Advanced PE is for students who enjoy and desire additional physical activity. This elective course is designed to allow students to experience diverse lifetime activities. Emphasis will be placed on the continued development of student knowledge and basic skills in team sports, as well as offer students the opportunity to continue learning and developing their fitness levels through weight training, swimming and mobility stretching programs as programed by their teacher.

English I Honors is an accelerated course designed for those freshmen who have demonstrated and advanced understanding of English fundamentals. Students will read a number of novels, two plays, a large selection of short stories, and assorted poems. The works are also organized thematically by Bellarmine's core values: openness to growth/religion; intellectual competence; love; commitment to doing justice; and pursuit of leadership growth.

Honors students will move quickly from the basic freshman composition to compose longer five paragraph essays. Students are expected to compose four to five multiple paragraph essays per semester. Oral communication will be emphasized through whole class, small group, and formal presentations. Creative projects will also be offered throughout the year. All essays, discussions and projects will emphasize critical thinking skills and literary analysis.

As freshmen are coming of age and entering this new environment, they will study literature, finding similar characters who also struggle to discover their identity, to build new relationships, and to form and understand their values in a complex world. In reading and writing about characters and communities representing different voices, students will explore how to navigate their own identity and combat injustice. Ultimately, students will come to an affirmation of themselves and understand and celebrate diversity. Using their analysis of literature, students will begin by focusing on the basis of argumentation; writing four one paragraph essays in the first semester. During the second semester, each student will write two five-paragraph essays, introducing them to the structure that will serve as the basis of their writing throughout their Bellarmine English education.

Criteria for Honors & Advanced Placement (AP)

The English Department's Honors and AP Program is designed to provide a rigorous course of study for students who enjoy discussing and analyzing literature. Students are placed in English 1 Honors their freshman year based on a comprehensive reading and writing assessment. Informed Enrollment is employed for any honors/AP course beyond that, meaning that interested students must first solicit feedback from their current teacher, parents and counselor—and secure counselor approval—prior to enrollment.

Requirements

• 2 Semesters Freshman year (English 1 or English 1 Honors)
• 2 Semesters Sophomore year (English 2 or English 2 Honors)
• 2 Semesters Junior year (One year-long course, or two one-semester English electives)
• 2 Semesters Senior year (two one-semester English electives)

• Roster

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AP Physics 1 is a one-year algebra-based physics course. Topics covered in the class include kinematics, Newton's laws with gravity and circular motion; work, energy, power and momentum; torque and rotational motion; simple harmonic motion; electricity and circuits. In addition, you'll do hands-on laboratory work to investigate phenomena. A college-level textbook is used.

This course introduces students to the world of plant biology and diversity. The relationships between plant life and human society are highlighted as well as the role of plants in medicine, food, textile and industrial production. Topics also include plant structure, function, growth processes, reproduction, ecology and genetics. Students will have ample opportunities to develop hands-on lab skills in the school garden.

Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism AP is a one-year calculus-based physics course. Mechanics topics covered include: One and two-dimensional Kinematics; Kinetics (Newton's Laws of Motion); Work-Energy; Impulse-Momentum; and Rotational Kinematics, Kinetics, Energy, and Momentum. Electricity & Magnetism topics covered include: Electrostatics, Capacitor and Dielectrics, Electrical Circuits, Magnetic Fields including the Biot-Savart law, and Electromagnetism with an emphasis on Maxwell's Equations.

The Marine Science course is an introduction to Oceanography and Marine Biology. The first semester focuses on Oceanography with an emphasis on the formation, structures and physical environments of the Earth's oceans. In the second semester, the course content will shift to Marine Biology and the study of the unique organisms of the marine environment. The course will highlight the environmental, ecological and evolutionary relationships between the life forms in the sea and the marine biome. The history of ocean exploration as well as recent discoveries in the marine sciences will be presented throughout the course. This course will also examine the effects of human activity on the ocean environment. Supplemental course work will include off-campus field trips and independent research projects.