Difference between revisions of "School subjects"
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Chemistry involves writing single or pairs of letters that reprensent elements, sometimes putting numbers next to them that mean things. Often times you will calculate numbers. Later on, you will learn how to connect letters with lines and decorate them with pairs of dots. One part of chemistry involves a great deal of delta G. In chem lab, be prepared to burn things, weigh other things, and drip colorless liquids into other colorless liquids and measure their temperature or pH. | Chemistry involves writing single or pairs of letters that reprensent elements, sometimes putting numbers next to them that mean things. Often times you will calculate numbers. Later on, you will learn how to connect letters with lines and decorate them with pairs of dots. One part of chemistry involves a great deal of delta G. In chem lab, be prepared to burn things, weigh other things, and drip colorless liquids into other colorless liquids and measure their temperature or pH. | ||
| − | At the Academy, students are required to take | + | At the Academy, students are required to take [[General Chemestry I]] (3 hours) and [[General Chemestry II]] (4 hours) with their respective labs (1 hour each). |
==Physics== | ==Physics== | ||
Revision as of 00:54, 25 December 2004
Math and Science are obviously central to the Academy curriculum, but several other subjects are required as well.
Contents
English
Academy students are required to complete four semesters of English classes. Two composition courses (English 111 and 112), an Oral Communications course, and a literature course of their choice.
In English 111, one may expect to read quite a few essays demonstrating the type of essay you are to write. You will be required to write personal profiles, philosophy papers, research papers, and memoirs. I'm actually just doing this by memory, so someone, fix this.
Math
Students must take Precalulus, Calculus I, Calculus II, all four hour courses. If you want to continue in math, you may also take Differential Equations, Multivariate Calculus, or Discrete Math.
Biology
The Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Computing requires that General Biology or an equivalent be taken by all students. For the Discoverers and Voyagers, either one other biology course such as General Zoology, General Botany, or General Microbiology OR a second computer programming course. The proposed curriculum changes for the class of 2007 requires that students take General Biology and General Microbiology.
In General Zoology, students learn a great amount of information from one of Northwest Missouri State University's best professors Dr. Peter Kondrashov. Lectures start from learning about the different types of cells which includes information about organelles and how they interact. Dr. K then moves onto Kingdom Protista, telling about the phyla, subphyla, and organisms under this kingdom. After going quite in depth about the Kingdom Protista, the professor starts into the Kingdom Animalia. Information ranging from the smallest animals to the biggest mammals is covered. Students in General Zoology learn the different phyla, subphyla, classes, etc. They also learn different information about specific animals in each phyla such as leeches in Class Hirudinea or tapeworms in Phylum Platyhelminthes or dogs in Class Mammalia of Superclass Gnathostoma of Subphylum Vertebrata of Phylum Vertebrata. Along with the lecture, lab is a very fun and interesting component to the course. Lab meets once a week and spans two hours each week. Since lab does not meet very often, lab and lecture often are not about the same topics. Lab is composed of looking at different protists and microscopic animals through microscopes, numerous animals preserved in glass jars, and eventually animals dissected by the students. Students generally work in pairs during the dissection and it is handy to have a box of gloves especially during the fetal pig unit (which spans three weeks). General Zoology sounds like a lot of work, but for people interested in biology rather than computer programming, it is a great class to take.
Chemistry
Chemistry involves writing single or pairs of letters that reprensent elements, sometimes putting numbers next to them that mean things. Often times you will calculate numbers. Later on, you will learn how to connect letters with lines and decorate them with pairs of dots. One part of chemistry involves a great deal of delta G. In chem lab, be prepared to burn things, weigh other things, and drip colorless liquids into other colorless liquids and measure their temperature or pH.
At the Academy, students are required to take General Chemestry I (3 hours) and General Chemestry II (4 hours) with their respective labs (1 hour each).
Physics
Physics essentially deriving and using equations describing the real world. Students typically take two semesters of Fundamentals of Classical Physics during their senior year. Both of these are include four hours of lecture and one hour of lab.
Computer Science
Computer Science at Northwest is of variety that produces assembly line programmers. Sure, they're the factory workers of the day, but where's the fun?
Let's start with the basic classes:
Programming I: In Java I you learn how to make small arrows hop around a square island and avoid the nets and water, lest they die. This is called Jeroo, a Java program written by a Northwest Graduate, and it is supposedly used throughout the country to teach Java syntax. Unfortunately, it fails to do so. When you actually start playing with a Java IDE, you're confused. Wait, I have to make separate files to do methods? Why is the syntax so terribly different from what we learned in Jeroo? Apparently the idea of syntax here is if-else statements, while loops, and unnecessarily capitalization, because that's about the extent of the similarity. So about half-way through the semester, you switch to the BlueJ IDE, and learn how to click buttons. You learn very simple program structure, and then the semester's over.
Visual Basic for Applications: Kill yourself now.
Fortran: OLD!!
Programming II: Everything worth learning in Java I is covered in the first two weeks of Java II. If you so choose, you can skip over Java I and take Java II. It will mean a little rushing to learn an IDE at the beginning of the year, but if you're at all versed in how to click buttons, you should be fine. Your time in Java II will largely be devoted to reimplementing stuff that's already been written, but more specifically, giving you entire classes of one-lined code. All of the projects are known to have been completed in under six hours, and most of the tests have test banks on the site that you can study. You learn a few words (like polymorphism and inheritance), as well as some basic data structures that you can teach yourself in a day with the glibc, and then just learn a few more words and implement in Java style.
Data and File Structures: Data and File Structures is a continuation in the line of Programming I, Programming II, etc.
History/Humanities
America - A Historical Survey is required, plus a humanities course. Often the humanities course is taken during May Session.
Others
In addition to the above, students are expected to take Introduction to American Government and Politics, Academy Seminar and Colloquium.
