 |
|
Mini-Courses
WAVE Mini-course Descriptions Fourth Nine Weeks, 2006 – 2007
Arabic Language and Culture - Get ready to be amazed. In this course we will travel to the Arab world and its 22 different countries and territories past and present to test your knowledge. We will have a quick overview of each country with its tradition and its culture. We will break and test the stereotype of Arabs. We will study how the Arabs were and are influenced by the world and how the world was and is influenced by the Arabs. You will be also introduced to the Arabic language. By the end of this course you should be able to pronounce, read and write Arabic. Time allowing and depending on your will, you will also be able to carry on small conversations. Through this trip you will be introduced to what shaped the Arab world that we know now without leaving your classroom. Card Sharks - Calling all card sharks. Delve into the history, culture and strategy of card playing. Learn the rules and etiquette for numerous card games including spades, whist, rummy, pinochle, canasta, hearts, euchre, solitaire, and possibly bridge. Share the rules of your family favorite games and teach us to play. Meet you at the card table. No cheating allowed. (No repeaters) Castlemania - A castel, chateau, castrum, castellum- whatever you choose to call it- is an intriguing study. In this nine week mini course, explore the most primitive to the most elaborate styles and purposes of forts, palaces, and residences. We will research, classify, and categorize castles from around the world and determine their purposes and functions in a feudal society. Be prepared to incorporate art, music, history, literature, and scientific influences as you create models and prototypes based upon existing structures as well as futuristic concepts. Shift your perspective from within castle walls to the world beyond. Calling all castellans who wish to follow this quest for beauty, integrity, and adventure. (No Repeaters) Dance, Dance, Dance – Ladies and Gentlemen: Two left feet? Fear no more – put on your dancing shoes and away we go! Learn country/western, swing, ballroom, Latin, and many more dances. Young men wanted! Class enrollment will be based on even male/female ratio. Manners! Etiquette is important to filling our dance cards! Das ist ja Toll! – How would you like to immerse yourself in German culture for a while? The class will study the language, history, culture, and cuisine. We will also study Teutonic philosophers, scientists, thinkers, and creators while we listen to the music of the great German composers. What else would you like to know about the German people and their land? We will take a virtual tour through time and place. German pen pals from an intermediate school near Munich are also a possibility. Delve Deeper Into Photoshop - Join this mini course to expand your knowledge of Photoshop. Graduate from the basic tools to using masks combined with the multitude of filters available to create awesome effects and type. Advanced retouching techniques will be learned and put to the test. This course culminates with mastering the pen tool to create your own character for animation. Layer styles are used to give characters a 3-dimensional look, and then students are introduced to Image Ready software to animate their characters for the final project. (Pre-requisite: Must have taken Beginning PhotoShop) Dive the WAVE - I descended into the cool, clear water and marveled at an underwater garden. Thousands of fish in vibrant colors swam by in unison. I could hear my breathing through the regulator and felt the thrill of being weightless in the warm water. Does this sound like something you would like to experience? If so, sign up now for this mini course. You will receive a junior diver certification and be ready to dive into the deep! Classroom instruction will be held during mini course time. On pool instruction days we will start at 7:30 a.m. at the Brook High School pool. The fee for this course is $170.00. If you have questions please see Mrs. Polasek or Mrs. Silcott. Fencing, the Sport of Cavaliers – Suit up for an introduction to fencing, the classic art of chivalric combat from by-gone days. (Limit 14 students; Fee: $12 for gloves) Kids Will Be Kids - Do you see small children in your future? If you are interested in becoming a babysitter, early childhood educator, or even a parent someday, then this course will benefit you! In this course, we will study the physical, emotional, and mental development of children and apply that knowledge to the business of babysitting. Music Composition Lab – Do you dream in melody? Can you envision yourself conducting the Boston Philharmonic some day or song writing on Music Row? Is music an essential part of your present and your future? If you would like to spend some time composing using the same technology as the professionals, sign up. (Pre-requisite: You must already know how to read music! 5 students only!!!) Piecing It All Together - Enter the wonderful world of quilting. Learn about the history of quilting, quilting terminology, and most excitingly - how to quilt. We will also learn about the use of quilts in days gone by and how they are used in modern times. We will actually quilt projects that you get to take home with you. We will work with a local quilt guild to make quilts for community service. Join us and you will make your very own quilt. Beginning and advance level projects will be offered to accommodate your skill level. ($20.00 fee required; repeaters welcome) Reel Justice - is our purview reviewing Hollywood’s portrayals of courtroom conflict. Some stories are true: Sir Thomas More challenged Tudor King Henry VIII to be A Man for All Seasons. Scope out Scope’s trial to Inherit the Wind. The Allied Forces War Crimes Tribunal convened to sit in Judgment at Nuremberg. Ghosts of Mississippi still haunt hallowed halls. Hubris cost A Civil Action. Trial is on trial in this mini-course: the winsome Witness for the Prosecution wrangles The Wrong Man. 12 Angry Men deadlock in jury deliberations. Inspiration grips heroic Atticus Finch as he tries To Kill a Mockingbird. Rainmaker soaks unconscionable practices. Young Mr. Lincoln protects A Place in the Sun. History, truth and justice, trial law -- circumstantial evidence, character evidence and reasonable doubt -- will be our domain working write through Reel Justice. Parental permission required for this mini-course: PG/ PG 13/Not Rated Movies. Rocket Garage: Rocket men and women needed to build their own rockets. Love the feel of the wind in your hair, watching your very own rocket soar into the early morning light and holding your breath as the parachute opens and the rocket returns safely to earth – this mini course could be for you. This class will teach you the Science and History of rocketry and how to build you own model rocket. Hands on class, must be able to meet deadlines on projects. $35 dollar course fee for materials to be used in the class and building your own rocket. This Place We Call Home - Galveston Bay - Come take a ride down the waterways that lead to Galveston Bay. This area is home to us, and now you have an opportunity to discover the beauty it contains. We will take an in-depth look at the native plants and animals that call it home. Take water and soil samples to determine the similarities and differences within the Galveston Bay watershed. Make topographical maps of the area and the ocean floor. Identify micro and macro invertebrates that are crucial to this habitat. Learn how we affect this ecosystem and how it affects us. Gain firsthand experience on how to conserve and preserve this delicate and diverse landscape. (Field trip fees - $25) Tilting at Windmills - A new spin for inquiring minds. Can you distinguish a post mill from a smock mill? Connect Persia to a windmill? Debate the pros and cons of windmills? Recreate a failed invasion with a windmill? Dramatize a knight-errant and a windmill? Link windmills to conservation efforts? Propose a new use for a windmill? Sail a windmill? Evaluate the art of the windmill? Are windmills really as simple as they seem? Join us as we breeze through these questions and much more. (The purchase of a novel is required for this course). Titanic: Uncovering the Legend -She was the grandest, most luxurious moving object ever built in her time. The Titanic's place in history has captured our hearts and imaginations. Nine decades since her sinking, many questions about how the "unsinkable" sank are being answered. During this nine-week course, you will explore the construction of the Titanic and become familiar with the stories of the passengers and crew. We will compare and contrast versions of movies documenting the story of the Titanic and learn abut the discovery of the wreck in 1985. Water, Water Everywhere - Have you ever wondered where the water in your faucet comes from? Where does it go after being flushed down the drain? Is bottled water better than tap? This engineering oriented course will provide you those answers and enable you design and build a drinking water plant of your own. Weird Sports - What defines a sport? We have heard of wrestling and hockey but what about Sumo wrestling and underwater hockey? How about cream corn wrestling? Have you ever tried any non-American sports like curling or quidditch? Would you pay to see a cutthroat competition of human skill and endurance like cup stacking, hot dog eating, or cow tipping? From the real to the fantastic to the downright silly, where did these sports come from? Why do we play these games? Answer these and other questions plus create your own weird sport! Why Didn’t I Think of That! Are you always thinking of a better way to do a task? Here is your chance. You will be able to build a prototype of you own invention and present it our “Bright Ideas Company”. The Houston Inventors Society as well as a patent attorney will share their expertise with the class. You will also have the opportunity to study inventions that changed the world. Remember it only takes one great idea!
Board Game Design Shop - Design, develop, produce, and play-test an functional board game. Share your ideas with the other members of your 'corporation' and create a prototype for testing by the other students. Create everything, including game pieces, box artwork, and even the instruction manual. Patience is required in this class, as much of the creation and revision process can be tedious.. Various assignments including 'work in progress' notebooks, outlines, flowcharts, rulebooks, etc. will be required and graded in addition to your final project – a highly polished board game. (No Repeaters and limited to 15 students) Golf: The Sport of Kings...and Business Men, Doctors and Kids - Known as the sport of kings, Golf has become the most widely played sport in the world; for girls and boys, ages 4 to 94. Come learn the sport of golf, its beginnings, the kinesiology, geometry, and physics of the game. We will design our own course, and talk with some professionals who have made the sport their career. This course is for those who have never held a club as well as those who have played for years and want to take it to a new level. You do not have to own clubs, but you might find it helpful to purchase a used 7 iron mid way though the course to practice skills learned in class. (Repeaters welcome, for 4 ½ B) Knitting: The Subversive Art - It’s a well-known fact that knitting has long been the pastime of choice for freedom fighters, political journalists, and French Revolutionaries. In fact, just prior to his infamous crossing of the Delaware River, George Washington insisted that the American militiamen knit warm, woolen bayonet grips with their frost-bitten fingers (an incident largely ignored by professional historians). In this course we will take up the yarn and purl for freedom! Demonstrate your contempt for commercialization by working with all-natural, locally-grown fibers, or craft your own scarf in protest of sweatshop labor. Stick it to The Man – with a sharp, metal knitting needle. *($15 fee) Satellites and Space Junk - This October will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial satellite - Sputnik 1. Since that time, satellites have proliferated until there are now more than 10,000 tracked in orbit. Satellites touch virtually every aspect of our lives (whether we know it or not). What are these strange devices? How do they stay up there? Isn't it true that "what goes up, must come down"? In this course we will take a look at the history, design, operation, and ultimate fate of the fleets of satellites orbiting our Earth. You will also learn how to observe satellites from your own backyard, and perhaps even figure out what they are doing up there... Son of Unlocked - If you have a great eye for graphic design, love typography, understand the conventions of writing and are a dedicated, independent hard-worker, this mini-course is for you. This short mini-course will be used to edit and produce the creative writing submitted for Unlocked, the school literary magazine. We will use Microsoft Publisher to produce pages, read and edit proofs, scan and tweak art and compile the magazine. We will do the physical work of punching holes and binding the books, as well as selling the books to the school. If you have not been on the literary magazine staff, you are welcome to join us if you have these skills. If you have been on staff and want to sign up again to do the book production, come on back! Any intelligent, literate hard worker is welcome! This class is for writers -- repeaters welcome. Independent Study - Didn’t see anything above that tickled your fancy? Well, this is your opportunity to create a 4 1/2 weeks course of study for yourself - supervised by a mentor. Topic must be very focused to be managed within one 4 1/2-week mini-course time period. You should also have in mind some examples of products that you might produce by the end of 4 1/2 week and some ideas for audiences for whom you would present your products and the information that you have found and organized. Complete outline on the back of the sign-up sheet. 4 ½ B: Advanced Beading - This course is for students who have taken any of the beading courses that have been offered through the Wave program, or who have extensive experience in bead weaving techniques on their own. We will do a spiral rope workshop, employing the basic spiral rope stitch and various alterations of it, making a notebook for future reference, and a set of jewelry employing that stitch. There will be a refresher course in the chevron, and introduction of some of its variations. If time permits we will, also, learn the basic brick stitch. The fee for this class is $20. This class will be generally be used as an introduction to some stitches and techniques not included in the basic class. (Limited to 12 students) Board Game Design Shop - Design, develop, produce, and play-test an functional board game. Share your ideas with the other members of your 'corporation' and create a prototype for testing by the other students. Create everything, including game pieces, box artwork, and even the instruction manual. Patience is required in this class, as much of the creation and revision process can be tedious.. Various assignments including 'work in progress' notebooks, outlines, flowcharts, rulebooks, etc. will be required and graded in addition to your final project – a highly polished board game. (No Repeaters and limited to 15 students) Golf: The Sport of Kings...and Business Men, Doctors and Kids - Known as the sport of kings, Golf has become the most widely played sport in the world; for girls and boys, ages 4 to 94. Come learn the sport of golf, its beginnings, the kinesiology, geometry, and physics of the game. We will design our own course, and talk with some professionals who have made the sport their career. This course is for those who have never held a club as well as those who have played for years and want to take it to a new level. You do not have to own clubs, but you might find it helpful to purchase a used 7 iron mid way though the course to practice skills learned in class. (Repeaters welcome from 4 ½ A) ) Last Shot: The Final Word in Sportswriting - If you're a sports nut and you also happen to be handy with a metaphor, you can combine two of your passions, for writing and sports, in this short introduction to the art and craft of sportswriting. We’ll study the various forms of sportswriting, from game previews and stories, wrap-ups and roundups, opinion pieces, blogs and in-depth features and analysis. We’ll consider famous sportswriters like Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner and Roger Kahn. We’ll read the newspaper, Sports Illustrated and online blogs from ESPN and SI.com. We’ll also read the novel Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery by John Feinstein, who is one of the great modern American sportswriters. If you love sports and you’re a talented writer, this is the mini-course for you! (Fee: $5 for the novel) This class is for writers -- repeaters welcome. Who’s Your Baghdaddy? An Introduction to Dictatorship - “Dictatorship is without a doubt the most satisfying form of government…as long as I’m the dictator.” – Phil Stromer Kim Jong-Il sports a poofy hairdo, tinted Seventies-style glasses, and platform shoes. But just try making fun of him – the North Korean dictator is likely to “pay you a special visit” in the middle of the night. Hussein, Pinochet, Mussolini, Caesar, Castro and Mao are some of the most ruthless, influential, and entertaining figures in human history. Join us and design a makeover for a tyrant of your choice. Try to find the line between protecting and usurping the people’s rights. Consider what would happen to our country if one individual held absolute power. Independent Study - Didn’t see anything above that tickled your fancy? Well, this is your opportunity to create a 4 1/2 weeks course of study for yourself - supervised by a mentor. Topic must be very focused to be managed within one 4 1/2-week mini-course time period. You should also have in mind some examples of products that you might produce by the end of 4 1/2 week and some ideas for audiences for whom you would present your products and the information that you have found and organized. Complete outline on the back of the sign-up sheet.
|
