Malone Schools Online Network
MPA is a member of the Malone Schools Online Network (MSON), a 27-school national consortium of independent schools offering high-rigor courses taught via virtual classroom to juniors and seniors. All classes are taught by teachers from MSON schools and students receive high school credit for each course they complete. MPA students use their school-issued laptops to participate in MSON classes.
Through MPA’s membership in MSON, students can take an array of advanced online courses taught by experts in their fields who share a commitment to excellence, small class size, and meaningful student/teacher relationships. MSON enriches the academic experience of our students by providing access to challenging, college-level classes not typically offered in high schools. Students take classes that range from Mathematical Modeling, to Arabic, to Genetics and Genomics, and many more.
MPA/MSON courses take a blended approach to teaching, combining real-time (synchronous) video conferencing seminars with asynchronous recorded lectures and exercises for students to master outside of class. Class sizes range from a minimum of six to a maximum of 16 students.
Our specifically designed virtual classroom enables students to push the boundaries of education as they learn in real time from instructors across the country in seminar-style classes. These classrooms include dual high-definition screens – one shows all participating students, creating the sense of a virtual classroom. The second screen enables the instructor to present materials via a virtual whiteboard, through which the teacher and the students have the ability to share presentations, videos, and student projects. Guest speakers can join the classes by teleconference, further enhancing the learning experience.
“MSON courses enable students to take some niche classes that would be small with just MPA students. This year, for example, we had a student take Intro to Ancient Greek, four others took Advanced Spanish Linguistics, one took Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and another took CSI, among others,” says MSON Academic Liaison Kari Kunze. “These students get to meet with other students from around the country in a small Zoom class. They get to hear different perspectives and find similarities between them. Students invariably discover that they are able to thrive in a classroom with classmates from other top-notch Malone Schools, giving them confidence before they go to college that they will continue to thrive in any academic environment.”
-Kari Kunze, MSON Academic Liaison
MSON classes also allow MPA students to work and learn collaboratively with other students from across the country. It provides students with yet another learning experience that encourages them to be the architects of their own learning and utilize innovative tools to demonstrate their knowledge across and between disciplines. Students ask questions of their classmates and participate in conversations as though they were in the same physical space and the virtual classroom has enabled instantaneous connections to be made across great distances in a way that was once costly and unclear.
According to MPA alumnus William Kim ‘20, “The MSON course was amazing in so many ways. I got to take a class in a topic that I really love and the teacher was knowledgeable and qualified. This program helped enrich my experience at Mounds Park Academy and gave me an opportunity to take a challenging course in a field that I am interested in.”
At MPA, we have a long history of embracing new medias and technology. We know that the best education occurs when critical thinking and deep content knowledge are used as the base for growing flexible and essential skills in collaboration, problem solving, perseverance, and creativity. The knowledge, skills, and competencies learned at MPA enable our students to successfully live, learn, and thrive in today’s 21st century globalized society.
2023-24 Sample Course Offerings
- Advanced Applied Math Through Finance
- Advanced Microeconomics
- Arabic I, II
- Chinese Seminar
- Cybersecurity
- Data Structures and Design Patterns
- Differential Equations
- German I
- Introduction to Playwriting
- Linear Algebra
- Making Ethical Medical Choices in a Diverse World
- Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Digital Literacy
- Multivariable Calculus
- Philosophy in Pop Culture
- The Politics of Horror (Or, The Horror of Politics)
- The Science and Ethics of Sports Performance: Genetics, Biochemistry, and Sociology