Description:
In this course, students will learn about the people, places, and environments that make up the world. Students will explore the jungles of the Amazon, the streets of London, the mountains of Nepal, the tundra of Alaska, and the islands of the Pacific in a joint quest to become global citizens. This course introduces the major themes, influences, and personalities that shaped most of western cultural heritage.

Description:
Psychology is the scientific study of human development, learning, motivation, and personality. The course provides an empirical examination from various sources of the often ambiguous aspects of behavior and mental processes and emphasizes practical applications of behavioral concepts for solving problems and making decisions.

Description:
The primary goal of this course is for students to explore the role of the visual arts in the history of humankind and the development of culture. Students also describe how sensory qualities combine to give a work of art its particular expressive quality. Throughout the course, students describe and interpret how the qualities of art and its subject matter function together to give a work of art its own unique expression. This course begins with a discussion of the elements and principles of art, followed by an examination of disciplines, media, and processes. Students then continue to critique art, as they examine viewpoints of historians while expressing personal views on aesthetics. When the students are able to express their informed opinions of art, a chronology of art history will begin. Students will explore art from prehistoric times, to ancient Egypt and Greece while analyzing Classical and Hellenistic styles. This course includes, but is not limited to, the examination of pottery, architecture, and sculpture. The course concludes with a discussion on the issue of society's ownership of art.

Credits: 0.5

Description:
This course introduces the major themes, influences, and personalities that shaped most of western musical cultural heritage.

Credits: 0.5

Description:
In the digital photography and graphic design lessons, students begin by learning general photographic concepts. Then composition skills are added to photographs and image-editing techniques are practiced. Students learn about using layers, cropping images, color and lighting concepts, hue and saturation, and exposures and special effects. Graphic design, artistic elements, and software skills are taught while producing graphic images. Students build a portfolio of work and explore the fields of photography, graphic arts, advertising, and illustration.

Description:
In the first semester, students learn the guidelines of good journalism and the skills necessary for brainstorming, researching, reporting, and publishing three types of stories (news, features, and sports) in an online newspaper. In the second semester, students study the evolution of American journalism from yellow journalism to today's multimedia journalism and its effect on war, politics, and American lifestyles. In addition, students brainstorm, research, report, and publish two types of stories (reviews and opinions or op-eds). The last unit of the course provides opportunities and directions for editors to publish an online newspaper.

Required paperback for students to purchase:

• Associated Press Stylebook

Credits: 0.5

Description:
Essential web design skills are learned in this course, giving students a voice on the Internet. Students complete several guided projects and then develop their own website. Web design essentials are covered throughout in examples and activities. Students plan a website and move on to storyboarding, page design, layout, and template issues. From there, students learn to create backgrounds, headers, and buttons. Students learn to use templates, create rollovers and pop-ups, develop image maps, and add animations.

Credits: 0.5

Description:
This course is for anyone who loves gaming and wants to design and build original games from scratch. Participants learn how to use popular game development software to create engaging, interactive games in a variety of styles. After learning about game genres and experiencing a variety of classic games firsthand, participants learn all aspects of the game design process. From there, it is on to a series of increasingly challenging, hands-on projects that teach all the elements of successful game development. This course provides a solid foundation in the essentials of game design.

Credits: 0.5

Description:
This course builds on concepts learned in Game Design I. Participants learn how to use popular game development software to create very sophisticated engaging, interactive games in a variety of styles. Students engage in increasingly challenging, hands-on projects.

Description:
This course focuses on the software application, Microsoft Office, used in most business practices. Topics include an introduction to the Windows desktop operating system and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Note: This course is designed for and requires Microsoft Office XP, 2002 or 2003, a set of software applications used in businesses and organizations. Students may complete projects and assignments for this course using the 2002 (XP) versions of the Microsoft Office applications, but they should understand that directions and illustrations in the course materials are written for the 2003 version and may not match what they see on the screen when using the 2002 (XP) version of Microsoft Office.

Credits: 0.5

Description:
The SAT Prep courses prepare students to take the SAT or PSAT.