ELECTIVES
Course Offerings
Health
Everyone needs to take care of their body, but we aren’t necessarily born with the knowledge of how to go about it. It’s important to invest time and energy into understanding what it means to be healthy. Through health education, students learn to obtain, interpret, and apply health information and services in ways that protect and promote personal, family, and community health.
Critical health content areas by strand that are covered in this course are Nutrition and Physical Activity; Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs; Safety; Social and Emotional Health; Personal Health and Wellness; HIV Prevention and Sexuality Education. All students will show competence in the following eight health education content standards.
Personal Health and Fitness
This combined health and PE course provides students with essential knowledge and decision-making skills for a healthy lifestyle. Students will analyze aspects of emotional, social, and physical health and how these realms of health influence each other. Students will apply principles of health and wellness to their own lives. In addition, they will study behavior change and set goals to work on throughout the course. Other topics of study include substance abuse, safety and injury prevention, environmental health, and consumer health.
Physical Education
Your body is a machine that has certain needs—if you treat it well, it should be able to serve you well. But what can you do to promote a fit and healthy body? A course in physical education can show you. By definition, physical education is instruction in exercise and physical activity. It teaches you how to maintain your personal fitness, how to measure different aspects of physical fitness, and how to avoid injury while exercising. It’s all about getting active and setting your body in motion. By measuring health and fitness with objective data, it’s possible to improve your health in a methodical way. Exercise helps you feel good about yourself and helps you sidestep the health problems that often accompany poor levels of fitness.
Energy and The Environment (This course was created by Project Lead the Way)
Clean water, clean air, a sustainable world! Students use tools such as the engineering design process, an engineering notebook, and alternative energy modeling to invent and innovate. Learn how creative thinking and problem solving can change your world! In the Energy and the Environment course (EE), students are challenged to think big and look toward the future as they explore sustainable solutions to our energy needs and investigate the impact of energy on our lives and the world. They design and model alternative energy sources and evaluate options for reducing energy consumption.
App Creators- (This course was created by Project Lead the Way)
Have you ever wondered how mobile apps are created? Students learn and apply computational thinking and technical knowledge and skills to create mobile apps. Students also acquire and apply skills pertaining to the design process, problem solving, persistence, collaboration, and communication. Go beyond being an app consumer and become an app creator! App Creators introduces students to the field of computer science and the concepts of computational thinking, through the creation of mobile apps. Students are challenged to be creative and innovative, as they collaboratively design and develop mobile solutions to engaging, authentic problems. Students experience the positive impact of the application of computer science to society as well as other disciplines, particularly biomedical science. The course provides students opportunities for self-expression. Teams identify a personal or community problem of interest to them that can be solved with a mobile app solution. The problem can address issues such as health and wellness, the environment, school culture, emergency preparedness, education, community service—the options are endless!
Magic of Electrons- (This course was created by Project Lead the Way)
How do electricity and electronics affect my life? Students use tools such as the engineering design process, an engineering notebook, computer simulations, and circuit design prototyping materials to invent and innovate. Learn how creative thinking and problem solving can change your world!
Through hands-on projects, students explore electricity, the behavior, and parts of atoms, and sensing devices in the Magic of Electrons (ME) unit. They learn knowledge and skills in basic circuitry design and examine the impact of electricity on the world around them.
Medical Detectives (This course was created by Project Lead the Way)
Solve medical mysteries by performing a brain dissection and conducting crime scene investigations! Students use tools such as the engineering design process, an engineering notebook, and the electrophoresis to solve a murder! Learn how creative thinking and problem solving can change your world! In the Medical Detectives course, students play the role of real-life medical detectives as they analyze genetic testing results to diagnose disease and study DNA evidence found at a “crime scene”. They solve medical mysteries through hands-on projects and labs, investigate how to measure and interpret vital signs, and learn how the systems of the human body work together to maintain health.
Personal Finance
This course is intended to help familiarize the student with the basic and essential concepts of personal finance. There is a long-term project spread over the length of the course. This course covers the fundamentals of personal finance, role of consumers in the economic system of the United States, financial planning in personal life, ways to manage finances, and different investment strategies. It also covers various career options available in the field of personal finance. (This course meets the Economics course requirement)
Career Exploration
In this introductory course, students will learn about the phases of the business cycle, supply and demand, business ethics, safe and secure environmental controls, marketing, diversity in the workplace, workplace behaviors, and communication techniques, both verbal and nonverbal. They will understand their rights and responsibilities as consumers and how economic issues, both nationally and globally, affect the individual.
Business Essentials
Business Technology Applications is a one-credit foundation course; Instruction is flexible and focuses on quality performance in the skill areas of organization, time management, customer service, and communication. Students will work independently and cooperatively to acquire technical, academic, and personal skills needed to succeed in an ever-changing business world. The focus of the Business Technology Applications course is the introduction of skills related to information technology basics, Internet fundamentals, network systems, computer maintenance/upgrading/troubleshooting, computer applications, programming, graphics, Web page design, and interactive media. Students explore ethical issues related to computers and Internet technology and develop teamwork and communication skills that will enhance their employability.
Introduction to Family and Consumer Science
This course will provide students with an overview of the four major content areas of Family and Consumer Sciences. Students will be introduced to child development, family relationship concepts and how they relate to family dynamics. Additionally, students will identify financial literacy and consumer economic principles. Students will understand the concepts of design through textiles for personal and home use. Throughout the course, students will develop communication, leadership, and career investigation skills.
Transitions and Careers
In this course, students will analyze interests, aptitudes, and skills to prepare for careers and transition through life. An emphasis will be placed on work ethics, team building, communication, and leadership skills. Additional topics will include technology etiquette and career planning.
Childhood Development and Parenting
In this course, students will study the principles of child growth, development, and behavior. An emphasis will be placed on the cognitive development of a child and sensory and motor skills. Additional topics will include childhood diseases, immunizations, theories of development, learning styles and evaluating childcare services.
Food and Nutrition
This course is offered through our Culinary Arts class and is designed for students who are interested in understanding the principles of nutrition as a basic human need, and its link to current information in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, as related to individuals and families across the lifespan. Students will develop life skills needed in a wide variety of Foods and Nutrition related careers. Emphasis will be given to the economic, cultural, scientific, health and local “Farm To Table” connections to food, using 21st Century learning skills. Students will demonstrate various food selection, safety, sanitation, and preparation skills; terminology, principles, and techniques; knowledge of kitchen equipment, and accurate measurement will be applied, when preparing delicious, nutritious, and aesthetically pleasing food presentations.
Textile, Fashion and Design
This is an introductory course that will familiarize students with careers in the textile, fashion, and apparel industries and will help them understand personal suitability for success. Students will identify and obtain a working knowledge of fibers, methods of textile construction, and finishing through technology, instruction, discussion, and experimentation. Students will explore history and current trends. Students will creatively utilize the elements and principles of design to recognize well-designed and constructed textiles as well as explore reasons, identify methods, and demonstrate skills needed for altering, repairing, recycling, and redesigning apparel and/or textile products. This course will also provide opportunities for students to apply communication, leadership, management, and critical thinking skills to all areas of textile development and merchandising. By coordinating classroom theory with hands on experiences, students develop and enhance their creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary to be innovative and productive members of society.
Consumer and Resource Management
To help students learn how to make intelligent choices in the use of resources to gain maximum personal and family satisfaction. Course content may include: interrelationships between the individual and the economy**; consumer behavior; consumer rights and responsibilities; evaluating consumer information; financial services; resource management techniques; consumer credit; developing financial plans to meet personal and family goals; financial security; societal and environmental impacts of decisions; current issues relating to consumerism and resource management; sources of consumer support and assistance; related careers; leadership development. (**This course may include concepts of personal finance such as checkbook mechanics, saving for larger purchases, credit, earning power, taxation and paycheck withholdings, college costs, making and living within a budget, mortgages, retirement savings, and investments.)