Courses at Harker

Created by the Harker Podcast Network, Courses at Harker serves to help students make more informed decisions about the courses they take. The episodes, featuring interviews with the teachers of the courses, should provide students with a better understanding of the various courses at Harker Upper School. Course Description for MIA: The course follows two tracks with the purpose of preparing students to excel in critical thinking and research. The first track is a seminar-style discourse on current events. Due to the variability of modern international affairs, the curriculum will change to cover international issues as they occur. In order to build skills to understand complicated international events students will be instructed in media literacy. Students will also use international news sources to examine events with diverse critical tools ranging from scholarly journals to books. The second track of the class works on developing research skills in order to write a college-level term paper. Students will choose their own international issues and write a policy analysis and proposal on that topic. During the semester, students will be instructed on research strategies and build skills to best leverage diverse resources. The end result of this track is a deeply researched original piece of scholarship. This class prepares students for the expectations of a seminar style class in college in addition to providing students with the experience of writing a college-level term paper. Course Description for MIT: H-MIT is a seminar-style discourse on complex ongoing international topics and philosophical questions with the objective of preparing students to excel in critical thinking and research. The content of the class will flex but will focus on multidisciplinary areas of ongoing debate over issues of the human condition, economic conduct and ethics. For example, students will engage in a deep dive into the practical and ethical questions about affirmative action, merit and defining intelligence. In order to build skills to understand complicated multidisciplinary issues, students will be instructed in epistemological systems and how to understand and test justified beliefs. Students will interact with diverse sources from scholarly journals to podcasts and learn critical philosophical tools from skepticism to casuistry. The class will also develop research skills in order to write brief argumentative college-level papers. Prerequisites: Completion of grade 11 history requirement and departmental approval. UC approved. Interview with: Mr. Halback Produced by: Evan Cheng