As course registration quickly approaches, our annual staff editorial comes up.

Equipping students with hidden gems of past course-takers, ensuring diverse decisions and time-saving. Taking from the experiences others have been through before, this guide aims to help you make choices by providing backgrounds on various classes.

Within tapping into the collective knowledge of those who have taken these courses, and tailoring to one’s own aspirations. The Satellite staff is here for support and recommends readers add their own suggestions in the comments.

Elective/Arts/Culinary Courses

Leadership and Student Helpdesk – Ava Yoblonski

Leadership: In this course, you’ll explore various leadership styles and their how they apply to your life or lives as a whole. The curriculum covers analyses of good and bad leaders, enabling you to see differences between effective and ineffective leadership qualities. Furthermore, the class encompasses engagement in school activities that are similar to leadership roles. The teacher, Mr. Morgan, consistently introduces fun challenges, making the learning experience well-rounded. Additionally, a bracket-style contest determines the greatest leader of all time, allowing students to research and debate their chosen leaders. This course is very engaging and fun for those aspiring to hold leadership positions in their future careers.

Student Helpdesk: The student helpdesk, isn’t in the course guide, but requires students to contact Amanda Devries or receive a referral from an engineering teacher. The application process involves a brief interview. Despite this initial step, the class offers many learning opportunities. Students interested in technology can explore activities such as 3D printing and understanding how to fix a Chromebook. Personally, I’ve done graphic design for various sports, courtesy of the tech team’s reach. Additionally, I’ve assisted veterans in virtualizing their presentations, so they live on for generations. You use tech in real-world situations, which is very impactful for the future. Some students have even represented the class in the news about AI. Ultimately, this course is highly beneficial for those looking at tech-focused careers or seeking to boost their resumes. 

Ceramics 1 – Brianna Ankerson 

Ceramics 1: I recommend this class because the class provides many different forms and ways of working with clay. You’re given many different opportunities to incorporate education and things you’re passionate about into your work. Not only does the class create many great connections through artwork with your peers, but the teacher is fantastic and amazing at showing her passion for creating artwork.

Drawing 101 – Riley Goodson

Drawing 101: A simple course that can be a nice elective for de-stressing. If the 0.5 Fine Art credit needs to be satisfied, this is a great and easy way to do so. Some assignments include sketch planning, charcoal, oil pastels, chalk pastels, color pencil, etc. I’ve made many friends in that class, and overall you just get to be expressive.

Culinary Essentials – Hayden Ahlswede

I recommend this class because if you enjoy food that is the class for you. One thing to keep in mind is that it’s not all about cooking, it also involves learning new skills and cooking methods that you can bring into new recipes.

Science/Health/Development Courses

Chem-Study and Health Careers 1 – Jack Morrissey 

Chem-Study: Chem Study is the advanced chemistry class that teaches similar material at a much faster rate. I recommend this class because the increased learning rate cuts out the unnecessary detail that I thought made the class more engaging. The difficulty does pick up after the first quarter and homework can be overwhelming, but if you have an interest in chemistry, this class is a must take.

Health Careers 1: Health Careers 1 is an introduction to the world of medicine. The class features guest speakers from a variety of fields, hands on lessons, and a job shadow opportunity where you can shadow a medical professional. I recommend this class to anyone with even a slight interest in medicine, because it gives a realistic image of what working in the medical field is like. The workload can seem imposing and much of the class requires frequent studying, but it’s worth it for the experience that you get.

Animal Behavior – Morgan Grosek

Animal Behavior: I would recommend this class if you like animals and want to learn more about them. This class is great because you get to learn all about why animals act the way they do. This is also a great fun and interesting class if you are looking to fill your schedule for senior year, barely any homework. 

Child Development – Nevayah Gordon

Child Development: I recommend this class because it helps you learn more about the emotional development of children and ways to guide children through their emotions. It also allows you to learn how to read a child’s non-verbal behavior to see how they are feeling. It’s a great class if you want to work with children in the future!

Infant & Toddler Development – Kaitlyn Spilski

Infant & Toddler Development: I recommend this class because It teaches you life lessons and how to take care of a child. It also teaches how to prepare for your future. I recommend this class because of the teacher. I think she lays out the semester with not only very important things but with fun projects that have you show your knowledge, work with others and have fun.

Social Studies Courses

Global issues of the 21st century – Teagan Goodson

Global issues of the 21st century: I recommend this class because of the teacher, Mr. Funk, and because of how interesting the topics are. There are many different learning opportunities and different types of interactive assessments such as debates, current events, group projects, etc.

American Government & International Politics – Hayden Ahlswede

American Government & International Politics: I recommend this class because it is a way to get your government and politics social studies credit. The teacher, Mrs. Hoff, teaches the class smoothly, works great with the students and is willing to have a little fun in between. We go into topics of other countries’ governments and how they rule their land; including, America, Russia, UK and more! 

American Studies – Riley Goodson

American Studies: American Studies is an informative yet challenging course. This course is English and Social Studies combined. It ties in elements of history with literature written from the time and also allows analysis of specific events in history. Some common assignments are book talks, paragraph analysis, and a few hands-on projects. It is definitely a more challenging course, and the workload is on the greater side but is very insightful. Because of this, I would recommend this as a Sophomore year to Senior year class. It is worth 1 credit for both Social Studies and English, knocking out 1 ⁄ 3 of the total Social Studies credits and ¼ of the total English credits needed to graduate.