Five new courses have been approved by the Board of Education to be added to the South curriculum in the 2014-15 school year.

According to Cameron Muir, associate principal of curriculum and instruction, the purpose of new courses is to set an academic foundation for students who are interested in certain fields.

“Typically, when we add a new course, it’s based upon the perception of student interest, and sometimes it’s based upon the idea that there is a need out there [for it],” Muir said.

The courses include AP Government, Honors Astronomy, Investment Strategies and two new Project Lead The Way classes (see story above).

The Social Studies Department has added an additional advanced placement course, AP United States Government and Politics. This course is intended to allow students to expand upon their interest in United States history and is similar to the current Political Science class.

“AP Government is a way to learn about how our government works nowadays, so it’s something you can apply to life,” junior Evan Ren, who will take AP Government next year, said.

David Kane, current political science teacher, will teach AP Government. According to Kane, students will be able to become more involved with politics through hands-on projects.

“My goal for the class would be that when my students leave, they are going to be more active citizens than the day they started [this class],” Kane said.

The Science Department has decided to add an Honors Astronomy class and will allow freshmen in the STEM Learning Community to take Honors Physics.

The Honors Astronomy class is a laboratory course. According to the Glenbrook Course Handbook, students will first explore the movement of the sun, moon and planets. At the end of the course, students will be asked to theorize about the origin, shape and ultimate destiny of the universe by creating presentations.

“We are going to give students the option of taking Astronomy at either the regular level or the honors level,” Jeff Rylander, instructional supervisor of the Science Department, said. “There will be some additional assignments and projects that will be done that will make it honors level.”

The Consumer Science Department has added a new business course, Investment Strategies.

According to the Course Offerings handbook, the course will focus developing skills for wealth management. Some of the major topics covered to be covered include risk management, career awareness, long-term financial security and selection of investments.

Business teacher Brian Whalen said students enjoyed a simulated stock market game in the Introduction to Business course. The Business Education Department has taken that feedback to create an entire semester course focusing on that aspect of entrepreneurship.

“The block scheduling does open up a little bit of room […], so obviously our goal is that we get as many students who are interested in those courses to take them,” Whalen said.