Spotlight Courses
The Modern World
Modern World History examines global events from 1760 to the present under the umbrella of the essential question: What is “modernity”? Students will analyze from multiple perspectives the various revolutions that shook the Atlantic Basin at the end of the 18th century, industrialization, the growth and contraction of political and colonial empires, the experience of indigenous peoples, and war in the age of global interdependence. Reading over one hundred primary and secondary sources, students will come to understand that history is dependent on one’s point of view and open to continual reinterpretation. Visual art, period music and literature, political cartoons, guest speakers, debates, and simulations add texture and interest. Weekly student-led discussions of current events foster students’ ability to detect the fingerprints of the past on today’s global trends – and maybe predict the future themselves. Frequent short writing assignments aim to increase the concision, precision, and elegance of students' historical prose. A major research paper on a topic of the student's choosing from modern world history will serve as a showcase for the research, analysis, and writing skills students have been developing throughout the year.
Search Spotlight Courses
Music History 1: The Classical and Romantic Temperaments
This course compares the Classical and Romantic temperaments found in Western art music while surveying some of the masterpieces composed between 1750 and 1900.
Stagecraft
Stagecraft introduces the beginning theater artist to theories and practices of theater technology.
Digital Design
This course invites students to learn and apply design principles and the user experience to a variety of digital formats, including graphic, video, and web.
Abnormal Psychology (GOA)
This Global Online Academy course focuses on psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and depression.
Advanced Chinese
Through selected authentic videos, films and news articles, students will be able to have in-depth conversations about various topics. Assignments in the course include research papers, debates, and in-class skits.
Advanced French: Global Challenges and the Francophone World
This course introduces students to the different ways in which French-speaking communities around the world are impacted by, and respond to global challenges. Topics range from climate change to food insecurity, global health, economic inequality, social justice, human rights, and war.
Advanced Organic Chemistry
While traditional high school chemistry courses focus on predicting products and studying the properties of chemical reactions, organic chemistry focuses on the specific mechanisms by which bonds are broken and formed.
Big History Project
“Big History Project” (BHP) is a course that invites us to think and to imagine on a really BIG scale, both in terms of time and space: it is designed to be a comprehensive, interdisciplinary history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present (and even the future).
Cybersecurity (GOA)
This Global Online Academy course explores the fundamentals of and vulnerabilities in the design of computers, networks, and the internet.
Economics, Business, and Finance
This one-semester course introduces students to key microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts, basic business principles, and the workings of financial markets and institutions.
Extended Algebra 2
For students with a strong foundation in Algebra 1 and Geometry, this course emphasizes multiple representations of functions and fluency between them, through guided collaborative exploration and class discussion.
Extended Precalculus
A preparation for studies in calculus, Extended Precalculus explores numerical, graphical and analytical approaches to real valued functions.
Food, Culture, and Society in Latin America (semester)
Latino foods reflect enormous geographical and social diversity resulting from Latin America's turbulent history of settlement, intermarriage, and migration. Where does Latin American food come from?
Honors Classics: Introduction to Homeric Greek
This course presents the essential forms, grammar, and vocabulary needed to begin reading Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in the original. Students will spend the first semester studying the forms of Greek’s three noun declensions and the most common conjugated verb forms found in Homer, and will practice these forms nightly by translating simplified passages from Homer.
Introduction to Legal Thinking (GOA)
Inspired by Global Online Academy’s popular Medical Problem Solving series, this course uses a case-based approach to give students a practical look into the professional lives of lawyers and legal thinking.
Neuroscience
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience. We will learn the fundamentals of brain anatomy, the chemical processes that underlie its physiology, and common pathologies that affect the brain.
Personal Finance
In this course, students learn financial responsibility and social consciousness.
Probability and Statistics
Through simulations, experiments, and collaborative and independent projects, students explore the roles of data and randomness in daily life, and develop tools to make sense of uncertainty.
The Holocaust and Human Behavior
This course deeply examines the Holocaust through the lens of human behavior and psychology. Inspired and guided by Facing History and Ourselves’ Holocaust education program.
The Modern World
Modern World History examines global events from 1760 to the present under the umbrella of the essential question: What is “modernity”? Students will analyze from multiple perspectives the various revolutions that shook the Atlantic Basin at the end of the 18th century, industrialization, the growth and contraction of political and colonial empires, the experience of indigenous peoples, and war in the age of global interdependence.
Topics in Genetics
The primary commonality between all living things is a simple molecule that we call DNA. As scientific research advances, geneticists enrich our understanding of the dynamics, nuances and importance of this molecule and how it can be manipulated.