Sports Literature

How can sports’ narratives illuminate human experiences? How have sports been used to establish and connect with shared and individual identity? And how can examining the role of sports-in both fiction and real life-give us greater insight into our society? These are just some of the questions we'll address through themes of triumph, determination, teamwork, pursuit of perfection, sacrifice, defeat, and identity. Digging into works that focus on various team and individual sports-from basketball to figure skating, swimming to soccer, baseball to rugby--we'll examine the words of athletes, coaches, and fans to explore sports as allegory, how sports history has shaped our contemporary understanding of place and self, and how storytelling in sports contributes to national mythology. From the allegory of the game to the ethical questions raised in our society, this course invites students to critically engage with the myriad ways sports’ narratives illuminate the human experience. This class will have a particular focus on the skills of reading and creative writing.

Advanced Studio Practice

For Seniors who have built their skills and developed personal concepts for their artwork. How will you continue to build your creative voice after graduation? Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.” This course will explore creative strategies to keep art in your life after high school, including workshopping, refining your interests, and learning to seek out and enjoy seeing art in the world.  Open to 12th graders who have taken at least one level 2 class and with the recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Mixed Media

If you are committed to Mixed Media and ready to go deeper, this class is for you. Working with materials you already know and love, you will develop a portfolio of works about a particular theme. Research into how and why artists have used layering and alternative materials in their art will support your studio practice.  Prerequisites: Mixed Media and recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Sculpture

This course builds off your interests and success from Sculpture  and provides the opportunity to improve in technique. You will deepen your understanding of a chosen process through rigor and self-direction. Exhibiting completed artworks with intention and concept is required. Prerequisites: Sculpture and recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Drawing + Painting

If you are committed to drawing or painting and ready to go deeper and work more independently, this class is for you. You will develop a portfolio of works about a particular theme while practicing your technical skills. Researching the subject matter and techniques used by artists throughout history will support your studio practice.  Prerequisites: Drawing + Painting and recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Ceramics

This course builds off the foundational skills from Ceramics and provides the opportunity to expand on hand-building and wheel-throwing practices. You will explore your point of view as a ceramicist by creating a portfolio inspired by a theme or chosen process. Research into how and why artists have and continue to use clay as a method of expression and functionality will support your studio practice.  Prerequisites: Ceramics and recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Digital Art

This course builds off your technical skills and interests in Digital Art. You will enhance your understanding of digital art-making tools while developing your point of view as a digital artist. Researching contemporary digital practices will support your self-directed process and help you explore how to display your work on campus.  Prerequisites: Digital Art and recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Ceramics

This course is dedicated to the exploration of how a ball of clay can lead us toward complex ideas and functional objects. Based on hand-building techniques and wheel throwing students will focus on form, structure, making mistakes, and idea development. By exploring the cultural connections of food and community and the rituals they were created for, students will build vessels and tableware for a social gathering. There will be time for students to design their paths as their skills and confidence grow to give them more control over the objects they envision. Prerequisites: 3D or by the recommendation from the Visual Arts Department Head.

Advanced Biology – Molecular Research Techniques (Honors)

This course provides students with an opportunity to learn advanced techniques in molecular biology and their applications in biotechnology. Students delve deeply into advanced topics such as genetic engineering and synthetic biology, with a specific focus on CRISPR technology and how it can be leveraged to address real-world problems in medicine, agriculture, and more. Students travel each week to the BioBuilder learning lab at Allston Labworks for an immersive experience in which students learn the skills and tools of molecular research through an ongoing research project.  Prerequisites: One Chemistry or Biology Applications course at the Honors level and with departmental permission (Biology Applications: Evolutionary Genetics highly recommended).  Offered at the Honors level only.

Crime Literature

Starting with the birth of detective fiction, one of the most popular literary genres, and moving to creative nonfiction, we will consider the appeal of stories about grisly murders and trace an arc from a more comfortable belief in the nature of justice to suspicion about police powers. Coinciding with this increased suspicion is a movement away from white detectives and white victims, to crimes targeting people of color, who were legally barred from giving testimony (and thus seeking legal redress) for much of the country’s history. Do stories give us cathartic release when a bad guy is punished? Is there some sort of poetic justice in exposing the inequities of the past even if the murderers have gone free? And what does crime fiction’s popularity suggest about our relationship to our criminal justice system, about our perception of its workings, and about the larger American tenet of equality before the law?

This class will have a particular focus on the skills of reading and creative writing.

Philosophy: The Meaning of Life through Ethical Dilemmas

Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life is or if a decision you made was the right one? Have you ever played the game, “Would you rather…?” Then you have done philosophy! Philosophy equips us with critical thinking and logic to navigate the world around us. Every day, we are faced with taking a stand on difficult moral questions and accept judgment on how we should lead our lives. You want to learn why people think, debate, love, hate, have emotions, and make (sometimes bizarre) decisions; or why people follow religions, search for truth, vote conservative or liberal; or you just want to learn how to make difficult decisions and how we should live our lives. Then this is your class. Be prepared to tackle challenging, real-life situations, consider alternative perspectives, understand how our brain makes decisions, and rethink your notion of morality, right and wrong, and what we ought to do to find the meaning of life. Take a class and discover not just what is, but also what could be! This class counts as English credit. Honors and standard levels

Graphic Design

How does design impact how we think, learn, and interact? In this course we will investigate these questions as we explore how graphic communication is woven into our daily lives. Students will gain insight into a range of graphic design applications such as branding and advertising, illustration, typography, information design, and editorial publication. Working primarily with Adobe Illustrator, students will develop their digital drawing and design skills while establishing a workflow between Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.