are challenged by reading books beyond our K12 Inc. curriculum. Our Explorers extend their knowledge by researching topics related to and concerning the books.
- Stock Market Game: This weekly instruction centers on different topics surrounding the Stock Market. For example, our SOAR teachers educate students on companies, stocks, ticker symbols, bonds, diversification, mutual funds, and much more. Students are assigned roles in teams, and attend instructional sessions and team meetings through the use of discussion boards and wikis.
- Real World Math: This group meets once a month, and focuses on how math concepts apply in the real world. Topics covered include statistics, media math, how math is applied to professions such as an airplane pilot or lawmaker, and much more. With the help of our SOAR staff, students can literally see how the math concepts they learn can be applied to their daily life and future careers.
Project Investigation Activity Groups: Our students participate in creative, investigative project activities, based around one of three themes: biography, science fair, and media. After choosing a theme, the student works in a small group with other SOAR “investigators.” These groups meet with a SOAR teacher via Blackboard Collaborate™ for six weeks. The SOAR teacher serves as a guide, helping students become better investigators and researchers. Students are engaged in group discussion, one-on-one responsibilities, research, technology applications, and presentation skills all in this one activity!