Online Courses

This course is waitlist only at this time.

High school seats are limited. Apply early. 

This course is a critical examination of Apple’s development from a Silicon Valley garage operation to a company with unprecedented global reach, the richest and arguably most powerful company in the world today. We begin with a brief history of Apple in Silicon Valley, focusing on the making of the infamous “1984” MacIntosh Super Bowl video, and how this creates a discourse of digital utopianism and the belief that tech companies like Apple will create a new kind of computer user, one imaginatively anti-totalitarian. We set this against an alternative reading of “a people’s history” of Silicon Valley.

From here we do a deep dive into a series of case studies about the Apple supply chain and its production processes, focusing first on the mining for the many minerals that make Apple (and other) products and devices fire. We then turn to Foxconn factories in China. It was only when Apple moved its production to China in the 2000s, which coincided with the largest rural-urban human migration in history and the creation of “special economic zones,” that Apple began to dominate the global market share of computers and digital devices. Apple continually celebrates the genius of its design, its marketing, and its commitment to sustainability and yet, at the same time, because of the labor practices along its supply chain, it has ignited protest. We will study migrant work in factories, debate who is responsible for highly toxic working conditions and brutal labor conditions. We examine activist research groups, led by students and scholars, mostly based in Hong Kong and China, who challenged Apple through highly visible media campaigns and direct-action protest. We end with a consideration of the role of migrant worker poetry in writing and speaking against companies like Foxconn, Apple, and others.

This course is also interested in political, ethical, and philosophical issues related to how people around the world relate to digital devices that organize everyday life. Do we own them, or do they own us? What new forms of sociality, intimacy, power, voyeurism, and surveillance are they creating? What about privacy, data storage, and the massive energy consuming cloud storage facilities now being constructed around the world, including in North Carolina? Are we complicit in global systems of “digital slavery,” and, if so, what can be done about it? We will weigh these questions against the indisputable fact that companies like Apple, at the forefront of our global digital revolution, have transformed the way we communicate, share information, love, date, dream, and desire.

Is it still possible to think different?

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 6:00PM – 8:05PM (ET)

Exploration of historic and contemporary psycho-social and socio-cultural aspects of the African American sport experience. Examination of research that addresses the effect of physical differences, racial stereotyping, identity development, gender issues, and social influences on African American sport participation patterns. Analysis of sport as a microcosm of society with an emphasis on examining associated educational and societal issues.

Meetings: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30PM – 2:35PM

Prerequisite: AP Literature - Texts in this course are meant to challenge readers when it comes to analyzing and discussing more mature themes related to politics, identity, autonomy, etc. 

We often ask about the meaning of a story, but stories are not explanations. The whole story is the meaning. There is no plot. Similarly, a poem is a two-way mirror that evokes a reaction in the reader—a poem does not exist to be understood. In this class we will investigate how the choices we make as writers do more than propel a narrative forward. We will write short stories, personal narratives and poems, and we will workshop original work in groups and as a class. This course will explore the craft of the three forms but will also pay close attention to dynamic work that lies between or beyond these structures. Students will read and respond in class to a range of literary and creative texts. Students will also submit a final portfolio of creative work. Grades will be based on class participation, discussion, weekly writing prompts, workshop submissions and participation, and a revised final portfolio.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 12:30PM – 2:35PM (ET)

This course is waitlist only at this time. 

AP Biology (A test score of 4 or 5 is a strong indicator of being successful in NEUROSCI 202 - test scores will be reviewed prior to beginning coursework) 

Examines the functional organization and neurophysiology of the human central nervous system, with a neurobiological framework for understanding human behavior. Students learn the anatomy and function of neural systems in the brain and spinal cord that mediate sensation, motivate bodily action, and integrate sensorimotor signals with memory, emotion, and related cognitive faculties. Provides the foundation for neurological sciences, including understanding the impairments of sensation, action, and cognition that accompany injury, disease, or dysfunction in the human central nervous system

Asynchronous Online (***course requires students to stay on-task 5 days per week throughout the duration of the summer term)

This course provides the opportunity to tackle life’s toughest questions – How do I develop a meaningful life in an uncertain world? How am I going to make a place for myself? How can I add value? Where am I going? Why does everyone else have it figured out (spoiler – they don’t)? Develop Your Life leverages small group learning, self-reflection, exploration, and discussion to address these questions in a supportive and encouraging environment. This seminar is unique in that not knowing the answers is the point, and is encouraged. In an engaging environment, we step off the assembly line to intentionally think about our lives, where we want to go and how we get there.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 2:00PM – 4:05PM (ET)

This course is waitlist only at this time. 

This course will examine the intersection of humor and public policy from early Greece and Rome to the post-Trump era through original sources and scholarly critiques.  We will define humor, classify its many expressions as a policy tool, and read or view examples of each form.  We will follow the evolution from oral history to written newspapers, pamphlets and books to radio to tv to stand up comedy to memes. We will analyze the way in which political humor conveys information to citizens, forms and shapes opinions citizens may hold, and motivates political involvement and political action by citizens.  We will focus on the special use of satire in policy making, differentiate satire from libel and defamation, and apply the First Amendment freedom of speech standards to examples.  We will discuss times when political humorists used their skills to build national support rather than for satire and learn how American icons such as Uncle Sam and political party symbols came into being.  We will discern which humorists mirror a cultural norm and which directly challenge the established order.  We will evaluate the relationship of humor and social movements with particular attention to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter.  We will question why the latest two generations prefer news from humorists rather than actual newscasts or other news sources.  We will hypothesize what form post-Trump humor might take and why. 

Asynchronous Online 

This course is waitlist only at this time.

Asynchronous Online

See Spanish Placement Information to help choose the proper course given your background.   

This is a fourth-semester Spanish course for students who have successfully completed Spanish 203 or its equivalent. Spanish 204 includes a complete review of intermediate-level grammar, expansion of pronominal constructions, discourse connectors, and a range of conversational strategies. There is a further development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. With an emphasis on various writing tasks, students expand their range and sophistication of grammar usage and vocabulary and exposure to Spanish-speaking cultures. Students build comprehension and produce texts of greater extension and complexity. This course prepares students for 300-level Spanish courses through literary texts and other media (film, news, short essays, cartoons, etc.).

Monday - Friday: 12:30PM – 1:45PM (ET)