New courses offered for the 2013-2014 school year

When students attended their class guidance meetings in early February, many were excited to find out that the administration had decided to add three new applied arts classes to the course selection.  

Introduction to Engineering, Advanced Science Research and Peer Tutoring are all new classes that students may sign up to take for the 2013-2014 school year.  However, the classes will only be offered next year if a substantial number of students sign up.

 

Introduction to Engineering

Assistant principal Brian Safine said that the administration and district office decided to offer Introduction to Engineering after students, parents and teachers expressed interest in the class.

“It seems a lot of students are into engineering principles and looking into engineering as a college major,” Safine said. “So we decided to offer a course that will focus on engineering design.”

Originally, teachers had considered adding a semester-long computer science class to allow students to develop a background in computer science before jumping into the AP class. 

“It is either AP or nothing, and that’s not how most classes work,” math teach Audrey Warmuth said. “We have precalculus, then calculus and we have chemistry honors, then chemistry AP. There is something to get you ready for a college level class.”

Eventually, it was decided to try a year-long course that covers not only computer science, but STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) principles. 

“Computer science doesn’t interest everyone,” Warmuth said. “But a hands-on science might be more interesting and catch a broader group of people.”

The curriculum for the class will come from the program  called Project Lead the Way. According to Safine, the course will use 3D modeling software, computer assisted drafting components, allowing students to perfect their designing skills. The program is designed for four years of continuous study.

“Hopefully if the first course, Introduction to Engineering, goes, [the school] could offer another one, Principles of Engineering,” Warmuth said. “So you do two basic courses and by the time you are a junior or senior, you take a class that is more specific to a certain type of engineering.”

The second course, Principles of Engineering, would introduce students to different types of engineering, to prepare students to decide what class they would want to take in their junior or senior year.

Warmuth and math teacher Debra Troxell are both slated to teach the course, if enough students enroll.

Although it is the first time for both Warmuth and Troxell to teach an engineering class, both have an engineering degree. They will also be training beforehand with the ‘Project Lead the Way’ program.

“They provide a curriculum, and of course as a teacher, you would enhance the curriculum to suit needs of your students,” Warmuth said. “They have design projects that I would take the students through [during the school year], and I have to do all the design projects myself this summer.”

According to Warmuth, ideally there would be at least two sessions, so that both she and Troxell could each teach a class.

“The teaching tends to be a little bit better when you have two teachers doing a subject together, so you can talk to each other,” Warmuth said. “So we are hoping we have two classes and we could each do one, we don’t know the numbers yet.”

The course will be offered only to 9th and 10th graders, who must be enrolled in at least geometry.  

 

Advanced Science Research

Advanced Science Research is a course designed to provide mentoring and support for students working on an individual or group science fair kinds of project.  It is designed for students in 11th and 12th grade and who are either currently enrolled in or have taken physics.

According to Safine, although Advanced Science Research is a new course for the school, it is not a new course for the district, since Los Gatos has been offering it for several years.  

“The Los Gatos model has been having classes in the low 20s and it has had students who partner on projects, get mentoring inside of class and do extra research outside of class,” Safine said.  “Part of the class would be working with experts in certain fields, some of which we would bring on campus, some will be outside of school.”

Biology teacher Kristen Thomson added that students will be expected to work outside of class to receive extra mentoring and to sign up for various science fair competitions.

“The idea of the class is that students should have an idea of a project before they sign up for the class,” Thomson said.  “The class will let students work on their projects at school while receiving feedback from a teacher and students.”

 

Peer Tutoring

The last new course that will be offered next year is peer tutoring which will most likely be taught by current Sport’s Medicine teacher Amy Obenour.  Safine said that this class will focus on training students to tutor others in academics.

“We realize that some families get tutoring outside of school, but we’ve never formally offered credit for students to work peer to peer for support,” Safine said. “We are excited to pair up students and find support for students both in academics and in a social scale.“

According to Safine, students who take this class will work with a teacher to learn about different aspects of teaching as well as go into classrooms to tutor other students.  Safine said that some of the tutoring may even occur after school or during tutorial.

Junior Eric Taw, who has tutored some of his peers in chemistry, said that he believes the new peer tutoring class is a novel idea that can benefit many students.

“I think it’s very helpful for both the students doing the tutoring and the students getting tutored,” Taw said. “The students doing the tutoring get to work on communication skills and the people being tutored can get the help they need.”

Safine hopes that these three new courses will give students a larger variety to choose from in the applied arts area. The availability of the classes will be determined by signups, so any interested students should register during the course selection period, Safine said.