ACADEMICS > Upper School > New Expanded Curriculum

HIGH SCHOOL ANNOUNCES NEW EXPANDED CURRICULUM

Poughkeepsie Day School is pleased to announce that an enhanced curriculum will be offered to high school students beginning in the fall of 2008. To view the complete high school curriculum guide (PDF), which lists the courses being offered in 2008-2009, click here. The curriculum redesign is the result of months of work by the faculty, whose goal it has been to provide high school students with greater choice in all the core disciplines (English, history, languages, mathematics, science and visual and performing arts) over the course of their four years at PDS. A revised schedule will also accommodate student interests in specific disciplines, while maintaining a rigorous set of core requirements. We are very excited to be able to offer students these enhanced course offerings and choices during their four years of high school.

Both the new curriculum and the new schedule will allow students to move through the math curriculum, for example, at a faster or more deliberate pace, whichever is appropriate, and will allow for choices in math courses that either lead beyond our current AP Calculus level, or that explore non-calculus areas of mathematics. In the sciences, students will be able either to focus evenly on life and physical sciences or to lean more toward the physical or life science areas, depending on their interests and overall goals. They will also be able to take some sciences in different sequences. In both math and science, there will be pre-requisites for certain higher levels within these disciplines. In history and English, choices will broaden within the scope of current areas of concentration, with several new additions for students with interest in fields of history, literature and writing. In the arts, students will have more opportunity for choices among art, music and drama offerings. There will be more opportunities for PE which will be elective; students will be able to take more physical activities or fewer, depending on their documented outside commitments to sports or physical fitness.

For more information about the enhanced Poughkeepsie Day School high school program or to inquire about admissions, please call 845-462-7600, ext. 201 or e-mail admissions@poughkeepsieday.org.

A listing of the courses to be offered in 2008-09 and beyond follows:

English Courses:
9 Writing the Essay
9-10 Topics about Cultures in Conflict: The Immigrant Experience
9-10 Topics about Cultures in Conflict: Youth in Conflict
11-12 Topics in American Literature (AP for seniors)
Fiction Writing Workshop
Humor Writing and Reading
Creating Character in Fact and Fiction

Additional English courses in 2009-10 and beyond:
11-12 Topics in British Literature (AP for seniors)
9-10 Ancient Literature
9-10 Medieval Literature

History Courses:
9-10 Cultural Anthropology
9-10 Developing World Societies
11-12 Modern American History, 1865-1980 (Honors)
11-12 Politics of Race and Gender: Abolition, Temperance and Suffrage (Honors)
11-12 Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (Honors)
Gender and the Law
Population and Migration
11 Junior History Thesis Lab

Additional history courses in 2009-10 and beyond:
9-10 Pre-Modern Civilization
9-10 Age of Exploration and Renaissance
9-10 Ancient Asian Societies
9-10 Islamic World: Persia, Arabia, Africa, SE Asia
11-12 Modern European History (Honors)
11-12 Europe in the 20th Century
11-12 Women in Western Civilization
11-12 Holocaust Studies
11-12 Trials in European and American History

Language Courses:
French - Beginning 1
French - Beginning 2
French - Intermediate 1
French - Intermediate 2
French - Advanced
French - Seminar
Spanish - Beginning 1
Spanish - Beginning 2
Spanish - Intermediate 1
Spanish - Intermediate 2
Spanish - Advanced
Spanish - Seminar

Mathematics Courses:
Algebra I (part 1)
Algebra I (part 2)
Plane Euclidean Geometry
Elementary Statistics
Non-Euclidean Geometry and Proof
Algebra II
Problem Solving
Number Theory
Discrete Mathematics
Analytic Geometry
Trigonometric & Circular Functions
Function Analysis (Graphic, Numeric and Algebraic)
Introduction to Differential and Integral Calculus
Differential Calculus (AP)
Integral Calculus (AP - AB exam)
Advanced Topics in Calculus (AP - BC exam)

Additional mathematics courses in 2009-10 and beyond:
Linear Algebra
Advanced Statistics, Part 1
Advanced Statistics, Part 2
Economics

Science Courses:
9 Foundations of Science
Molecular Biology
Cognitive Science
Physics of Motion
Fundamentals of Chemistry
Geology
Light and Sound: The Physics of Waves

Additional science courses in 2009-10 and beyond:
Relativistic and Quantum Theory: an Introduction
Geochemistry
Geophysics
11-12 Geology and Mineralogy
Anatomy and Physiology
Biological Anthropology
Ecology: Science, Systems, and Ethics
Animal Behavior/Intro Zoology
11-12 Bioethics Seminar

Theater Arts:
Destination Imagination
Suit the Action to the Word
Playwriting
Creating Character with Mask
All the World's a Stage
Drama Productions (The Crucible and Cabaret - under consideration)

Music:
Ensembles/Private Lessons/Collaborative Study
- Jazz /Instrumental ensemble
- Guitar ensemble
- Afro-Cuban drumming
- African drumming
- Sidereal (a cappella singing)
- Chorus
Private Study
- Voice
- Percussion
- Strings
- Guitar
- Piano
- Woodwinds
- Brass
9-10 General Music (Western)
9-10 General Music (non-Western)
11-12 Recording Basics
11-12 Instrumental and Vocal Improvisationb
12 Music Theory (AP)

Visual Arts:
9-11 Media Studies: Code and Meaning in Contemporary Culture
9-11 Studio Art: Transforming the Everyday
9-12 Life Drawing
11-12 Art History: Modernism
11 Junior Portfolio
12 Senior Portfolio
Painting

Additional visual arts courses in 2009-10:
Pop Art, Street Art and Media - Studio Art
Art History: Renaissance to Baroque

Interdisciplinary Courses:
Arthurian Legend
Artists' Collective
Holocaust: Art and Literature
Canadian Studies with focus on Quebec
Community Service
Environmental Hazards
French Immersion
Independent Film Project
Publishing in Photoshop
Wildlife Rehabilitation
World Design