While local school leaders have devoted much of their attention over the last several years on plans for improvements to Dowagiac Union High School, they have not forgotten about the importance of what goes on inside the facility.

During Monday’s meeting of the Dowagiac Union Schools board of education, Deputy Superintendent Dawn Conner joined other administrators and educators to introduce a slate of new courses that will be added to the high school curriculum for the 2017-2018 school year. The school will offer 21 new courses in English, science, social studies, language and other disciplines to students at the beginning of the fall semester in September.

The expanded course selection comes as part of the district’s transition to seven-period days at the middle and high schools. While the days themselves will be the same length of time as before, the individual class times will cut down to allow students to take another course, which will allow students to take additional electives while still fulfilling graduation requirements under the Michigan Merit Curriculum guidelines.

“This is an exciting time for our school district, across the board,” Conner said. “It’s exciting with the facilities and with some of the things we can do for some of our students.”

The new classes are focused on the school’s new “career pathways” program. The goal of the courses are to prepare students for whatever their future path may be after graduation, be it attending college or trade school, or entering the job market.

Presenting the new courses were several high school administrators, including English instructor Dustin Cornelius, science/math teacher Jennings Brosnan, special education director Sara Park, social studies teacher Mike Williams, and business instructor Kelley Gnodtke.

“There is not a staff member in the building that hasn’t helped toward our goal of implementing career pathways and helping design new courses,” said Union High Principal Kelly Millin.

Some new courses include:

• Journalism, which will also take over many of the responsibilities for the yearbook.

• Films and novels, which will focus on classic and modern day works.

• Speech and multimedia presentations, where the students will be required to give traditional speech’s as well as impromptu demonstrations, such as locker pump-up speeches. The course will also incorporate lessons on video and media.

• Astronomy, which will features lessons on the solar system, the lifecycle of stars, big bang cosmology and other subjects; lessons will include the use of a telescope.

• Robotics, which will teach students more about engineering using specialized software and computers as well as a 3D printer.

Other new courses include:

• Math applications and problem solving: Senior level math course that will satisfy the fourth-year math related requirement. Mathematical methods will use science, engineering, business, computer and industry. Projects are based on real life applications.

• Global perspectives: This course focuses on current events and issues as they affect the world. Focus will be on project based learning, different perspectives, and discussions.

• World cultures: Study of different cultures exploring food, language, people and travel. Focus will be on project based learning and discussion.

• Discovering Michigan: Exploration of Michigan from the perspective of a tourist.

Focuses will be on geography, activities and cultures, as well as on project based discussion.

• Introduction to culinary arts: Designed to prepare students for entry level employment in food industry. This class includes classroom instruction and food prep.

• Introduction to health related careers: This class will explore careers health-related pathways. All students will acquire CPR/First Aid certification.

• Nutrition and career pathways: This class will explore how nutrition affects the body and careers in this pathway.

• Spanish III/IV: Advanced study of reading, writing, speaking, listening and culture in the Spanish language.

• Accounting: This is a senior level course that will satisfy the fourth-year math related requirement. This class provides information on recording, summarizing, analyzing and interpreting financial data using methods used in the business world.

Also included in the seven-period day are several new business courses and outcome education program. The high school will also offer a new work based learning program, where students will be able to spend part of the school day working at an approved employer.

The middle school will also offer additional classes next year, which will include:

• Creative Builders: A STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) centered course that will focus on lessons on towers, bridges and roller coasters.

• Media literacy: A course in which students will create different kinds of media using social media websites to represent Dowagiac Middle School.