Multicultural Explorations
The multicultural explorations course is designed to expose the students to the wide-diversity of population that make up Hudson County. The scope of the curriculum begins with the students researching the first immigration to its current multicultural inhabitants. Within their studies, they will be exposed to the many languages that are spoken within the country.
They will be expected to learn the basic vocabulary and phrases in all or most of theses languages. As they study these languages. The students will develop a better understanding of the cultural similarities and differences. The students will be able to demonstrate their multicultural awareness and multilinguistic abilities as they meet the various course requirements such as: publishing a multicultural/multilinguistic newsletter.
Creative Writing
Young writers are exposed to the creative challenges inherent in a number of literary and popular genres such as poetry, short story, drama, autobiography, and lyrics. In addition to studying specific literary skills and techniques, students learn to give and receive critical responses to writing. Key objectives for this course include exploration of personal creativity and development of "voice" as a writer.
Journalism
Within the journalism course students will focus on interviewing techniques, reporting deftness, and writing publications. Additionally, the instructor will expand on journalistic competencies that are necessary for newspaper and other printed forms of media. After an exploration of journalistic writing styles and methods, students will write new stories, feature stories, editorials, and reviews.
Humanities
This is a course designed to increase student awareness of theater, music,dance and architecture, and the arts. Throughout this course students will investigate the human concerns represented in the arts and will come to understand that the arts are representative of the historical, social, and cultural periods in which they are produced.
Film
This course will focus on the history and development of the film from the earliest days of film making to the present day. Students will explore the impact of culture and history on the film industry.
Short Story Writing
This half-yearly course will investigate the forms and mechanics of short story writing. Students in this class will read and write short stories as an attempt to understand the form historically and artistically. We will red from a variety of authors, although there will be a special emphasis on contemporary American authors.This class will also serve as a workshop for original short stories: students are expected to come ready to write and share their work.
Intro to Archeology
In the introduction to archaeology elective class, we will learn a multidisciplinary approach to the science of archaeology. We will learn fundamental archaeological skills, both cognitive and methodological. Examples of such skills are making observations, drawing inferences based on observation, analysis, and dissemination of information through reports and presentations.
We will learn critical thinking skills while trying to piece together the puzzle of the past and understand how people have lived. We will learn about the scientific method, while learning about the past and working in teams like many practice archaeologists. We will be learning the 8 basic principles of archaeological practices as outlined by the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). We will use math, geometry, and map making and reading skills, and geography while lying out and mapping archaeological sites. We will learn about relative and absolute dating methods including dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating.
Medical Discoveries
This one-year course focuses on history of medicine using biographies of famous doctors as a point of reference. It contains some discussion about certain historical medical practices and experiments and modern discoveries.
Civics
Civics is a social studies elective course designed for first two years and second year students who are taking AP United States government and politics course. A firm foundation of knowledge, skills, and abilities will be built and students will deepen their political awareness and socialization.Critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing are all thoroughly emphasized throughout this course.
Introduction to Current Events
Current events is a social studies elective course designed to give students a deeper understanding of the various connections between news items of the present day and historical underpinnings. Emphasis is given to class discussion, utilizing critical thinking and evaluation, and student participation. Students are shown methods for identifying basis and are encouraged to develop their political awareness in doing so.
Introduction to Geography
Introduction to geography is a social studies elective course designed to give students a brief understanding of geography, particularly for those students who wish to take the AP human geography course . Emphasis is paced on fundamental aspects such as an understanding of plate tectonics, connections to the environment, and geomorphology in order to show cause and effect relationship.
Introduction to Human Behavior
Introduction to human behavior is a social studies elective course designed to engage students interested in the study of the mind, of reason, and motives for motives human behavior, and explanatory theories relative to education and learning, crime, drug use, deviant and abnormal behavior, and other aspects of social life. Critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing are all thoroughly emphasized thoroughly emphasized throughout this course.
Sociology
Sociology is a social studies elective course designed to engage students interested in learning about their role in society at large and how society functions. Topics covered relate to the macrosociology of law, crime and family, education, and religion and the microsociology of social stratification, social class, social mobility, and social structure. Critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing all thoroughly emphasized throughout this course.
Intro to Trigonometry for Science 9
Intro to trigonometry will be offered to science academy students in order to prepare them for algebra-based science classes. This class will be one marking period in duration and will meet three times a week (120 minutes).
The course will introduce students to the applications of the right triangle trigonometry and will be concentrated on solving problems involving sin, cos, and tan ratios and studying sin and cos graphs. In particular the course will cover the following topics: calculating a right triangle, describing 2d motion as a superposition of two 1d motions, finding how much of a specific quantity is a present in a given direction, modeling a pendulum and wave motion.
For the successful completion of the course students will prepare 4 lab reports accompanied by simple error analysis (20% of the final grade), take 2 tests (30% of the final grade), 4 to 6 short pop quizzes (20% of the final grade), and show homework (20% of the grade). The notebook is necessary and will be collected and checked at the end of the term (10% of the final grade).
Personal Finance
Understanding and managing personal finance are key to one's future financial success. The personal finance course is part of the integrated skills classes and is intended to present to students essential knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about real financial issues. Students will learn to apply decision making skills to set personal goals and to evaluate career choices.Students will be introduced to income taxes, tax tables, and federal wage laws. Real world topics covered will include money management, spending and credit, as well as saving and investing. Students will design personal budgets, learn how to utilize checking and saving accounts, gain knowledge in finance, debt and credit management.
This personal finance course will provide a foundational understanding for making informed personal finance decisions. Students will learn to make wise spending, saving and credit, decisions, and to make effective use of income to achieve personal financial success. The personal finance course will be offered to two quarters to ninth grade students.
Intro to Entrepreneurship
This course is an elective course open to junior and senior students. In this course, students will be able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of going into business on their own. Where to obtain various sources of capital needed to fund their enterprise and the need to maintain financial statements of their business activity. This course is particularly designed for those students who want to discover the world of entrepreneur, examine entrepreneurship as a career, and use their creativity to write a business plan. They will also analyze various markets and their competitors-plan how to market their products or service, etc.
Foundation of Art
Students enrolled in this course will be offered the opportunity to explore the elements of art and principles of design, both two and three- dimensional. This exposure will include both structures and non-structured experiences, stressing process and product oriented techniques experimenting with a wide variety of media.