What We Learn

Academic Courses at the Ecole d’Humanité

The Ecole d’Humanité offers a rich selection of academic courses structured around engaging themes. Here’s a taste of the courses we are offering in the US system this term.

US Academic Courses

AP® Physics C: Mechanics

This is a calculus-based, college-level physics course, especially appropriate for students planning to specialize or major in one of the physical sciences or engineering. Students cultivate their understanding of physics through classroom study, in-class activity, and hands-on, inquiry-based laboratory work as they explore concepts like change, force interactions, fields, and conservation. Students must be enrolled in Calculus or have completed it previously to sign up in this course.

AP® Environmental Science

The AP Environmental Science (APES) course is designed to engage students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships within the natural world. The course requires that students identify and analyze natural and human-made environmental problems, evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and examine alternative solutions for resolving or preventing them. Environmental science is interdisciplinary, embracing topics from geology, biology, environmental studies, environmental science, chemistry, and geography. Students must have completed Algebra 1 before signing up for this class.

AP® German Language & Culture

Students in this advanced German Language course work on improving text comprehension, developing a wide range of vocabulary, working on written and oral expression, and practicing grammar structures, spelling and punctuation where necessary. The aim is to be able to handle various native language text forms on AP German given topics: families and communities; personal and public identities; beauty and aesthetics; science and technology; contemporary life; and global challenges.

AP® Art

In AP® Art, students develop the skills that artists and designers use, and create a portfolio of work that is assessed to produce their AP® score. The three main course skills are: investigating materials, processes, and ideas; making works of art and design by practicing, experimenting, and revising; and communicating ideas about art and design.

Social Science: Ideologies and Identity

What is an ideology? What makes a concept an ideology, and not an idea? Are ideologies inherently good or bad? What are some ideologies that impact and shape your own thoughts, actions and decisions on a daily basis? In this class, we will try to answer these and other questions while looking at examples of ideologies in the past and today. Get ready to question and discuss what you think and why, in a respectful and open environment. Some examples of ideologies we’ll look at may include (but not be limited to) capitalism, anarchism, feminism and nationalism. This class is open to everyone but most appropriate for students who already have experience in social sciences and who enjoy reading political philosophy and social theory essays.

AP® Calculus

AP® Calculus AB is an introductory college-level calculus course. Students cultivate their understanding of differential and integral calculus through engaging with real-world problems represented graphically, numerically, analytically, and verbally and using definitions and theorems to build arguments and justify conclusions as they explore concepts like change, limits, and the analysis of functions.

English: What Was I Made For?

Do you have a favorite band or singer that speaks to you? That you listen to over and over again? That you come back to when you are happy or sad? Have you ever wondered why these are the songs that you relate to? If you have, then this course is for you. This course examines the ways in which artists, their songs and their listeners ask, “What was I made for?” or, in other words, how music lyrics and digital media (for example social media) help in the construction of identity and the self.

You will respond creatively and analytically to the texts in a range of ways using visual, oral and written skills (for example, you might be asked to draw in response to a song, advocate for your favorite artist or write analytical essays). You will have the opportunity to write your own song lyrics and create your own music videos. As music is very personal, the artists we will focus on will be up to you, but past artists that have been successful topics for study include:

Kendrick Lamaar
Billie Eillish
Lana Del Ray
Childish Gambino
Gorillaz
Phoebe Bridgers

Science: Introductory Physics

Get ready to dive into the world of physics through the exciting topic of mechanics! In this course, we'll explore how and why objects move. We'll cover the basics of forces, motion, and energy—learning what makes things speed up, slow down, and even fly! Through fun experiments and hands-on learning tasks, you'll discover the principles that explain everything from why a ball rolls to how a car works. By the end of the course, you'll see the world around you in a whole new way! This introductory-level course is most appropriate for all students.

Algebra 2

Algebra 2 is designed to start where Algebra 1 left off, and runs for both fall and winter terms. Students further explore functions by first reviewing linear, quadratic, and exponential functions in their multiple forms through the lens of inverses. Next, we continue to build on this knowledge of inverses to explore logarithms and how they are related to exponential functions. After logarithms comes polynomial functions and their graphs which wraps up the first term and sets us up for investigating rational functions, trigonometric functions, and modeling real life situations with geometry and functions in the winter term.

Science: Cell Physiology

James Murphy once described an organism as “versions of versions of others repeating”, relaying the nature of multicellular beings. In this course, we will explore how single cells are designed to survive and interact with their environments in order to construct complex networks that make up life. We do this through testing hypotheses through experimentation and careful reporting. This course is designed for 10th/11th graders to prepare them for courses like AP Environmental Science and AP Biology and/or those students who have completed Algebra I.

Algebra 1 - Warren

Algebra is a foundational course introducing abstract thought within mathematics. Students will explore linear, exponential, and quadratic functions graphically, pictorially, and algebraically using multiple forms of their representative algebraic equations. The methods introduced will allow students to navigate and manipulate expressions and equations and apply their newfound skills in context.

English: Reading Science through Charlie Chaplin

This thematic English course will explore, in depth, the life and work of silent comedy film maker Charlie Chaplin. After reading his autobiography we will analyze his major films, tour his Swiss home and museum, and write, film, and edit our own silent film skits in Chaplin's style. As this course is largely analytical, it is geared for those at a 10th grade reading level or higher.

AP® Pre-Calculus

AP® Precalculus is a College Board® course that builds upon a variety of algebraic and geometric concepts in preparation for the AP® Precalculus exam near the end of the school year and for a study of calculus. Students will compare and analyze linear, quadratic, higher order polynomial, exponential, logarithmic, rational, and trigonometric functions and apply their newfound skills to model phenomena in the real world. By manipulating functions using transformations, compositions, and inverses as well as proving trigonometric identities students will gain a bigger picture understanding of the universalities of algebraic relationships.

Math: Algebra 2

Science: Constructing Scientific Knowledge (CSK)

As Jeff Goldblum once succinctly put it in the 1990's sci-fi classic, Jurassic Park -- "Life, uh, finds a way". In this course, we will explore questions such as how do plants grow, how can we predict the weather and how evolution helps life thrive. We will do this by focusing on testing questions, collecting data and making fact-based conclusions. This course is designed for 8th/9th grade students to prepare them for later science subject courses like biology, chemistry, and environmental science.

AP® English Language and Composition

Students in AP® Language cultivate their understanding of writing and rhetorical arguments through reading, analyzing, and writing texts as they explore topics like rhetorical situation, claims and evidence, reasoning and organization, and style. Students prepare for a spring exam which includes multi-choice questions based on a series of short non-fiction texts as well as three essays which must be written within a prescribed timeframe: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument. Prerequisites for this course are expository writing and / or having successfully completed another AP® course.

Science: Developmental Biology

David Byrne once asked "Well, how did I get here?" and the answer is truly a once in a lifetime experience. We will explore the development of organisms from zygote to blastula to gastrula and beyond through experimentation and modeling. Along with that, we will go over the principles of heredity, genetics and stem cells that dictate how we become and maintain who we are..

AP® English Literature

This class involves closely examining works of imaginative literature (prose, poetry, and plays) with an eye to the intricacies of content, their style and structure, and their overall meaning in terms of theme, moral, and social and political commentary. Texts: Shakespeare's Macbeth, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorriane Hansbury, as well as an array of essays, short stories, and poems.

Science: Forests

A quarter of the Earth’s surface is covered by these beautiful, dynamic, and diverse ecosystems, but that footprint is shrinking at an alarming rate. We will explore the structure and function of forests, how they rise and fall, what they have to offer humanity, and at what cost. We will look at the variety of ways in which forests support not only the human population, but the Earth system as a whole. Are we destined to obliterate these abundant ecosystems, in order to keep up with humanity’s insatiable appetite for goods and services? Or are there viable ways to manage the Earth’s forest resources sustainably?

English: Memoir

How do memories shape our current perception of ourselves and reality? What is the truth? In this course these questions will help guide our exploration and analysis of memoir as a literary genre. Texts and discussions will focus around the way in which writers create meaning in their work through the use of literary devices such as tone, imagery, figurative language and structure. As well as formal essay writing, students in this course will also be required to write frequently about their own memories and experiences, culminating at the end of term in the form of their own “Memoir Portfolio.” Texts: “Beautiful Country” by Qian Julie Wang, “Born a Crime,” by Trevor Noah, “Black Boy” by Richard Wright, “Stories We Tell” (film) Sarah Polley as well as an array of essays and poems.

AP® European History

In this advanced-level history class, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from approximately 1450 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course also provides seven themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: interaction of Europe and the world; economic and commercial development; cultural and intellectual development; states and other institutions of power; social organization and development; national and European identity; and technological and scientific innovations. This course is appropriate for 11/12th grade students.

Pre-algebra

Pre-algebra provides the foundation for Algebra I as well as higher level high school mathematics courses and develops the skills needed to solve mathematical problems. We will explore integers, factors and multiples, rational and irrational numbers, powers and roots, ratios, rates, and proportions, percents, linear expressions, equations, inequalities, linear functions and models, 2- and 3-dimensional geometry, and statistics and probability. This class runs for both fall and winter terms.

English: Home Sweet Home, Literature that defines where we are from

This thematic English course explores stories of people, their home, and sometimes the need to leave it. This course will be part literature study as we read several novels, and part creative writing, as we express our own experiences and story. Suitable for any age student, but reading levels up to grade 9 are especially invited. Texts include The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and My Side of the Mountain by Jean George.

Co-Curricular Courses

Our co-curricular courses are offered in English and in German, and cover a wide array of topics.