Data Analysis and Coding Lab

Did you know that the average person generates 1.7 megabytes of information or that it would take 181 million years to download all the data from the internet? Data drives our world but most of us don’t understand what it means, why we need it, and how it works. In this self-paced course, you will complete a variety of interest-based projects that deepen your understanding of coding and data analysis. Through examining real-world case studies from healthcare to social media and from education to culture, you will explore different types of data, identify biases, and apply your data literacy and coding skills to communicate and deconstruct underlying messages. You will be better equipped to be critical consumers of information, read your “data world,” and make informed decisions about your personal life. This course is open to all students, no prior coding knowledge required.

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. Open to Grade Levels: 10, 11, 12

Installation Art

How does place affect and define our sense of being? How can we intentionally and artistically alter these places? This course pulls from a history of artists changing our surroundings indoors/outdoors and in physical community space and virtual spaces. You’ll work collaboratively to create these installations/interventions and collaborate with the participants/audience. Regular discussion of The World of Art and Art History will provide context for our work. Critiques, documentation, and presentation will be essential elements of the class, with an emphasis on both process and product. Prerequisites: Sculpture or by the recommendation from the Visual Art Department Head.

Student Directed Project – SDP

A Student-Directed Project empowers students to do an in-depth exploration of a topic of interest throughout the term. The student designs, plans, and leads their research project in collaboration and with the guidance and support of a coach (faculty advisor). It allows students to delve deeper into their passion and to be the designer of their own learning. There is a wide range of Student-Directed Projects; they are multi-disciplinary, non-linear, and most importantly, student-created and led. That’s what makes them so interesting. Here are some examples of past projects:

• Creating an architectural model using 3D architectural software
• Through their eyes: Photo and interview series of veterans
• Robosub electromagnetic linear accelerator
• Acoustic pinger for Robosub
• Virtual Reality game for visually-impaired persons
• Creating a concept album
• Dispute: Landlord-tenant board game
• Multimedia journalism: Producing a podcast series
• Perplex: English and Theater Study
• Sensors and fiber optics: Building a fiber optic dress
• Haptic technologies: Force-Feedback Virtual Reality
• Applications of integrals to analytical continuation of functions

Advanced Design & Tech (Honors) (BVR-X)

Advanced Design & Tech is a one-term, process-to-production course designed to prepare students for 2 public performances at Beaver. The course begins by focusing on script analysis and design, and then students work as theater technicians and designers to bring the play to fruition with the Advanced Theater Acting and Advanced Costume Design classes. Technical theater roles encompass areas such as stage management, set, light, and sound design as well as technical direction and engineering. Students entering this class should be highly motivated and interested in an intense and exciting experience that requires a great deal of commitment. Recent productions include She Kills Monsters and Humpty Dumpty. One Term Course: Winter Term  Prerequisites: Design & Tech Studio or permission of the instructor. Open to Grade Levels: 11 and 12

Advanced Engineering Design – Project Studio (Honors)

This course is intended to give students a more challenging and demanding environment to apply the skills they learned in either Engineering Applications: Robotics (formerly Engineering Design Foundations) or at NuVu and allow them to continue to wrestle and build on solutions to real problems. This course is largely project-based, and students will be expected to use the time to research and design solutions to engineering design challenges. All projects will be teacher guided but studentled with the goal of learning and using the tools and approaches of the engineering mindset. Open to 11th and 12th graders. Prerequisites: Engineering Design Foundations: Tools and Process or NuVu. Departmental permission required. Offered at the Honors level only.

Design & Tech Studio (BVR-X)

Design & Tech Studio is a course for students interested in Technical Theater and/or Theatrical Design. Drawing from many disciplines and utilizing a variety of skills and technology, students will learn to research and communicate their ideas through a series of student-driven individual projects and mainstage shows, allowing them to learn and utilize design and production tools as well as carpentry, scenic painting, props, lighting, and sound. Students will explore how theater artists use these tools for creative problem solving and to communicate with audience members. The successful student would gain an understanding of shop and theater safe working practices, basic construction skills, knowledge of lighting and sound instrumentation and rigging, as well as how communication, planning, and collaboration are central to the health of a theater production. This course can be taken more than once and at the Honors level with permission from the instructor. Students interested in taking more than one art class should reach out to the registrar or the Head of Performing Arts to discuss possible options.  Three Term Course No Prerequisites. Open to grade levels 10, 11, 12

Calculus – Derivatives & Integrals

The Derivatives course includes all of the topics of an introductory Calculus course including limits, derivatives and their applications. The Integrals course includes all of the topics of an introductory Calculus course including definite integrals, indefinite integrals and their applications. Prerequisite: Precalculus. Offered at the Honors and Standard levels. Honors level requires departmental recommendation.

PreCalculus – Trigonometry

Students in this course will learn about angle measurement, periodic behavior, and a range of applications related to both right triangle and circular trigonometry. Analytic geometry and polar coordinates are often included in this course, as well. Prerequisites: Algebra II and Geometry. Honors level requires departmental permission. Prerequisites: Integrated Math 2 and Integrated Math 3. Offered at the Honors and Standard levels. Honors level requires departmental recommendation.

Advanced Calculus – Derivatives & Integrals (Honors)

This course covers all of the topics of an introductory Calculus course, exploring concepts in depth with a greater emphasis on both the abstract aspects of calculus and its various applications in the real world. Students will be expected to enter the class with a firm grasp of all concepts covered in previous math courses. Prerequisite: Precalculus and departmental recommendation. Offered at the Honors level only.