Honors Seminar English 2: American Literature

Honors Seminar English 2 is an advanced seminar-style course in American Literature taught in conjunction with Honors Seminar U.S. History. There is a prerequisite for this course: Honors Seminar World History. The course is a chronological study of American Literature, from colonial writing to the post-Civil Rights era. Major movements in American Literature will be covered: Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Harlem Renaissance, and Modernism.

Honors Seminar English 3: British Literature

This course is a chronological study of British Literature beginning in the Medieval period and ending just after WWI. Students will examine canonical texts, paying close attention to the historical context and the immediate and long-term cultural impacts of each. Students will participate in seminar-style discussions and write college-level literary analyses and research papers incorporating primary and critical courses.

Honors Seminar English 4: Great Books

Students in this course will read literature that has withstood the test of time and offers distinct insights into the nature of human experience. Through close reading, discussions, research, presentations, and extensive writing, students will become familiar with the themes and issues embedded in these texts. Teachers select from a wide range of texts, including Morrison’s Beloved, the Greek theater, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Melville’s Moby Dick.

Honors Seminar Debate 3

Debate 3 focuses on a critical analysis of arguments and honing rhetorical ability. Students will engage with arguments written by NGO’s, governments, and individual policymakers to critically review the premises, logic, and impacts of the proposals. Students will also write arguments using briefs and other academic sources for use in national speech and debate competitions. Students will continue to review and analyze various written and oral communication to improve argument formulation in both written and oral expression. Students focus on their rhetorical technique and develop the skills needed for persuasion and effective argument presentation. Regular participation in tournaments is required for all students.

Honors Seminar Debate 4

Debate 4 has three fundamental components: Critical analysis of issues and arguments, understanding past, present, and future implications of issues and arguments, and college-level written and oral communication ability. Building on the skill of critical analysis of arguments studied in Debate 3, Debate 4 will expose students to the implications of policies in nuanced and detailed ways. The course explores written and enacted policy case studies and their long-term impacts. Students will analyze these policies through the lens of short-term and long-term effects and apply this skill to national speech and debate association topics. Debate 4 will also focus on critical analysis of rhetorical analysis in both written and video texts to continue bolstering students’ written and oral communication. Regular participation in tournaments is required. Students will complete an approved practicum assignment before the end of the course.

Honors Seminar in Spanish Language & Culture

This course develops language mastery, focusing on interpretive, interpersonal, and presentation skills. Students sharpen their communication skills through advanced study and rigorous grammar, literature, and culture. Students learn about culture through the use of authentic materials that are representative of the Spanish-speaking world. Honors Seminar Spanish Language and Culture is a language acquisition course designed to provide students with the necessary skills and intercultural understanding to enable them to communicate successfully in an environment where Spanish is spoken. This class is conducted entirely in Spanish.

Honors Seminar in French Language & Culture

Honors Seminar in French advances students’ proficiency by studying and discussing short stories, poems, plays, art, movies, and contemporary news sources. The course is similar to a college survey course in which students conduct close readings and analyses of thematic material and make inferences about a work’s meaning. Students will study art and music and discuss how they relate to direct historical events in the French-speaking world. Students will continue to develop the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking through extensive interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational tasks. Works covered will span France, Québec, Haïti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Sénégal, and beyond.

Honors Seminar Calculus

Students will further their study of definite and indefinite integrals; additional topics include integration techniques and applications, the calculus of parametric, vector, and polar functions, sequences, and series, including the Taylor and MacLaurin series. Students are expected to synthesize and apply the material beyond the examples discussed in class.

Honors Seminar Multivariable Calculus

Multivariable Calculus is the calculus of the 3-D world. Topics covered include differential and integral calculus of functions of two or three variables, partial derivatives, multiple integrals, Green’s, Stokes’s, and Divergence Theorems, and calculus of vectors and paths in two and three dimensions. The course will conclude with an introduction to first and second-order differential equations. Students will synthesize and apply the material beyond the examples discussed in class.

Honors Seminar Artificial Intelligence & Computational Modeling I 

The first semester of this two-semester sequence will focus on computational modeling using Python. This course integrates concepts from calculus, statistics, linear algebra, and computer science through the lens of real-world scenarios. There will be an emphasis on numerical methods for solving differential equations. In addition, students will be introduced to statistical methods to analyze large data sets along with specific techniques from linear algebra.

 

Honors Seminar Artificial Intelligence & Computational Modeling II

Extending the first-semester experience, this course will introduce students to the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, focusing on machine learning techniques and training, neural networks and deep learning, and machine learning applications to real-world problems, such as learning game physics and the basics of user interface design.

Honors Seminar in Physics - Mechanics

The curriculum covers the material of an introductory college physics course. The study of mechanics includes the description of motion, the analysis of motion using Newton’s laws, and the application of the three major conservation laws to a wide range of systems. Familiarity with differential calculus is assumed, and all the topics studied will use this level of math. Calculus is embedded in the second-semester topics.

Honors Seminar in Physics - Electricity and Magnetism

The curriculum has been developed to cover the material of an introductory college physics course. The study of electricity and magnetism includes the description of the motion of charges and currents using electric and magnetic fields and potentials. Topics covered include electrostatics, magnetism, electromagnetic induction, and waves. Familiarity with differential and integral calculus is assumed, and all the topics studied will use this level of math.

Honors Seminar in Physics - Modern Physics

We continue our study of physics, introducing the subjects of Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Cosmology. Acquaintance with differential and integral calculus is assumed, as well as introductory classical mechanics & electromagnetism. Quantum Mechanics and Relativity play a key role in our society and technology historically, currently, and in our future and are essential ingredients in contemporary theories of fundamental physics. Completing this course provides a solid foundation for anyone considering physics, engineering, or any other physical science-based STEM discipline for their future endeavors.

Honors Seminar Chemistry

After a brief review of important concepts from Honors Chemistry, this course will focus on advanced topics in preparation for college-level courses. The first semester will introduce thermodynamics, reaction rates, equilibrium and oxidation-reduction chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. The second semester will focus more on organic chemistry, nomenclature, organic reactions, and organic synthesis. This will be a lab-based course where you will learn advanced lab techniques such as distillation and purification, gas chromatography, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and organic synthesis. The pace will be fast, and outside reading/notes, using a flipped classroom, will help create more lab time and problem-solving explanations.  

Honors Seminar Biology

The Honors Seminar in Biology curriculum has been developed to cover the material of an introductory college biology course. Topics are covered in great depth, laboratory experiments are complex, and the time and effort required of students are significant. This course provides students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology. 

Honors Seminar United States History

This course explores fundamental questions about the History of the United States at the highest academic level. How is American identity defined, maintained, and redefined? How do patterns of individualism and community diverge and converge? How have the United States' political systems, social structures, culture, and economy evolved? To answer these and other questions, we will study primary sources and develop ideas through discussion and formal and informal written responses. This is a university-level course, so the readings, conversations, and essays will be rigorous and briskly paced. By the end of the year, students will be able to articulate sophisticated, nuanced positions on American History from the Colonial Era to the Cold War.

Honors Seminar United States Government

This course provides a college-level, nonpartisan introduction to key political concepts, ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the constitutional system and political culture of the United States. Students will study U.S. foundational documents, Supreme Court decisions, and other texts and visuals to understand the relationships and interactions among political institutions, processes, and behaviors. They will also engage in disciplinary practices that require them to read and interpret data, make comparisons and applications, and develop evidence-based arguments.

Honors Seminar Economics

This course provides students with a fundamental understanding of microeconomics and macroeconomics at an advanced level. Students will learn to graph and analyze supply and demand models, market structures, and externalities. Students will also analyze economic data and explore macroeconomic models. An emphasis will be placed on the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on the economy. Through economic case studies, students will debate current economic issues and be challenged to think critically about how economics impacts their daily lives.

Honors Seminar Microeconomics

Microeconomics is the study of individuals and firms that attempts to explain the relationships between scarcity and choice, individual actions, business decision-making, and the production process and marginal analysis. Students will study optimality, irrationality, externalities, markets, and utility theory of choice.

Honors Seminar Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics studies the whole economy and attempts to explain the relationships between growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, trade, and other economic factors. Students will learn the business cycle, aggregate demand and supply, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and several macroeconomic theories. The course will conclude with a capstone project where students simulate a meeting of the Federal Reserve.

Honors Seminar in History: World's Fairs in the United States

World Fairs made the world modern, quickly becoming sites for countries to showcase their achievements, values, and plans for the future. No country embodied this twin spirit of celebration and ambition more than the United States during the era of expositions. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, the fairs became a central showcase for the cultural, political, and economic changes occurring throughout the country. This course takes students on a journey of the World's Fairs in the United States from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia to the opening of a "permanent world's fair" at an Orlando theme park in 1982, allowing a deep examination of the political, technological, and cultural transformations occurring in the United States.

Honors Seminar in Government: Tyranny & Democracy

This course offers an in-depth consideration of the emergence, transformation, and decline of both tyranny and democratic elements of government from prehistory through the 20th century. Particular attention is paid to Ancient Greece and Rome, the Enlightenment, and the Haitian Revolution. Students also read Robert Penn Warren's classic American political novel All the King's Men. Topics covered include state formation and geography, institutional theory, political philosophy, democracy and knowledge, and theories of leadership. We will read selections from ancient Greek and Roman History, philosophy, drama, oratory, correspondence, philosophical treatises, and political documents from the Enlightenment and the Atlantic Revolutions. The course includes a historical simulation and an opportunity to develop academic research and critical writing competency through the completion of an extended research project.

Honors Seminar British History

British History is a preparatory course for juniors attending the Cambridge Scholars Program. The course provides students with an overview of key events in British History and an in-depth examination of the program topic which varies annually. In addition to providing students with a content background that will allow deeper engagement with the Cambridge experience, this course offers advanced instruction in research skills necessary for work at the undergraduate level while at Cambridge and beyond Oxbridge. After completing the Cambridge Scholars Program, students will explore the History of Great Britain from 1066 through the 20th century.

Honors Seminar Forensic Psychology

The American Psychological Association (APA) has favored the narrow definition of forensic psychology as "the application and practice of psychology in the legal system, particularly in courts." According to the authors of the course text, the main areas in the legal system where a person can find a forensic psychologist include Police/Law enforcement, criminal and delinquent behavior/psychology, victimology and victim services, courtrooms, and in correctional facilities and/or prisons. This course will cover a broad spectrum of the various law and psychology areas. This course will focus on some interrogation techniques and also briefly discuss behavior. The course uses visual aids that may be graphic (gore, gruesome) in nature to demonstrate various crimes that a forensic psychologist/psychiatrist would encounter with their job function.