Hip new classes on topics like video game literacy and French cinema might have adults wishing they could go back to high school.
The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school board recently approved adding 11 new classes to various high schools across the district in 2015-16, the majority of which are focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).
Four classes will be added at Apple Valley High School to support its new status as part of a districtwide "corridor" to STEM careers. Other schools that are a part of that pathway are Cedar Park Elementary STEM School and Valley Middle School of STEM.
Apple Valley High School will add two computer science courses, two "fabrication lab" courses and a "Narratives and Literacy in Gaming" class offered through the language arts department. That class will look at "the cultural messages that are embedded in these [video] games and how they might influence their understanding of the world." Students will get to come up with their own game ideas.
At Eastview and Rosemount, students can now take an "IT Exploration" class through the business department. Rosemount will also host a digital electronics class and a computer science class.
Eagan High School will add offerings for upperclassmen in French cinema and Spanish culture and conversation. The French cinema class "deepens student understanding" of both French and American culture and provides history and perspectives that aren't found in American-made French textbooks, according to the course description. The Spanish course will look specifically at online media and what it reveals about culture.
Juniors and seniors at the School of Environmental Studies can now enroll in a United Nations forum class.
Dozens of other classes have new names or are being replicated, and a few classes -- "Creative Dramatics for Literature and Writing" at Apple Valley and "Introduction to Music Production" at Rosemount -- are being dropped.
