Table of Contents
Our School
Our school combines academics and the natural world. We seek to connect ourselves, our students, and our community to the environment in which we live. HMI is not simply an environmental, experiential, or traditional school. We borrow liberally from all three traditions, but also leave ourselves open to the world at large. This allows us to present students with new experiences that they can understand and apply to their lives as a whole.
Mission Statement
The High Mountain Institute engages students with the natural world. Our school boldly unites rigorous intellectual inquiry, experiential learning, wilderness expeditions, and shared responsibility in a strong community. Our students realize their potential—as leaders, independent thinkers, and thoughtful citizens.
Organizational Structure
The High Mountain Institute is a 501(c)(3) educational organization providing opportunities for leadership growth, intellectual maturation, and self-reliance within a traditional academic and wilderness curriculum.
Core Values
The High Mountain Institute promotes excellence in all levels of school life. Classroom, wilderness, and residential life are fully integrated components of the student experience, and faculty members participate as mentors and guides in all aspects of the semester. This interaction promotes close relationships in the community and leads to greater performance and achievement. Students typically leave the High Mountain Institute invigorated academically, intellectually, and socially and are prepared to lead active, achieving, and curious lives.
Mentorship in and out of the classroom
Transference of what students learn beyond the High Mountain Institute
Place-based and community-based education
Processed-based learning that teaches students how to think, not what to think, and conveys a passion for learning
Integration of the natural world, academics, and residential life
Calendar
Each semester is approximately 110 days long. Students spend five weeks in the backcountry of Colorado and Utah, and over twelve weeks on the Leadville campus. In both settings, students participate in a rigorous curriculum. Formally structured contact hours for all courses meet or exceed those of sending schools (60 hours/semester).
Curriculum Overview
The curriculum at the High Mountain Institute includes traditional academic courses in history, literature, mathematics, Spanish language, and science. Students also enroll in a leadership and natural ethics elective. All classes are taught at the honors or AP-level. Course titles are as follows:
Required Elective: Practices and Principles: Ethics of the Natural World
English: Literature of the Natural World
Science: Natural Science
History
Fall
- U.S. History – Foundations in American Thought and Culture
- Advanced Placement® United States History
Spring
- U.S. History – Western Perspectives
- Advanced Placement® United States History
Foreign Language
- Intermediate Spanish
- Advanced-Intermediate Spanish
- Advanced Spanish
Mathematics
Fall
- Algebra II: Algebra and Functions
- Precalculus: A, B or C
- Advanced Placement® Calculus: AB or BC
Spring
- Algebra II: Functions and Trigonometry
- Precalculus: A, B, or D
- Advanced Placement® Calculus: AB or BC
Students attend classes six days a week, taking a minimum of five courses. Independent Studies do not count towards the five class minimum. Each class meets for 90 minute sessions four times weekly. Math courses, Spanish, and U.S. History keep students abreast of progress in classes at their sending school. Remaining classes are placed-based and teach grade-appropriate skills.
Assessment
Through the semester, faculty expose students to as many innovative means of evaluation as possible while honoring traditional and widely utilized assessment methods. Practical exams, field studies, and class participation complement quizzes, tests, and research papers in a holistic evaluation of students. HMI uses a standards- based assessment model, which is a system of instruction, assessment, and academic reporting that is based on specific standards that are directly related to the learning outcomes of each course. Instead of receiving grades on specific assignments and assessments, students are assessed and receive feedback on specific standards. It is our belief that a focus on standards rather than grades places the emphasis on learning and not on a normative comparison of one student to another. Ultimately, standards- based assessment underscores that learning is a process—one that each student has the ability to direct according to their individual efforts.
Students are assessed and receive feedback on the specific Skills of Learning. This may take the form of narrative feedback or a score on a 1-4 rubric. While there is discipline-specific language for each level of the rubric, all classes share the following basic rubric scale:
- 1 = Beginning (55%)
- 2 = Developing (70%)
- 3 = Accomplished (85%)
- 4 = Exemplary (100%)
Each level of the rubric has a descriptive label and is associated with a percentage that may become one part of the final grade calculation.
Accreditation
The High Mountain Institute holds dual accreditations. HMI is fully accredited by the Association of Colorado Independent Schools (ACIS), a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Commission on Accreditation. HMI is also accredited by the Association of Experiential Education (AEE).
Course Descriptions
Practices & Principles
Practices and Principles: Ethics of the Natural World (P&P) is the foundational course of the High Mountain Institute (HMI) semester. Focusing on both community and individual growth, P&P exemplifies HMI’s motto of “where nature and minds meet.” The curriculum consists of three parallel progressions: leadership & community studies, environmental ethics, and technical expedition skills.
On campus, students read and discuss articles on the theory of ethics, environmental ethics, and leadership. These discussions provide a foundation for further thought and reflection while out in the field. The course also provides the majority of the curriculum for the wilderness expeditions. In the field, students participate in a variety of classes on leadership, communication, risk management, and technical skills. These discussions complement numerous practical opportunities for students to integrate their learning into life at HMI, both on-campus and during expeditions.
Students are introduced to concepts of philosophical ethics that apply to issues regarding mankind’s perception of and dealings with the natural world. The study of both mainstream and alternative philosophical understanding, combined with exploring the world around us allows students to enhance their own personal relationship with the natural world. In addition to discussions, periodic reflective writing and other assignments help students think deeply about their relationship with the natural world. They develop resources and skills with which to formulate their own environmental ethic and to articulate and defend these ideas with clarity, consistency, and coherence. This exploration culminates in their “Personal Environmental Ethic Presentation” which they deliver to their peers and teachers on the final day of the course.
Technical expedition skills and leadership and community skills are taught primarily in situ during the three expeditions each semester. During the first expedition, students are introduced to the basic field curriculum: they learn the necessary skills to camp and travel comfortably in the backcountry in order to enhance their ability to develop a personal connection to the natural world. These skills include navigation and map reading, self-care in challenging environments, expedition behavior (teamwork, cooking, etc.). During the second and third expeditions, students are challenged to hone and apply these skills. Once they have demonstrated competency in risk management, travel, and communication skills, students may have the opportunity to travel and camp in small groups without direct instructor supervision or to partake in more challenging and technical canyoneering routes with instructors.
Enduring Understandings:
Environmental Ethics
- Every individual has a unique perspective that informs how they understand and interpret the world.
- The natural world can be valued in many ways.
- Humans and nature exist in a constant state of interaction, affecting each other in intentional and unintentional ways.
Leadership & Community Studies
- Leadership can take many forms, and effective leadership requires an ability to adapt to context and desired outcomes.
- Leadership and community skills can be taught, practiced, and learned.
Technical Skills
- Backcountry exploration is a means of developing a personal relationship with the natural world
- The simplicity and challenge of traveling safely and living comfortably in the backcountry provides opportunity for reflection and community building.
- The self-reliance necessary for backcountry travel is transferable to “regular” life.
English: Literature of the Natural World
Students in Literature of the Natural World explore the role that language and literature play in shaping human identity and informing our relationship to the land. The course begins with a study of poetic language and concludes with a close reading of Ceremony, a novel by Leslie Marmon Silko. Students refine their analytical thinking and writing skills in short, daily exercises that require them to reflect on the major themes of the course. They write poetry and explore the reciprocal relationship between people and place. Daily discussions encourage students to take ownership over their learning and to manage productive discourse while rooting their contributions in strong textual support. Class assignments and activities offer students the opportunity to refine their authorial voice, synthesize and make sense of diverse literary and critical sources, gain confidence speaking and answering questions in front of an audience, and appreciate the importance of language and literature in contemporary life. Final grades will be derived from student mastery of eight discrete skills of learning under the following headings: “Accountability and Collaboration,” “Critical Analysis,” and “Effective Communication.”
Enduring Understandings:
- Humans’ diverse relationship with the natural world tend to value: spirituality, consolation, solitude, renewed identity, and unbridled identities offered by the natural world.
- Improving our writing is a continual, relational process in which we review and revise our work. The first draft is not the final draft.
- Student-centered learning encourages the development and clarification of ideas supported with evidence.
Science: Natural Science
The Natural Science course is founded on an ecology- based curriculum that strives to spark and drive investigation into the ecosystems of the Southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. Coursework is intended to develop ecological inquiry, observation, and analysis of landscape patterns, striving to promote independent understandings around the connectedness of all ecosystem components. Throughout the semester students will actively build upon and compare classroom theory with field studies to begin formulating their own lens to understand and interpret natural landscape patterns and ecological interactions in any place and environment that they explore. Walking away from the course students should be able to engage and connect to the world through an ecological lens.
Enduring Understandings:
- Everything, biotic and abiotic, interacts in dynamic relationships.
- Scientific findings are more powerful when they can be communicated to varied audiences.
- Scientific observation is an active way to cultivate curiosity of place.
- Engaging with science improves our ability to think critically.
United States History
Enduring Understandings:
- History is a foundational narrative; it provides insight into the origins of our nation and our world and helps us better understand ourselves.
- The ideals that shaped the founding of the United States continue to exert a profound influence over the social, cultural, and economic life of the nation.
- Historical analysis is an inherently biased and subjective enterprise. Challenging traditional or predominant narratives and seeking out alternative perspectives is crucial to thinking critically about the past as well as the present.
- The way in which we interpret the past informs how we understand the present and often defines our possibilities for the future.
Advanced Placement® United States History
In Advanced Placement© United States History, students use the tools of the historical discipline to examine some of the defining questions of the American past. Students focus on ideological continuity and discontinuity, authorial biases, historical causality, and cultural mythmaking in the years between the early colonial period and Reconstruction (fall) and the Gilded Age through the end of the twentieth century (spring). The course engages foundational primary documents and secondary texts by scholars and critics such as Edmund S. Morgan, Pauline Maier, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Eric Foner, Drew Gilpin Faust, Herbert Marcuse, Howard Zinn, and Francis Fukuyama, among others. Students grapple with enduring ideas and themes from the American past, such as the relationship between narrative and history, the evolution of gender roles and American understandings of race, the shifting meanings of freedom and equality in political discourse, debates over democracy and conscience, populism, liberalism, modernity, and competing notions of “progress.”
In the Fall Semester, students consider and challenge prevailing historical interpretations while also creating their own narratives that explain the relationships among historical events and make meaning from the broader trajectory of American history. Chronologically, this course moves from the pre-colonial period through the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction and prepares students to reenter the second half of an American history survey or AP® United States History course. Primary source documents—letters, works of art, political cartoons, court proceedings, speeches, photographs, advertisements, and poems—provide the foundation for historical inquiry in this class. A variety of secondary source readings by scholars such as Gordon Wood, Mary Beth Norton, Ronald Takaki, Annette Gordon-Reed, Susan-Mary Grant, and others complement these documents and bring students into the ongoing historiographical debates that give life to the discipline. Students examine, in particular, the relationship between history and narrative, the connection between liberty and slavery in the antebellum period, the construction and reification of early-American gender roles, the contested role of equality in the colonial and Revolutionary periods, the tension between individualism and communitarianism, and the evolving meaning of freedom in American political discourse. Students have the opportunity to refine their authorial voice in analytical essays, gain confidence in front of an audience through class presentations, and link the past to the present through student-led discussions.
In the Spring Semester, students focus on ideological continuity and discontinuity, authorial biases, historical causality, and cultural mythmaking in the years between Reconstruction and the end of the twentieth century. Using foundational primary and secondary texts by Frederick Jackson Turner, Ronald Takaki, Richard White, Emma Goldman, James Loewen, Jane Addams, James Baldwin, and others, students engage with concepts such as race, modernity, populism, ideology, liberalism, and historical objectivity. Analytical essays, class presentations, student-led discussions, and group work form the basis for evaluation and provide students with the opportunity to refine their authorial voice, synthesize and make sense of diverse historical evidence, gain confidence in front of an audience, and explore the significance of historical narratives. At the end of the semester, students will leave the classroom with the skills and content necessary to succeed in advanced history seminars.
The following skill categories serve as the basis for evaluation: Accountability and Collaboration, Critical Analysis, Curiosity and Inquiry, and Effective Communication.
United States History: Foundations in American Thought and Culture (Fall Semester)
History is a dynamic and ever-evolving enterprise; this course, therefore, focuses on the contested nature and unresolved questions of the American past. Students consider and challenge prevailing historical interpretations while also creating their own narratives that explain the relationships among historical events and make meaning from the broader trajectory of American history. Chronologically, this course moves from the pre- colonial period through the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction and prepares students to reenter the second half of an American history survey or A.P. United States history. Primary source documents—letters, works of art, political cartoons, pamphlets, speeches, photographs, advertisements, and poems—provide the foundation for historical inquiry in this class. A variety of secondary source readings by scholars such as Gordon Wood, Edmund S. Morgan, Mary Beth Norton, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Pauline Maier, and others complement these documents and bring students into the ongoing historiographical debates that give life to the discipline. Students examine, in particular, the relationship between history and narrative, the connection between liberty and slavery in the antebellum period, the construction and reification of early-American gender roles, the contested role of equality in the colonial and Revolutionary periods, the tension between individualism and communitarianism, and the evolving meaning of freedom in American political discourse. Students have the opportunity to refine their authorial voice in analytical essays, gain confidence in front of an audience through class presentations, and link the past to the present through student-led discussions.
The following skill categories serve as the basis for evaluation: Accountability and Collaboration, Critical Analysis, Curiosity and Inquiry, and Effective Communication.
United States History: Western Perspectives (Spring Semester)
In United States History: Western Perspectives, students engage with defining questions of the American past from a variety of perspectives. With historiography, freedom, and the relationship between the individual and society serving as overarching themes, students rely on an array of primary and secondary source documents as a foundation for analysis. After beginning with a western regional focus, our purview expands to encompass the ideology of the “global west” in the twentieth century—as well as prominent critiques of that ideology. Students consider concepts such as the frontier, modernity, race, postmodernity, power, and imperialism through the work of Richard White, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Michel Foucault, James Baldwin, and others. Throughout the course, students analyze art, literature, and music—in addition to historical events and themes—to consider how cultural products inform and transform American identity. Course assignments and activities offer students the opportunity to refine their authorial voice, synthesize and make sense of diverse historical evidence, gain confidence in front of an audience, and explore the significance of historical narratives in contemporary society. The following four targeted skill categories serve as the basis for evaluation: “Accountability and Collaboration,” “Critical Analysis,” “Curiosity and Inquiry,” and “Effective Communication.” Students leave the classroom with the skills and content necessary to succeed in an upper-level college history seminar.
Spanish
Spanish at HMI focuses on the exploration of grammar topics, vocabulary, and incorporation of the four major linguistic skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—in order to advance language proficiency. Spanish is offered at three different levels and students are placed in the level that will best prepare them for success upon return to their sending school. While the specific content that students learn varies considerably, the Spanish department strives to develop in students habits of mind that they can apply across and beyond the Spanish curriculum. During the semester, students will both review familiar verb tenses and grammar topics and explore new vocabulary and tenses. The grammar “nuts and bolts” will support our study of Latino immigration to the United States. This knowledge will be the basis for building skills of thinking and questioning critically, providing feedback, taking responsible risks, finding humor, leading, and communicating with clarity paired with dispositions of persistence, empathy, and social responsibility. Specific tasks such as daily informal conversations, skits, reading discussions, presentations, letter writing, formal discussions and debates and creative writing are assigned to assess the development of students’ skills in each of the four major linguistic skills. By the end of the course, students will have honed their skills to further study and explore the Spanish language as well as cultural topics and immigration issues across the globe.
Enduring Understandings:
- The building blocks of language—grammar, vocabulary, correct language structures and patterns, phrasing, and pronunciation—are vital to conveying meaning. Mastering these building blocks takes imagination, persistence, and commitment to practice.
- Every individual has a unique perspective that informs their understanding and interpretation of the world around them. Studying a language allows one to better empathize with others perspectives and cultures, explore new disciplines and knowledge from a broader variety of sources, and thoroughly examine one’s own culture with a more informed lens.
- Immigration is a complex issue and has a significant effect on the cultural identity of the United States. Seeking out diverse perspectives is crucial to thinking critically about this issue as the immigration experience can be different for all.
Intermediate Spanish
The Intermediate Spanish course, conducted primarily in Spanish, focuses on the exploration of grammar topics, vocabulary, and incorporation of the four major linguistic skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—in order to advance language proficiency. During the semester, students usually operate between the ACTFL Novice High to Intermediate Medium levels. Students in this class focus on expanding their vocabulary and ability to express themselves more quickly and fully. This course is conducted in 70% Spanish immersion. The course is divided into three thematic units: (1) Identity and History; (2) Storytelling; and (3) Modes of Communication. Over the course of the semester, students study the present, preterit, imperfect, future, as well as conditional and perfect tenses. Students complete a horror story script and presentation, a 6-minute investigative report and presentation on an indigenous group of Latin America, a poetry project, a reflective one-page essay, and various other smaller projects, particularly informal skits and speaking exercises, to practice speaking, listening, and learning grammar and vocabulary in context.
Intermediate-Advanced Spanish
The Intermediate-Advanced Spanish course, conducted almost entirely in Spanish, focuses on the exploration of grammar topics, vocabulary, and incorporation of the four major linguistic skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening— in order to advance language proficiency. During the semester, we will move quickly through a review of familiar verb tenses and grammar topics in order to explore new vocabulary and tenses. Intermediate-Advanced Spanish students usually operate between the ACTFL Intermediate Medium to Advanced Low proficiency levels. Students in this class will focus on speaking proficiency and expression, as well as starting to delve into essay writing and formal presentations. Over the course of the semester, students review and study the preterit, imperfect, future, conditional, and perfect tenses as well as the present and past tense subjunctive mood. This course is conducted in 90% Spanish immersion. The course is divided into three thematic units: (1) Identity and History; (2) Latin American Revolutions; and (3) Contemporary Latin America. Students complete two poetry projects, a 10-minute investigative report and presentation on an indigenous group of Latin America, a 600 word persuasive essay, and various smaller projects to practice speaking, listening, and learning grammar and vocabulary in context.
Advanced Spanish
The Advanced Spanish course, conducted entirely in Spanish, focuses on the exploration of grammar topics, vocabulary, and incorporation of the four major linguistic skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—in order to advance language proficiency. Advanced Spanish students include AP and native speakers and usually can operate at an ACTFL Advanced Medium to High level. Students in this class focus on formal writing, discussions, and presentations. This course is conducted in 100% Spanish immersion. The course is divided into three thematic units: (1) Identity and Indigenous History; (2) Latin American Revolutions; and (3) Contemporary Latin America. Over the course of the semester, students review the preterit, imperfect, future, conditional, and perfect tenses as well as the present and past tense subjunctive mood. Students complete two poetry projects, a 15-minute investigative report and presentation on an indigenous group of Latin America, a 1000 word persuasive essay, and various smaller projects to practice speaking, listening, and learning grammar and vocabulary in context.
Mathematics
Math courses at HMI reflect a carefully curated range of curriculum options which meet the majority of student needs. Students are placed in courses that will both set them up for success upon return to their sending schools and create a coherent course of study for the class as a whole. The math department works to develop in students habits of mind that they can apply across and beyond the math curriculum, including: reasoning abstractly, finding patterns and making generalizations, constructing logical arguments, probing for deeper structure, using technology strategically, attending to precision, and modeling with mathematics. These heuristics are embedded through all of our courses; while the course descriptions below outline specific content that students will work to understand over the course of the semester, these broader habits of mind support each of our courses and guide our daily pedagogy.
Enduring Understandings:
- Math is for everyone; everyone can do math.
- Effective collaboration and sustained inquiry grounds our understanding of math and helps us develop robust and dynamic problem solving strategies.
- The building blocks of math–noticing patterns and making generalizations, constructing viable and logical arguments, and reasoning abstractly–are useful both in learning content and in contexts outside of a math classroom.
- Mastering the building blocks of math takes care, persistence, curiosity, and ownership.
Algebra II: Algebra & Functions (Fall Only)
This course is for students who have studied a full year of Algebra I and are beginning their study of Algebra II. The focus is on manipulating algebraic expressions and working with a variety of common functions. This course begins by studying expressions and equations of a variety of types, including linear, exponential, radical, and absolute value equations and inequalities, with a focus on common misconceptions. This is followed by a study of functions, including properties of functions, function transformations, quadratics, and complex numbers.
Algebra II: Functions & Trigonometry (Spring Only)
This course is for students who have completed their first semester of Algebra II. Students in this course will be prepared for a Precalculus or Algebra III course following their time at HMI . Algebra II: Functions and Trigonometry focuses on building fluency with a variety of common functions, making connections between various function representations and transformations. Topics include function transformations, polynomials, rational functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, with supplementary topics in algebra as necessary. Then, students move into a brief study of trigonometry, including an introduction to the unit circle and graphing basic trig functions.
Precalculus A (Fall & Spring)
This course is for students who are exploring families of functions and topics in trigonometry. The focus is on developing connections between various function representations and manipulations, including those for trigonometric functions, and practicing a high level of fluency with associated algebraic processes and applications. Topics include polynomial functions, rational functions, and exponential and logarithmic functions with a focus on developing understanding of the natural growth constant e. Then we move into a study of trigonometry with a focus on evaluating and graphing the six common trigonometric functions as well as using trigonometric graphs to model real-world scenarios. Students finish the semester with a study of solving trigonometric equations, proving trigonometric identities, and using the law of sines and cosines.
Precalculus B (Fall & Spring)
This course surveys a variety of topics in precalculus, with a focus on trigonometric functions and topics that are necessary to successfully enter a calculus course the following semester. Specific topics include a study of trigonometry with a focus on evaluating and graphing the six trigonometric functions as well as using trigonometric graphs to model real-world scenarios. The course then moves into a study of solving trigonometric equations, proving trigonometric identities, and using the law of sines and cosines. Finally, students explore polar functions, parametric functions, and sequences and series.
Precalculus C (Fall Only)
This course is for students who are exploring families of functions and their graphs in their Fall semester. Precalculus C focuses on developing connections between various function representations and manipulations, and developing a high level of fluency with associated algebraic processes. Topics include quadratic functions and complex numbers, polynomial functions, composite and inverse functions, exponential and logarithmic functions with a focus on the development of the natural growth constant e, and rational functions.
Precalculus D (Spring Only)
This course surveys a variety of precalculus topics in the Spring semester, with a specific focus on topics that are necessary to move successfully into a calculus class upon completion. This course begins with a study of polar and parametric functions. From there, students move into topics including combinatorics, sequences and series, limits, and probability. The latter part of the course introduces the principle of mathematical induction, and the Binomial Theorem.
Advanced Placement® Calculus AB (Fall & Spring)
This course is designed to prepare students for the AP® Calculus AB exam in the spring. The fall semester course is suitable for students who have completed precalculus, while the spring semester course is appropriate for students having studied differential calculus in the fall. The course covers a traditional AP curriculum. In the fall, the course begins with a study of limits and derivatives, and covers all of differential calculus, including applications of the derivative, implicit differentiation, optimization and related rates, and an introduction to antidifferentiation. In the spring, the course begins with a review of antidifferentiation, and moves into an in-depth study of integration and its applications, solving differential equations, with some time set aside for AP exam review.
Advanced Placement® Calculus BC (Conditional on Minimum Enrollment)
This course is designed to prepare students for the AP® Calculus BC exam in the spring. The fall semester course is suitable for students who have completed precalculus, while the spring semester course is appropriate for students who have studied differential calculus and significant integral calculus in the fall. The course is typically small, and covers a traditional AP curriculum. In the fall, this course begins with a brief overview of limits and derivatives, but it is important to note that many students enter the course having already studied limits and some differential calculus the previous spring; in any case, the course is fast paced and rigorous. In the fall, topics are covered through differential calculus and applications of integration. In the spring, the course begins with applications of integration and then finishes a study of advanced integration techniques, examines Taylor polynomials, and the calculus of polar and parametric functions before moving into some AP exam review.
It is important to note that we only offer this course if we have a minimum of 3 students enrolled; if we do not meet minimum enrollment, you will need to arrange an Independent Study.