New Courses Coming To Darien High School Next Year

DARIEN, CT — Students at Darien High School will have three new courses to choose from next year following unanimous approval from the Board of Education this week.

The board voted to bring astronomy, American Sign Language 3, and cybersecurity classes to DHS for the 2025-2026 school year. The courses were previously approved by the board's curriculum committee.

Astronomy

Department coordinators briefly went over each course for the board on Tuesday.

Science Department Coordinator Christian Dockum said the astronomy course will be a STEM/elective graduation credit for grades 11 and 12.

"This, along with the anatomy and physiology class that we introduced and implemented this year, were really the two highest interest courses we had when we polled our students about two years ago when we started the process of making these proposals for both of these two classes," Dockum said.

The course will give students "a comprehensive study of our universe and our place within it."

Some equipment from DHS's earth science class can be repurposed and utilized within astronomy, Dockum said when asked why there's no need to purchase a telescope right now.

"We do have some materials we can use starting off, and certainly we'd be looking at what kind of improvements we can make on those materials as we continue to build the course in the future," Dockum added.

Time could be used early in the morning or later at night to make some observations in the night sky as part of the course, Dockum said. Students could even take a field trip to the planetarium at New Canaan High School for "cross-curricular work" with a neighboring school, Dockum said.

American Sign Language 3

This course follows the sequence of the ASL program at DHS, and will be worth one credit at a 300 level for grades 11 and 12, according to K-12 World Languages Coordinator Scott Webster.

"ASL continues to generate strong interest among students who are enthusiastic about this unique language program," Webster said, noting the course will not affect full-time employee numbers.

Next year, Webster said the department plans to propose ASL 4, which would allow students to complete a full four-year sequence in the language to mirror the school's other language offerings.

Cybersecurity

The half-year cybersecurity course will replace an outdated computer animation class, and it will be available as a STEM/elective graduation credit at the 300 level for grades 10, 11 and 12.

The course will "provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, principles, and practices related to cybersecurity in order to safeguard against cyber threats," and it will complement a half-year computer science class, according to STEM/Tech Education Department Coordinator Greg Darin.

"There's definitely a career need for the cybersecurity course. According to Forbes.com, a recent study in the past year or two shows about 4 million available jobs in cybersecurity, and they expect that to increase by about 30 percent over the next 10 years," Darin said. "It will help prepare students not only for maybe a career in cybersecurity, but any computer science higher education program will have components of cybersecurity."

Tuesday's Darien Board of Education meeting was streamed on Zoom and Darien TV79, and is now available to watch on-demand here.