JUNIOR YEAR – COURSE DESCRIPTIONS


ENGLISH III

This curriculum focuses on the understanding of literary and informational texts, the use of appropriate communication skills, the creation of written products through the use of a template, the application of reading and comprehension strategies, the problem-solving process, cause and effect relationships to decision-making, and informational research for employment, post-secondary education/training, and independent living settings.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

This college-level course provides an analytical and historical study of American literature and language as well as other literature in a comprehensive program of reading, writing, and critical thinking. As preparation to take the Advanced Placement Test in Language and Composition, students read, discuss, analyze, and write about challenging works of recognized literary merit to develop honest, concise, and effective use of language and the ability to organize ideas in a clear, coherent, and persuasive way. Independent literary analysis and a total mastery of writing skills are goals of the course. Because this course meets the needs of academically gifted or highly motivated advanced students who hope to bypass introductory courses in composition and literature when they enter college, students in an AP course should expect assignments and instruction paced at the college level. Students enrolled in this course are expected to take The College Board Advanced Placement Test.

AMERICAN HISTORY II

This course will guide students from the late nineteenth century time period through the early 21st century. Students will examine the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the United States from the end of the Reconstruction era to present times. This course will trace the changes in the ethnic composition of American society, the movement toward equal rights for racial minorities and women, and the role of the United States as major world power.

AMERICAN HISTORY

The standards and objectives in the American History course will provide students the opportunity to engage in intensive application of the skills, concepts, processes, and knowledge gained in previous social studies courses and prepare them to be college, career, and civic ready. Despite there being a different overall focus for each subsequent course, students will explore the content through the following lenses: inquiry, behavioral sciences, civics and government, economics, geography, and history. As students develop cognitively, these lenses become more focused based on the grade-level content and disciplinary thinking skills.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY

This course is designed to encourage students to become apprentice historians who are able to use historical facts and evidence in the service of creating deeper conceptual understandings of critical developments in US history. The curriculum of the course centers around four types of historical thinking skills: chronological reasoning, comparison and contextualization, crafting historical arguments from historical evidence, and historical interpretation and synthesis. Students will explore seven themes throughout this course: identity; work, exchange, and technology; peopling; politics and power; America in the world; environment and geography – physical and human; and ideas, beliefs, and culture. Students enrolled in this course are expected to take the College Board Advanced Placement test.

PHYSICS

Students develop a general understanding of the mathematical and motion-oriented study of matter and energy. Mechanics, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, gravity, and nuclear energy are the major topics of study. Students who wish to study these topics in detail should take Honors Physics.

CHEMISTRY

Chemistry is the study of the composition and properties of matter. It provides an introduction to the theories concerning the structure of matter and includes mathematical problems that illustrate these theories. Laboratory experiences and demonstrations are integral parts of this course.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

This course is designed as an entry-level course. The concepts of physics and chemistry are taught using both laboratory approaches and inquiry teaching. Students use their mathematical skills in the applications of science. Science projects and other independent student research provide students with a better understanding of the processes of science.

E-COMMERCE I (HONORS)

This course is designed to help students master skills in the design and construction of complex web sites for conducting business electronically. Emphasis is on skill development in advanced web page construction and entrepreneurial applications of conducting business electronically as well as economic, social, legal, and ethical issues related to electronic business. Students learn through project-based applications as they plan, design, create, publish, maintain, and promote an e-commerce website. Art is reinforced throughout the course. Work-based learning strategies appropriate for this course include apprenticeship, cooperative education, entrepreneurship, internship, mentorship, school-based enterprise, service learning, and job shadowing. Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competitive events, community service, and leadership activities provide the opportunity to apply essential standards and workplace readiness skills through authentic experiences.

ADOBE DIGITAL DESIGN

This course is a project-based course that develops ICT, career, and communication skills in Web design using Adobe tools. This course is aligned to Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash certification. English language arts are reinforced.

SAS PROGRAMMING I (HONORS)

This course is the entry point for students to learn SAS programming. Students will learn how to plan and write SAS programs to solve common data analysis problems. Instruction provides practice running and debugging programs. The emphasis is placed on reading input data, creating list and summary reports, defining new variables, executing code conditionally, reading raw data files and SAS data sets, and writing the results to SAS data sets. Mathematics is reinforced throughout the course. Work-based learning strategies appropriate for this course include apprenticeship, internship, entrepreneurship, mentorship, service learning, and job shadowing. Cooperative education is not available for this course. Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competitive events, community service, and leadership activities provide the opportunity to apply essential standards and workplace readiness skills through authentic experiences. This course can help prepare students for the SAS Base Programming Exam for SAS 9 certification exam.