In the past few years, HHS has continuously offered students more AP Classes. Next year is no exception, with AP Cybersecurity and AP Art History being offered beginning next fall.
Cybersecurity
Fred Major will teach AP Cybersecurity alongside his computer Science courses. He said the course will focus on how the Internet and computer systems themselves work, rather than focusing on software.
This AP course is not only new to HHS, but is also new nationwide. Only 500 schools in the nation are offering AP Cybersecurity next school year. The College Board asked Major if he could pilot teach this class in the 2025 school year. Pilot teaching isn’t new to Major, as he piloted AP Computer Science Principles in 2015.
College Board is also introducing a new career focused program that leads to credentials and college credit for students who want to prepare for their career. AP Cybersecurity class is the first career kickstart class offered in this program. These classes are designed for people who do not plan to attend college, but can be taken by anyone.
This course offers an AP Exam as well as a certification exam, CompTIA.
“The idea is that if you take this class, get the certification, and don’t go to college, that’s OK because you have this industry certification and you can go get a job that pays good money,” Major said.
Next year, College Board will release another class intended to follow this one. It will elaborate on the curriculum in this class and provide new information about computer functionality.
“College Board has suggested that their goal is for students to eventually take Networking in 10th grade, security in 11th grade and do an internship in 12th grade,” Major said.
The curriculum will include topics on network security, configuring a LAN (local area network) and taking a deeper dive into the internet itself regarding addressing and protocols.
This course will incorporate teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills in order to enhance skills that young adults will need in the real world.
Major believes this class is very beneficial and will help a lot of students learn important things about computers, especially in today’s generation.
“It’s a growing area of concern, not only being able to write good code, but understanding how computers actually work,” Major said. “We take for granted how computers and technology just work themselves, but we have to have people who maintain the structure.
AP Art History
AP Art History is a history class that uses 250 different pieces of art to walk through history chronologically. Students will research, discuss, read and write about art, artists, interpretations of art and art making, according to the College Board course description.
Leslie Anastasia will teach this course in addition to AP Language. AP Art history has never before been offered at Homewood High School, however, the class has been offered through the College Board since 2015.
Students will memorize the context, form and features of the pieces as well as their impacts on culture and the culture displayed through the piece itself.
The class will include lectures and discussions about art and art philosophy. Students will also engage hands-on, as 40% of the class is based on architecture. Anastasia received a LEGO grant that will allow students to build and deepen their understanding of buildings and structures discussed in the class.
Anastasia needed to obtain an art certification since this is the first year of HHS offering this course.
“This is my first year teaching it, so I will be learning with [the students] this year,” Anastasia said. “Most of my background is in European Art.”
The AP Art History course is one of the smaller, niche AP classes. Anastasia has received help and resources from many teachers who have offered to help her jumpstart her resources.
“I’m amazed at how generous AP Art History teachers are out in the world,” she said. “They have shared so many resources with me.”
The AP Exam will consist of a multiple-choice section as well as six essays based on the 250 pieces of art that students studied. Anastasia said these essays will feel a lot different from those in her AP Language class.
“The essays are very dry,” Anastasia said. “One of the things I was excited about is the essays are so black and white compared to the nuance in AP Lang.”
The class will count as a fine art elective, and there won’t be homework given to students. The only outside work would include continuing to memorize the pieces students have learned in class that week.
“It’s going to be student-dependent based on how their brains work,” Anastasia said.
The class is available for 10th through 12th graders to take; however, Anastasia encourages only 11th and 12th graders to take the class because she believes they will have a better chance of passing. Juniors have the opportunity to take AP Language, which would be beneficial for the writing portion of the AP Art History. They could also potentially take AP European History, which would also help as well.
