BY ELLA DEAN

Every year MHS sees the disappearance as well as the addition of certain classes. This year in particular has seen rise to a few new courses that are offered to students. Some were offered in the past and are now able to return due to significant interest shown by students.

For example, AP Chemistry is back and bubbling! The college-level course designed to let students further their study and explore their interest of chemistry while earning college credit is in session again because of popular demand. It has always been offered, but last year low enrollment resulted in its suspension. With AP Chem back in action, teacher Amary Seck says, “We are happy to run it, as it is an important course we cannot afford not to have.” Juniors and seniors who have taken a year of Chemistry are eligible to take the class, which focuses on Atomic Structure, Stoichiometry, Kinetics and Equilibrium, Acids and Bases, Thermodynamics and Electrochemistry. Seck chose to teach this class because he enjoys “the challenges it presents, developing students’ problem solving skills, and preparing them for a career in science.” He points out that Chemistry is called the central science, “readying students for life and any science discipline.” Piper Martz ‘12 shares that “Mr. Seck makes such a difficult subject so interesting!”

Kevin Klein’s Art History classes accept students from all grades, but seem to have attracted mostly older students. The curriculum concentrates on worldwide architecture, painting, sculpture and ceramics dating from the beginning of time to the modern day. The focus is on reading, discussion, writing, games and field trips, rather than creating art. Since the mid-1980s, Art History has been sporadically taught at MHS. The Art History options currently include a half or full year, regularly paced curriculum, College Art History, in which students have the opportunity to receive college credit through Iona College, and AP Art History, offered for the first time this year.

“The class is taught in such a way that every single thing we learn about is interesting,” AP Art History student Catherine Kernie ‘13 said. Commenting on the ranges of classes, Klein concluded that “offering three different options like this in one class makes things a little bit complicated, but we thought it was important to do in order to meet the students’ varied needs.”

Klein has two prevailing reasons for teaching these courses. The first is that a common theme in MHS graduate feedback for the art program is that the only flaw was the lack of a more analytical aspect of art history. The graduates’ observations ultimately led to the creation of the course. “There are students who are interested in art and history but who are not comfortable making art for a range of different reasons,” Klein said. “We wanted to offer something in the department that could appeal to this group of students.” Klein has received positive feedback from his previous students who have looked back on their 2008-09 Art History class at MHS. One student described how the class had enriched his trip to Italy due to the extensive amount of art he had studied. Another former student reflected on his experience and told Klein that he was the only person in his art history class at art school to receive an ‘A’ because of his MHS Art History education, embracing having been taught how to write a ‘formal analysis’ of the subject. Klein exclaims, “I get more positive feedback [from Art History graduates], even years afterwards, than I do for any other course I’ve taught at MHS.”