New courses available for next year

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Credit: Angela Park

WSPN’s Natalie Hsu goes over the new courses offered for WHS students next year.

Natalie Hsu

As quarter three comes to an end, students begin to meet with their guidance counselors to choose courses they want to take next year. Here is a preview of some electives students could sign up for in the 2016-2017 school year.

Latinos Today: This is a new language elective that focuses on the Latino population in the United States and how it is expanding. The course is taught by Nicole Haghdoust. “[The Latino population] is only going to increase from now to 2050,” Haghdoust said. “It’s good to bring to reality that society is changing with a lot of Latinos who have great history.” Haghdoust hopes that students will be more knowledgeable about Latino culture and feel more global.

Drugs in Society: This wellness elective focuses on how drugs today impact our society. The elective is taught by wellness teacher Rachel Hanks. “In wellness classes in school we get the fundamentals [of drugs in society]: This is marijuana, the good and the bad and why we shouldn’t do it,” Hanks said. “But we don’t really talk about society’s message and what happens in society with [drugs].” Hanks expects to have socially acceptable conversations with students during this class.

AP Computer Science Principles: This is a new AP course the College Board has created that focuses on topics the regular AP Computer Science class does not reach. It has not been decided who will teach the elective. “It steps back from a pure programming class and looks at other topics in computer science,” computer science teacher Michael Hopps said. Hopps hopes that this course will give students the opportunity to enter the world of computer science.

Honors Swift Programming for OS X: This new programming class will center around Swift, a new programming language Apple has developed for making apps for iOS, OS X and iPhone software. This course will replace the Android App Development class. “It’s an introduction to programming but with an angle of being able to write programs for the Apple environment,” Hopps said. It has not been decided who will teach the class.

Hacks Honors Applied Computer Science: This sequel to the AP Computer Science course will have students work in teams to create an app that they will release to the public. “They’re going to learn to make something for the world,” Hopps said. “We’re going to get the kids to have the skills and let them go.” Hopps hopes that students who have previously taken AP Computer Science will apply their skills in the real world through this course. It has not yet been decided who will teach the class.