High School Program of Study

The class is a hands-on workshop which will teach the fundamentals of acting technique and speech performance.

This course covers a variety of topics including playmaking, voice, character development, writing, and directing.

This course will investigate elements of performance art, physical acting and non-verbal communication techniques.

Students will explore various styles of theater from ancient Greek theater to 20th Century in a series of classroom workshops.

This course builds on students’ prior mastery of the basics of computer programming. It begins with a very fast-paced introduction to the Swift programming language, including more advanced features and moves on quickly to the tools and APIs for Apple’s mobile operating systems.

This capstone elective allows students to explore research methods and design by constructing a research-based project in an area of primary interest.
 

This course is designed to develop and improve student presentational communication skills (oral and written) through discussion of various film and literary works of the Spanish-speaking world.

This year-long seminar course offers an overview of 20th-century African American history and arts by examining the challenges faced by memorable leaders, intellectuals, and organizations in history and through the lens of characters in works of literature.

The course includes the development of mathematical skills such as operating with polynomials, solving and graphing linear and quadratic equations, solving and graphing systems of linear equations, factoring, and working with radicals.

Students will cover equation solving, operations with polynomials, word problems, linear equations and their graphs, fractions, factoring and radicals.

This course includes the study of polynomial functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions, and solving systems of equations and inequalities. 

This course includes the study of polynomial functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions, and solving systems of equations and inequalities. 

This course includes the study of polynomial, conic sections, exponential and logarithmic functions, complex numbers, and trigonometric functions.

Information about the structure and function of the human body when in health and when impaired is studied following an introduction of the chemical, cellular, and tissue levels of major body systems and their components.

The course covers the chemical basis of living systems, cells, enzymes, energy transformations in cells, cell division, genetics, organismal biology, the origin of life, evolution, and ecology.

AP Calculus AB includes methods of finding and applying the derivative and integral as a limit, studying the calculus of polynomial, trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic and inverse functions and applying it to problems involving analytic geometry, science and economics.

Course topics include but are not limited to: parametric, polar and vector functions; integration by parts, partial fractions, and improper integrals; the logistic growth model; and infinite series.

The curriculum follows that given in the Advanced Placement course description and includes the structure and states of matter, reactions, stoichiometry, equilibrium, kinetics, electrochemistry, and thermodynamics.

Its aim is to provide students with ongoing and varied opportunities to further develop their proficiency across the full range of language skills within a cultural frame of reference reflective of the richness of Chinese language and culture.

This course covers the basics of the Java programming language, simple data structures, common algorithms, recursion, and sorting.

This course introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world.

Students will study the principles of both microeconomics and macroeconomics throughout the course of the year in preparation for the Advanced Placement (AP) exam.

The course includes a comprehensive introduction to classical rhetoric, focusing on persona, audience, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical schemes and tropes.

AP English Literature focuses on a class experience where the students are able to learn and to teach at the same time in an atmosphere of both lecture and discussion.

Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, embracing topics from geology, biology, environmental studies, environmental science, chemistry, and geography.

This course will examine European History from the Renaissance to the breakup of the Soviet Union. In addition to political trends, emphasis will be placed on the economic and cultural factors as well.

This is a rigorous advanced level German Language and Culture class. This AP course is taught exclusively in German.

Students explore a wide range of topics—population, urbanization, culture, the economy, immigration, public health, and environmental issues from a geographical perspective.

The course requires students to prepare and translate the readings and place these texts in a meaningful context, which helps develop critical, historical, and literary sensitivities.

Like Honors Physics 1, this is an introductory survey of physics designed for honors students who have performed well in Chemistry I Honors and will be taking the highest level math course.

This course follows the curriculum for Physics C in the AP Placement course description, which includes classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism.

Included in this course is a consideration of the psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with each of the major subfields within psychology.

This course is equivalent to an intermediate level college course in Spanish.

This course is designed to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of a third-year college survey course in Peninsular and Latin American Literature.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data.

Presidential powers, Congressional decision making and the vote of the Supreme Court will be studied. Additional topics include elections, the role of the media in the political process, and the federal bureaucracy.

The course will include key events such as the Depression, New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam and Watergate as well as contemporary issues.

Students will work together and individually out of the Standards of Excellence Book 1 to learn how to play either the trumpet or trombone.

This is an introductory course for those interested in learning to play keyboard instruments.

This course will introduce students to basic swimming technique.

Accelerated students cover material at a similar pace to those in other levels, but the depth of presentation and amount of detail is significantly higher than in Biology College Prep.

Topics studied are the nature of life, atomic structure, cell biology and energetics, basic genetics, DNA structure and function, and protein synthesis.

Students are expected to demonstrate a high level of understanding of biological concepts in their homework assignments, and to use homework actively as a means of advancing their learning in the course.

This course will introduce students to one of the most popular forms of the grappling arts in the world today.

This course will introduce students to one of the most popular forms of the grappling arts in the world today.

The object of the course is to develop methods of finding and applying the derivative and integral as a limit.

The course will develop methods of finding and applying the derivative and integral as a limit, studying the calculus of polynomial, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions and applying it to problems involving analytic geometry, science and economics.

This course will teach students the fundamentals of hand-building with clay using pinch pot, coil and slab methods with an introduction to the potter's wheel.

Students will build upon the wheelworking and handbuilding techniques they learned in Ceramics 1.

Basic chemical principles, models, and methods of problem solving are introduced in this course. An appreciation of the results of chemical activity in the student's immediate and expanded environment is developed.

Topics include scientific method, scientific measures, atomic theory, periodic table, principles of reactivity and bonding, formula writing and equations, chemical reactions, stoichiometry, states of matter, gas behavior, thermochemistry, solution chemistry, reaction rates and equilibrium, and acid-base chemistry.

This is an advanced high school chemistry course. It will prepare students to take higher level chemistry classes in college or AP Chemistry.

In this Mandarin Chinese class, students will develop the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The course emphasizes developing students’ language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Many of the grammatical constructions introduced in first-year Chinese will be repeated in this course with increasing sophistication in terms of style and usage.

This course is for the above-average Chinese speaker who has excelled in first-year Chinese both in the oral and written component.

In the third year of Chinese, students will continue to develop their oral communication skills and to expand their vocabulary ability and paragraph writing with the up-to-date topics relevant to young students in a fun and interesting way.

A task-based teaching approach will be used to intensify students’ motivation and heighten their awareness of the learning objectives in each unit.

The task-based and flip classroom teaching approach will be used to intensify students’ motivation and heighten their awareness of the learning objectives in each unit.

Specific content includes, but is not limited to, more advanced language structures and idiomatic expressions, with emphasis on conversational skills.

Students learn about perspective rendering, hidden surfaces, and the importance of appropriate dimensioning and labeling.

The focus of this course is on rehearsing and performing traditional Concert Band repertoire.

Emphasis will be placed on criminal justice, the Bill of Rights, and recent Supreme Court decisions dealing with topics such as student locker searches, censorship, and drug testing.

This course will introduce students to the 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

This course will introduce students to the 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy

This course will examine current topics in race, gender, and social justice in the context of the United States.

This workshop course will focus on the role of the designer as a technical artist.

This course includes the opportunity to explore various media such as pencil, ink, charcoal, pastels, etc.

Structural drawing, life drawing, drawing from the masters, landscape, portraiture, and abstraction will be areas studied in this course.

Emphasis is placed on important social issues and real world problems of our time, along with a demonstration of how simple economic tools can be used to analyze them.

Formal literary terminology as well as analysis and personal interpretation will be presented as the student is introduced to quality works in the major genres.

This course includes the study of vocabulary, literature, grammar and writing.

Students learn how to write in a variety of genres: description, narration, exposition and persuasion. 

Students will be introduced to a number of new and more sophisticated concepts in the study of mythology and tragedy.

the course stresses paragraph development, multi-paragraph essay writing, more sophisticated stylistics, and the study of vocabulary in context. 

The English 2 Honors course is a challenging and varied course of study that emphasizes literature and composition.

Using either a chronological or a thematic approach, this course stresses the evolution of themes and styles in American literature, emphasizing a challenging reading curriculum.

This course introduces the student to the themes and ideas prevalent in the development of American literature.

The English 3 Honors curriculum attends to the disciplines of literature, oral and written communication and SAT preparation.

Students will read from the four genres of short fiction, novel, drama and poetry from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day.

The scope of the program traces British literature from its origins to the present.

Students will read selections from Beowulf, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's sonnets, tragedies and history plays, major British poets, novelists, and playwrights.

Environmental Science is a year-long course designed to show thematic connections between a variety of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, and physics.

Grounded in the question, "do universal ethical principles exist," students explore a number of theoretical structures that inform our moral decisions: sources of ethical behavior, models of moral development, the role of conscience in ethical choices, and the place of the Catholic faith in moral dialogue.

Students will investigate literary styles and techniques used to communicate this relationship, as well as the historical and cultural contexts of each book in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The course is designed for students to explore algebraic thinking patterns and functions in a financial context, and to apply these skills to relevant research topics of interest.

Students will study the logical structure of geometry through theorems, postulates, deductive reasoning, and proofs.

Students will study the logical structure of geometry through theorems, postulates, deductive reasoning.

Students will study the logical structure of geometry through theorems, postulates, deductive reasoning, and proofs.

The aim is to promote proficiency in all aspects of the German language: speaking, reading, writing, and oral comprehension, in the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational.

The aim is to promote proficiency in all aspects of the German language: speaking, reading, writing, and oral comprehension, in the three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational.

This second-year course stresses aural/oral communication and the essentials of German grammar.

This second-year course stresses aural/oral communication and the essentials of German grammar.

The students will be introduced to authentic articles, data and literature using a variety of genres presented in printed, audio, audiovisual formats as well as other cultural inputs.

The class provides their students with opportunities to develop their language proficiency by sharing their points of view on more complex issues using open discussion and employing both their spoken and written German skills.

This course emphasizes the use of the German language for active communication.

This course is designed for the advanced student to further develop his German language skills, by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German speaking world.

Students examine and research issues through a global lens and foster a culture of encounter through the interdisciplinary focus areas.

While not as rigorous as the honors course, this course surveys the geography, history, and culture of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and helps prepare students for global citizenship.

This course surveys the geography, history, and culture of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and helps prepare students for global citizenship.

This course surveys the geography, history, and culture of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and helps prepare students for global citizenship.

This course is a flexible studio structure where the advanced art student will work individually with the instructor to develop and design areas of artistic direction.

This course builds upon the skills learned in Ceramics 1 and 2 in order to explore more advanced forms and decorative techniques. 

Students will explore topics like scenic painting, playwriting, or sound, costume, and lighting design.

This course will allow those students who have mastered basic swimming technique to further refine their strokes and become more fit through swimming.

This course explores the global, national, and personal impact of technology.

The course will focus on ethical and beneficial cybersecurity practices. Students in this course will learn about the history of cybersecurity and the different types of cyberattacks.

Topics covered include program mechanics, creating and editing files, function declaration and construction, simple data types, operating with arrays, building structures and object oriented programming.

In this course students will learn the basics of the Java programming language by programming simulations and games.

Our most basic introduction to programming, this course introduces students to both the process of modern application design and the basics of programming with the Swift programming language.

This course will introduce students to proper exercise techniques focused on developing speed, agility, strength, power, balance, and coordination.

Built on the theme of The Problem of God, this one semester survey course examines the development of philosophy and its influence on theology in the Western tradition.

This group will perform at various locations in Massachusetts, and on select years, takes a tour within the United States or abroad.

Students will explore and perform a wide variety of big band jazz forms including blues, Dixieland, swing, bebop, and others.

Students will explore how each of the four evangelists reflected on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Students will learn and practice throws, break falls, ground positioning, escapes, and submissions for both sport and self-defense wearing the traditional gi (kimono).

Latin 1 introduces students to the fundamentals of Latin grammar through readings which reveal the cultural context of the Roman world and its heritage.

The first year of Latin introduces the form and structure of an inflected language, gradually guiding the students to read and compose complex sentences with subordinate clauses, stylistic nuance and sophisticated vocabulary.

Students continue their study of Classical culture, including history, mythology, archaeology, and the influence of Latin on English vocabulary.

In the second year of Latin, students build upon their study of grammar from the first year. The emphasis is upon the reading of continuous prose with complex sentences and subordinate clauses.

In this course, students will continue to study complex and nuanced aspects of Latin grammar while reading increasingly sophisticated selections of Latin prose. 

After an extensive review of grammar and syntax, students will read the poetry of Martial, Ovid and Catullus and the opening chapters of Caesar’s Gallic Wars.

A variety of original Latin texts will be read: history, letters, poetry, legal documents, graffiti, etc.

The course will be asking the questions: What is comedy? What is laughter? Why do people laugh? Is comedy universal and is it inevitably a multicultural link? As often, the Romans (and Greeks) offer us a good laboratory to work on these questions.

It will blend mental skills development, nutrition education, sleep hygiene, and physical fitness to promote healthy well-being.

This course will explore the political, cultural, religious, and scientific history of the modern world with a focus given to central themes, important ideas, and major individuals.

This course is a broad historical examination of modern European history beginning with the Renaissance and ending with the Cold War.

It will explore the political, cultural, religious, and scientific history of the modern world with a focus given to central themes, important ideas, and major individuals.

Students will ride as a group and learn effective communication and group dynamics as part of the course.

This course brings technology and creativity together to help students master the skills they need to produce engaging, technically advanced videos.

The main topics of the course include vector algebra, vector calculus, partial derivatives, multiple integrals, line integrals, and surface integrals as well as applications of these concepts.

Students will learn about note reading, rhythms, major scales, key signatures, pentatonic modes, form and more.

This course explores advanced theory and compositional techniques, including minor scales, four part harmony, seventh chords, polyphony, progressions, counterpoint, 12 tone technique, and others.

Actual medical cases and clinical studies are presented in this course to integrate the nervous system fundamental workings with clinical methods of understanding patients with brain and nervous system disorders.

This course will deal with the development of personal style and preference of materials by experimentation with various media.

Each student will have a hands-on learning experience with a variety of percussive instruments and will perform together in concert.

This course will blend mental skills development (e.g. goal setting, meditation), nutrition education with fitness activities.

This course is designed to give the student firsthand experience with the topics of motion, dynamics, energy, waves, electricity and magnetism.

This course is designed to give the student firsthand experience with the topics of motion, forces, energy, waves and electricity.

This is an introductory survey of physics designed for honors students who have done well in Chemistry I and are taking Honors Mathematics.

This course is designed for students for whom the field of science and engineering may represent an area of career interest.

This course explores the specific techniques and repertoire for piano in a Masterclass format; i.e. through individual practice and frequent performance for the class and instructor.

Students will act as a small theatre company and experience the total theatrical event including producing, budget issues, rehearsal schedules, acting, directing, stage management, theatre house management, design and technical crew.

This course focuses on the development of dramatic scripts using playwriting techniques, creative writing techniques, and researching and developing sources.

This U.S. History course begins with the pre-Columbian populating of North America and concludes through the American Civil War.

The course includes the study of exponential and logarithmic functions, transformations, trigonometric functions, advanced algebra, vectors, polar coordinates, complex numbers, matrices and limits.

course includes the study of exponential and logarithmic functions, transformations, trigonometric functions, advanced algebra, vectors, polar coordinates, complex numbers, matrices and limits.

Topics in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, environmental science, and earth science are addressed within the framework of aviation science, aeronautics, and aerodynamics.

This course is an introduction to the basic techniques of printmaking. Linocut, woodcut, silkscreen, etching, mixed media, and stencil printing will be explored.

Students will explore linocut, woodcut, silkscreen, etching, mixed media, and stencil printing.

The goal of accelerated Psychology is to introduce students to the general field of psychology as well as concepts from content areas including, but not limited to neuroscience, behavioral psychology, social psychology, and clinical psychology.

This course engages students in theological reflection on the mystery of the relational dynamic inherent in self, others, and God.

This course introduces students to psychology, the scientific study of the mind and human behavior, and how it intersects with our understanding of faith, spirituality, and religion.

Much of the class time will be spend in teams designing, constructing, and analyzing functional robots programmed to perform some simple tasks.

Rowing for fitness will introduce students to indoor rowing as a lifelong fitness option and sport.

This course explores the relationship between science and religion beginning with an inquiry into two important controversies, the Galileo affair and Darwin’s theory of evolution.

This course is an introduction to sculpture focusing on technique and use of a variety of materials including wood, metals, clay, and found objects.

The SJP Chorus prepares a wide range of choral repertoire, including classical music, folk songs, jazz, spirituals and world music.

This course provides students with structured opportunities for meaningful community service and for personal reflection on the lessons gained from it.

The course examines the notion of justice in human culture. Students explore the current social issues we encounter in our local, national, and global societies, and the Catholic Church's response as articulated in her formal Social Teachings.

Students will also explore poetic forms and devices for lyric writing.

Students will develop their interpersonal, presentational and interpretive skills as well as study the cultures and practices of the diverse Spanish-speaking world.

This course introduces the student to the Spanish language by developing their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills at a faster pace.

This course introduces the student to the Spanish language by developing their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Students work to develop interpersonal, presentational and interpretive skills.

As students learn grammar and vocabulary, they will apply the target language in “real life” situations.

This advanced course emphasizes aural/oral communication and the grammatical essentials of the Spanish language throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

In this intermediate course, students will continue to develop language and cultural competencies by focusing on communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities.

Students will develop language and cultural competencies by focusing on communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities.

Students will continue to develop an appreciation and understanding of the products, practices and perspectives of the Spanish-speaking world.

In this course, the student refines his oral expression, utilizing all of the grammatical points of the previous three years of study.

In this intensive course, the student excels at oral expression as well as written compositions in the target language.

Students will learn the historical roots of spirituality as well as practical application of those traditions.

Emphasis of the course will be on applied problems in business, psychology, biology and the social sciences.

Topics will include measures of central tendency and variation, probability, binomial distributions, the central limit theorem, linear regression, chi-square.

This course is open to all violin, viola, cello and string bass players who are at the intermediate or advanced level.

Beginning Strings class is for those students who wish to start learning violin, viola or cello, and for those students who had some experience in the past but would like to start fresh.

Sports may include basketball, soccer, ultimate disc, volleyball, team handball, floor hockey, and other new games.

Sports may include basketball, soccer, ultimate disc, volleyball, team handball, floor hockey, and other new games.

Students will then explore significant church developments, emerging from the early Church Fathers through the hierarchical Medieval Period, which ultimately give rise to theological controversies that call out for ecclesial reform.

The study of the Holocaust uses a wide spectrum of historical and contemporary sources to examine where the holocaust came from and how such tragedies can be avoided by future generations.

The theme of ecclesial reform culminates in a careful examination of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and its transformative impact on the church's current understanding of itself and its presence in the world.

Students will explore the Linux operating system, animation, robotics, artificial intelligence, or advanced programming techniques.

Students will study the major institutions of American government and the American political system.

This course will survey the key political, social, economic and military events from the Colonial Era to the present.

This course will cover the key political, social, economic and military events from the Colonial Era to the present.

America from the Colonial Era to the present is examined in this course. Students will learn to interpret and generalize historical data.

This full-year elective is designed to facilitate an understanding of modern, industrialized warfare. The phenomenon of war itself is examined primarily from the standpoint of warriors who fight on both sides of conflict, families and friends who suffer loss of loved ones, non-combatant victims caught in the crossfire, and the political and military leaders responsible for decision making relative to war and peace.

This course explores the teachings and practices of non-Christian religious traditions from the east (Buddhism, Taoism and Shintoism) as well as the west (Judaism and Islam)

Students will learn and practice postures to enhance flexibility, strength and relaxation.

This course will include an in-depth examination of all animal groups including the microscopic single-celled organisms which gave rise to our great kingdom.