Electives

R-MA Middle School students have several choices of electives they may participate in during the school day. Some classes may be taken at the high school level when appropriate.

Art: Students learn about different art media including sketching, painting, clay sculpture, and develop an appreciation of art forms.

Beginning Brass/Woodwind: Students learn how to play a brass or woodwind instrument.

Beginning Percussion: Budding musicians learn how to play several different percussion instruments from bells to drums with the intent of performing in R-MA's award-winning band.

Chorus: Motivated middle school students may participate in the Upper School Chorus. Local and regional performances are a requirement.

Robotics and Computer Programming: This course teaches students core computer programming logic and reasoning skills using a robotic engineering context tailored to bring the magic of robotics competition into the classroom.

Digital Media: Participants learn the basics of computer-aided design through media such as art, photography, architecture, and games.

Digital Piano: This program, based in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) lab at the Middle School, teaches students the basics of music and piano at the student’s level. The MIDI lab features state-of-the-art digital pianos and software, which allows students to compose and record music.

Introduction to Computer Science: This course aims to teach students the programming and computational concepts using block-based and text-based programming.  Coding infuses computational thinking that uses problem solving, communication, and personal expression to solve problems. This is a semester-long course.

Middle School Band: Students learn the fundamentals of playing a brass, woodwind, or percussion instrument in a structured marching and concert band.

Upper School Band: Experienced instrumentalists may audition to play in the VA 91st Air Force JROTC Upper School Band.

Yearbook/Digital Photography: Participants learn basic journalism, photography and photo editing, layout and design of newsprint media and produce the middle school yearbook. 

Eighth Grade Electives:

Eighth grade students are strongly encouraged to begin their foreign language. The options include German, French, and Spanish.