ARETE
SCALE HOW SCHOOL
PIETAS VIRTUS SACRIFICIUM
- What Is Arete?
- Enrollment: Click here to submit the form.
- CLICK HERE FOR STUDENT SUPPLY LISTS
- Nature Explorers: Kindergarten and 1st Grade
- Wayfarers: 2nd and 3rd Grade
- Investigators: 4th and 5th Grade
- Life Science: 6th Grade
- Physical Science: 7th Grade
- Earth Science: 8th Grade and Up
- Accelerated Studies in Physics and Chemistry (ASPC): 9th Grade and Up
- Click here to apply for the Don J. Colton Dark Energy Scholarship exclusive to Arete Upper School Students
Arete Preschool is available for children of teachers only.
What Is Arete?
Arete: Living Science is our science tutorial that meets weekly, Monday afternoons from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, in South Kaysville in Davis County, Utah, for Kindergarten through high school. (A preschool class is provided for students of teachers only.) The Kaysville campus includes three private residences, all within walking distance of each other. Our first day is August 25th, 2025 and our last day is May 18th, 2026 for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. Arete does not meet on federal holidays, and we also do not meet the week of Spring Break. Optional field trips are scheduled outside of regular class time. The Hawkwatch presentation will be scheduled at the end of a regular class session unless there is a scheduling conflict with Hawkwatch (TBA).
The Lower School (Kindergarten-5th Grades) are on a two year rotational schedule, an A YEAR and a B YEAR. For the 2025-2026 school year the Lower School will be on an A YEAR. Please contact Madam Gooch to see the class descriptions for a B Year.
The oldest meaning of the word arete is “courtly morality with warlike valour.”1 It was the quintessence of early Greek aristocratic education, an education fit for a prince. It was impossible for the Greeks to dissociate leadership and arete. Seen as the real attribute of the nobleman, central to Greek culture, the concept of arete was sustained by the idea that surpassed strength and prowess were the natural basis of leadership.
Beyond the ideals of aristocracy, arete was also in common use by the Greeks to describe “not only human merit but excellence”2 in all things. It encapsulates honor, duty, intellectual ability, courage, piety, and nobility. To be noble means, “worthy of honor, and respect.” In Spenser’s, The Faerie Queene, the word noble is another word for free. It is only the noble man who is truly free, for he governs himself; he is liberated from the shackles of sin and debauchery. The old motto, taken from Homer, which classical teachers once ingrained into their students was, “Always strive for excellence and prevail over others.”3 In that one sentence the poet, “condensed the whole outlook of the nobility.”4 As faithful Latter-day Saints, we add humility to the qualities that determine true nobility, for we know that by the power of His word, “man was created of the dust of the earth” (Mormon 9:17). We aspire to excel in all our doings not to receive glory and honor for ourselves, but to further the Kingdom of God. Thus, this transforms the motto of the poet into a new motto we hope to instill in our Arete students: “Always strive for excellence and let God prevail.”
Nobility requires excellence for nobility wants virtue, and virtue is the fruit of the classical tradition that promotes a spirit of inquiry, focused on the development of style and conscience. Scale How School strives to teach our Arete students that consumerism and materialism are not the goals of science, but rather the goal of science is to get to know God more. We now live in a post-Christian era, a time when the world is under attack by relativist barbarians who think “the only truth is that which can be proved by the physical sciences.”5 We aim to prepare our students through the gift of the Holy Ghost with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, to help them combat the world’s narrow and corrupt version of truth. The education of our students pertains not only to this mortal world, but also for time spent in the eternities; therefore we must train them up to be joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, for “whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:18).
Lower School
Nature Explorers: Kindergarten and 1st Grade
Main Theme:
Eyes that see and ears that hear.
Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. -Matthew 13:16
Science begins with observation and wonder.
Leading Question: How do we develop the Seeing Eye? How do we acquire the Hearing Ear?
Course Description:
The course begins the grammar school science program, emphasizing the skill of observation and developing a sense of wonder about God’s Creation. Students study the many varieties of common birds, with a special focus on Utah birds. They engage with poetry, story, nature lore, crafts, discussion, songs, games, birdsong, and chants. Students are exposed to advanced language and a high vocabulary. They start developing the skill of narration, which is key to developing the habit of attention. Students employ the five senses to experience God’s world. Play time with classmates takes place after lessons.
- Crafts
- Bird observation outdoors
- Studying bird habitats and diets
- Dissecting owl pellets
- Nature lore
- Experiments and observations of feathers, nests, and bird beaks
- Teacher read alouds
- Memorizing poems
- Memorizing the catechism
- Drawing birds and specific features
- Listening to bird calls
- Short films or clips of birds
- Student re-enactment
- Movement
- Games
- Free play
- Hawkwatch Raptor presentation (all Arete students are invited)
- Optional field trips: Tracy Aviary, Blue Herons and Bald Eagles at Farmington Bay, Eccles Wildlife Education Center, Bountiful Pond (all Arete students are invited)
Wayfarers: 2nd and 3rd Grades
Main Theme:
Nature instructs us in our duty to man and our duty to God.
“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett
“Thou holdest all firmly, hero-like strength, faith with patience, and prudence of mind. Thou shalt be a comfort to thy people, and a help to heroes.” -Wealhtheow from Beowulf
Leading question: How does the patient study of nature bring us closer to God and our fellow man? How does nature prepare us to serve God and our fellow man?
Course description:
This course continues the grammar school science program, emphasizing the skill of observation and developing a sense of wonder about God’s creation, with a special focus on plants, trees, crops, rocks, minerals, volcanoes, and weather. Students engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and activities. They begin a nature journal. Students are exposed to advanced language and a high vocabulary. They continue the practice of narration, which is key to developing the habit of attention. Play time with classmates takes place after lessons.
- Observation and discussion
- Experiments and activities about the water cycle, bacteria, seeds, crops, plants, trees, weather, rocks, minerals, and volcanoes
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing the catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Nature journaling
- Drawing and watercolor
- Student projects and oral reports
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Free play
- Optional field trips: TBD
Investigators: 4th and 5th Grades
Main Theme:
When we look at God’s world closely, what do we find?
“I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.” -Richard Feynman
“Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her.” -Sir Francis Bacon
Leading questions: What eternal truths can we learn from chemistry?
Course description:
This course continues the grammar school science program, emphasizing the skill of observation and developing a sense of wonder about God’s creation. For the first part of the school year, students study chemistry focusing on atoms and molecules, states of matter, chemical properties, elements of the periodic table, air, water, acids, bases, and compounds. For the latter part of the year, students study engineering and technology by being introduced to simple and complex machines, and how they are, and have been, used in our world. In addition to learning key concepts, students develop their ability to give explanations for the phenomena they study, and present what they have learned in a beautiful, orderly, and accurate science journal. Students also engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and activities. Students are exposed to advanced language and a high vocabulary. They continue the practice of narration, which is key to developing the habit of attention. Free time with classmates takes place after lessons. Student work is assessed by evaluating the science journal, including reading notes, defining terms, drawings, and lab reports. Quizzes are administered periodically. Students create one project to be presented to the class.
- Conduct chemistry experiments to raise or answer questions
- Conduct experiments and activities with a focus on simple machines, flight, and engines
- Read and follow along with the text in class
- Observation, oral and written narration, and discussion
- Applying students’ experiences to concepts learned
- Create a science journal which includes drawings, notes, and lab reports
- Individual science projects for the student to present to the school
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing the catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Time to socialize with peers
- Optional field trips: TBD
Life Science: 6th Grade
Main Theme:
The Good Life: goodness of nature, goodness of body, and goodness of the soul.
We maintain the Good Life by practicing the principle of science education, namely the positive feedback loop: wonder stimulates acquisition of knowledge, and knowledge increases the sense of wonder.
“We understand that these wondrous accomplishments will not come without work. We know we must learn all we can of the truth of things in this life, and that we shall have to conquer eternal physics, eternal chemistry, eternal biology, and all eternal arts to give eternal science beauty. But our Lord and Master will guide the teaching, and the truth will be the text.” -Elder S. Dilworth Young
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. -Genesis 1:31
Leading questions: What is life, and what makes life good? How can learning about living things help us get closer to summum bonum, the highest good?
Course description:
In this course students explore creation through the major field of biology. This course is a high-structure class, emphasizing a growth mindset, that learning is hard work, and that a student’s struggle increases his or her intellectual abilities. Students learn that high-structure strategies are habits of mind, and it is a discipline you must have in order to succeed in the sciences. Students focus on the microscopic world and the cell, the human body, genetics, organization for matter and energy flow and transfer, information processing, ecosystems, biodiversity, and evolutionary theory versus Intelligent Design. Experiments and activities center on plant life, insects, and the human body. Students complete a lab report, including identifying what question they are trying to answer, predicting what will happen, describing what did happen, and trying to explain why it happened. Students also engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and activities. Student work is assessed according to participation, evaluation of the science journal, including reading notes, defining terms, drawings, and lab reports. Quizzes are administered weekly. Weekly quiz scores make up the majority of the student’s grade. Students create two projects to be presented to the school at the end of each semester.
- Understand the instructional philosophy behind the best study principles
- Testing group activities
- Free recall
- Possible answers with voting
- Summary sheets
- Learning paragraphs
- Quiz evaluation using Bloom’s taxonomy
- Student presentations
- Conduct experiments to raise or answer questions
- Activities both in class and for homework
- Applying students’ experiences to concepts learned
- Create a science journal which includes drawings, notes, and lab reports
- Individual science projects for the student to present to the school
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing the catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Time to socialize with peers
- Optional field trips: TBD
Physical Science: 7th Grade
Main Theme:
How do the physical properties of creation reflect God’s wisdom?
“All our educational pursuits are in the service of God, for all these labors are to establish truth on the earth, and that we may increase in knowledge, wisdom, understanding in the power of faith and in the wisdom of God, that we may become fit subjects to dwell in a higher state of existence and intelligence than we now enjoy. We can attain to this only by adding faith to faith, knowledge to knowledge, temperance to temperance, patience to patience, and godliness to godliness,and so increasing in the principles of happiness and salvation.” -Brigham Young
Leading questions: Is it possible to understand God’s wisdom by pure intellect alone? Do we only operate on feelings?
Course description:
This course focuses on the physical sciences, focusing on basic chemistry and physics. This course is a high-structure class, emphasizing a growth mindset, that learning is hard work, and that a student’s struggle increases his or her intellectual abilities. Students learn that high-structure strategies are habits of mind, and it is a discipline you must have in order to succeed in the sciences. Students focus on energy, order and design in Creation, forces and fields, substances, compounds and chemical reactions, waves, sound, and light, electricity and magnetism, with instruction on how to make accurate measurements. Students complete a lab report, including identifying what question they are trying to answer, predicting what will happen, describing what did happen, and trying to explain why it happened. Students also engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and activities. Student work is assessed according to participation, evaluation of the science journal, including reading notes, defining terms, drawings, and lab reports. Quizzes are administered weekly. Weekly quiz scores make up the majority of the student’s grade. Students create two projects to be presented to the school at the end of each semester.
- How to ask questions
- How to develop lab procedures
- Understand the instructional philosophy behind the best study principles
- Testing group activities
- Free recall
- Possible answers with voting
- Summary sheets
- Learning paragraphs
- Quiz evaluation using Bloom’s taxonomy
- Student presentations
- Conduct experiments to raise or answer questions
- Activities both in class and for homework
- Applying students’ experiences to concepts learned
- Create a science journal which includes drawings, notes, and lab reports
- Individual science projects for the student to present to the school
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing the catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Time to socialize with peers
- Optional field trips: TBD
Earth Science: 8th Grade and Up
Main Theme:
PREREQUISITE: PRE-ALGEBRA
How do we practice righteous stewardship over God’s world? How can we glorify God by using His resources wisely, for the good of all humanity, including those not yet born?
“Not man alone, but also the earth and all the elemental forces pertaining thereto came under the Adamic curse; and as the soil no longer brought forth only good and useful fruits, but gave of its substance to nurture thorns and thistles, so the several forces of nature ceased to be obedient to man as agents subject to his direct control. What we call natural forces—heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity—are but a few of the manifestations of eternal energy through which the Creator’s purposes are subserved; and these few, man is able to direct and utilize only through mechanical contrivance and physical adjustment. But the earth shall yet be “renewed and receive its paradisaical glory”; then soil, water, air, and the forces acting upon them, shall directly respond to the command of glorified man, as now they obey the word of the Creator.” -Elder James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ
Leading questions: What are our responsibilities as good stewards of the earth? Why is it important to understand the earth under its Adamic curse, and how does that prepare us for the earth in its paradisaical glory?
Course description:
This course focuses on earth science, focusing on the four earth systems: lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. This course is a high-structure class, emphasizing a growth mindset, that learning is hard work, and that a student’s struggle increases his or her intellectual abilities. Students learn that high-structure strategies are habits of mind, and it is a discipline you must have in order to succeed in the sciences. Students focus on Earth in space, matter and minerals, rocks and the rock cycle, plate tectonics and mountain building, volcanoes and earthquakes, weathering, erosion, and soils, surface and groundwater, landforms, oceanography, atmosphere, weather, climate, and air pollution. Students complete a lab report, including identifying what question they are trying to answer, predicting what will happen, describing what did happen, and trying to explain why it happened. Students also engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and activities. Student work is assessed according to participation, evaluation of the science journal, including reading notes, defining terms, drawings, and lab reports. Quizzes are administered weekly. Weekly quiz scores make up the majority of the student’s grade. Students create two projects to be presented to the school at the end of each semester.
- How to ask questions
- How to develop lab procedures
- Understand the instructional philosophy behind the best study principles
- Testing group activities
- Free recall
- Possible answers with voting
- Summary sheets
- Learning paragraphs
- Quiz evaluation using Bloom’s taxonomy
- Student presentations
- Conduct experiments to raise or answer questions
- Activities both in class and for homework
- Applying students’ experiences to concepts learned
- Create a science journal which includes drawings, notes, and lab reports
- Individual science projects for the student to present to the school
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Time to socialize with peers
- Optional field trips: Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine
Accelerated Studies in Physics and Chemistry (ASPC): 9th Grade and Up
Main Theme:
PREREQUISITE: ALGEBRA I
What is truth, and how do we know it?
And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things. -Moroni 10:4
“Oh, how great is the power of truth! Which of its own power can easily defend itself against all the ingenuity and cunning and wisdom of men, and against the treacherous plots of all the world.” -Marcus Tullius Cicero
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. -2 Timothy 3:1-7
Leading questions: How can the practice of precise and accurate science help us to come to the knowledge of truth? How can the study of physics and chemistry help us know how to avoid deception?
Course description:
This course focuses on challenging students while bringing them to a solid level of mastery in introductory physics and chemistry. Students must have experience with the following math concepts: scientific notation, performing unit conversions, using metric prefixes, solving equations for an unknown variable. Determining significant digits is addressed in this course. This course focuses on the nature of scientific knowledge, motion, Newton’s Laws of Motion, variation and proportion, energy, heat and temperature, waves, sound, and light, electricity and DC circuits, fields and magnetism, substances, historical atomic models and density, the Bohr and quantum atomic models, atomic bonding, and chemical reactions. This course is a high-structure class, emphasizing a growth mindset, that learning is hard work, and that a student’s struggle increases his or her intellectual abilities. Students learn that high-structure strategies are habits of mind, and it is a discipline you must have in order to succeed in the sciences. Students write lab reports for all the experiments. They learn fewer topics but learn them deeply through class discussion, in-depth problem assignments, and report writing that is engaging.This results in deeper comprehension and retention of fundamentals, allowing students to more easily grasp and master more advanced topics in future studies. Students also engage with poetry, story, nature lore, discussion, songs, games, chants, experiments, and presentations. Student work is assessed according to participation, lab reports, quizzes, presentations, and exams. Quizzes are administered weekly. Weekly quiz scores make up the majority of the student’s grade. Students create two projects to be presented to the school at the end of each semester.
- How to ask questions
- How to develop lab procedures
- Understand the instructional philosophy behind the best study principles
- Testing group activities
- Free recall
- Possible answers with voting
- Summary sheets
- Learning paragraphs
- Quiz evaluation using Bloom’s taxonomy
- Writing lab reports
- Student presentations
- Experiments on key topics
- Attending to details and employing painstaking care for lab activities
- Applying students’ experiences to concepts learned
- Create a science journal which includes drawings, notes, and lab reports
- Individual science projects for the student to present to the school
- Memorizing poems and sayings
- Memorizing catechism
- Teacher read alouds
- Nature Lore
- Short films or clips
- Movement
- Games
- Time to socialize with peers
- Optional field trips: TBD
Don J. Colton Dark Energy Scholarship
From Don J. Colton’s testimony: “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8). Current theory is that dark matter is composed of subatomic particles and only reacts weakly with matter. So dark matter is finer than regular matter. Is dark matter spirit matter? Astronomers estimate that 85 percent of matter is dark matter only 15 percent of matter ordinary matter. The current model of the universe is that it contains 5% ordinary matter, 26.8 percent dark matter and 68.2% dark energy. [. . . ] Intelligence controls space-time and gives it the property of gravity which is the power by which the worlds and stars are made, and which gives order to the universe. Isaac Newton said in essence, “gravity is a manifestation of God’s power in the universe.” Is the Light of Christ dark energy? Or is dark energy just controlled by the Light of Christ? [. . . ] The Light of Christ controls the expansion of the universe.
The Don J. Colton Dark Energy Scholarship is exclusive to Upper School students, 6th grade and up, enrolled in our Arete program. This scholarship will pay for the student’s Arete tuition for one year. Here are the qualifications:
- The student must first be enrolled in our Arete program as an Upper School student, 6th grade and up.
- The student must read the following article, Giving Up Darwin by David Gelernter.
- The student must then write an essay answering the following prompt: It has been said that science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. If science could actually prove the existence of God, would there still be a need for religion? Could science then displace divine or personal revelation? Why or why not? Expand upon these ideas.
- The essay must be in MLA format at a minimum of 500 words. The student should not put his or her name on the actual document. The document must be attached to an email. In the email body include name and phone number. Email all scholarship entries to darkenergyscholarship@scalehowschool.com.
- Members of the Board will process the essays and notify the recipient of the scholarship before tuition is due.
Don J. Colton made his first telescope when he was only 13 years old. Mr. Colton has been a dedicated member of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society for many years. Over the course of his life he has devoted much of his leisure time to studying the Gospel and learning about evidence for intelligent design. He writes that, “The complexity of life, the design of elements, and the constants of nature have led many astronomers to believe in God.” Mr. Colton testifies that, “All life and everything in the universe was created and is controlled by the Intelligence that comes from God. Light and truth forsake that evil one.”
We are grateful to Mr. Colton for his generous donation to provide a scholarship opportunity for our Arete students.
This is the light of Christ. As also He is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made … and the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through Him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon His throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:7, 88:11-13
- Jaeger, Werner, 1965. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, Volume 1, Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Goins, Scott and Wyman, Barbara H., 2012. Introduction to The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ↩︎