A New English IV

In place of the traditional English IV course, the English department has developed a series of one-semester capstone courses for seniors. Course offerings focus on relevant, high-interest topics, themes, genres, and authors, and include a variety of traditions and points of view. Teacher Missy Gates is offering "Science in Science Fiction" this fall. Her students are currently reading From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, which includes four chapters about the construction of a cannon to launch a projectile to the moon. Mrs. Gates challenged the students to comb through the descriptions in the chapters, throw out the ideas in the book that were discarded by the characters, and draw a schematic of the cannon that was ultimately designed.