Overwhelmed with all of the information surrounding registration? Did not get the opportunity to attend the Course Fair during Laker Time? Maybe you missed that Prior Lake High School will be introducing many new classes for the 2024-2025 school year. 

Although departments like English and Business will not be offering any new courses, plenty of other departments are. The variety of new courses include Phone Photography, Diseases and What We Do About Them, Advanced Strength Training, Introduction to Dakota Language, US History CIS, Unified PE, Unified FACS, and AP Pre-Calc.

The concepts covered in each course range greatly, allowing students to explore a great number of topics that they may not have been able to in the past. Before the new courses were proposed and accepted, the idea began somewhere. For some, the spark was the recognition of a need or benefit filled by introducing a new class. 

Sparking the Phone Photography class was the art department’s realization that most people today have picture-taking devices, and students might enjoy learning how to better create with them. Along with that, the fact that it could simply be fun provided a push toward for creating the course.

After the Art department considered the idea of the Phone Photography class for around a year and formally proposed it, it was approved and curriculum plans could begin. 

The class will cover methods to carry out online editing and basic photography concepts that students can apply to their everyday lives when using personal devices. 

Mrs. Malmgren, who will be teaching the class, looks forward to finding out more about the devices’ capabilities and how she can teach in new ways. According to her, “Students should take this course if they are interested in photography and how to use their devices better.” 

Mr. Weis is another teacher in charge of a new course for the 2024-2025 year, and it will be a science elective called Diseases and What We Do About Them.

Ideas for this class started about two years ago, and it became a more serious consideration following the public health disaster of COVID-19 and the changes to the Minnesota State Science standards. Since the standards that changed related to public health, viruses, and bacteria, topics that Mr. Weis felt, “Were still important enough to offer at PLHS,” the idea for the course was presented and eventually approved.

Although Mr. Weis is most looking forward to discussing how public health departments and the immune system respond to different disease outbreaks, students may find other topics covered to be even more interesting. Students should take the class if they hope to work in healthcare or simply want to learn how diseases are handled at the community level and within the body.

In addition to Mrs. Malmgren and Mr. Weis, Mr. Gegenheimer will also be teaching another new class: Advanced Strength Training. He feels students who have already taken strength training and are ready for more of a challenge should take this class, along with student-athletes who would save time by training during the school day.

The Advanced Strength Training class has been an idea for the last couple of years because Mr. Gegenheimer, who has taught general-level Strength Training for 20 years, noticed difficulties that arose from students being able to take the class four times. He saw that kids taking the class for the fourth time were mixed with kids taking the class for the first time, and had very different skill levels. To him, it seemed that offering a more challenging version of the course could potentially solve the problem of the class struggling to meet the needs of both beginner lifters and advanced lifters at the same time.

The course will cover advanced exercises, programming, and techniques for training, but Mr. Gegenheimer also plans to, “Incorporate more sport-specific training, pre/post competition workouts, and recovery workouts.” He believes this class is a great opportunity now that it has been officially approved.

Another new course, Introduction to Dakota Language, will be offered this year to all students and may appeal to students interested in helping to revitalize the Dakota language and keep it alive. 

This class will offer students a chance to gain introductory knowledge of historical events that impacted the Dakota people, and because the Dakota language has a strong oral tradition, most assignments and instruction will not be in English.

Frederick De Leon, the American Indian Education Coordinator, is excited about the class’s potential because the opportunity was not available when he attended school. After talking with the Director of Equity, he found out that although the course had been an idea for a few years, it could not move forward due to low enrollment. This year, many hope that a growth in interest will allow the class to start up.

Different factors impact whether or not a class can move forward, including the type of class, how many sections there would be, and teacher availability. However, thirty or more requests for a class can almost guarantee that a class will run.

Overall, these are just a few of the new courses that are being offered, but not all will be able to run. For this reason, students interested in a class should sign up for it and encourage others to as well, so the class is given the best chance of running possible.

Each course was added for a reason, and if you are interested, the classes are worth looking into. To find more out about any classes you are interested in, feel free to check out Prior Lake High School’s course catalog, contact your counselor, or email the department chair of the class you are interested in.

For all the new course offerings, visit the PLHS Course Catalog!