High School Curriculum
Corinth High School offers an extensive and comprehensive curriculum giving high school students many choices when it comes to exploring their interests, fulfilling graduation requirements and choosing a diploma pathway.
Additionally, students can be involved in visual and performing arts (band, theatre, chorus and band), varsity athletics (22 sports teams) and academic honors programs (National Honor Society, Mississippi Scholars Program and Mississippi Scholar Tech Master program).
Cambridge Assessment International Program
The Corinth School District uses the Cambridge Assessment International Program, a set of standards and assessments that are internationally benchmarked and align with the district’s mission to provide a world-class educational experience. Our district was the first district in the state of Mississippi to partner with Cambridge.
The Cambridge Assessment International Program values deep subject knowledge focusing on conceptual understanding rather than individual skills mastery. This approach facilitates higher order thinking skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, presentation, and independent research. Assessments emphasize short answer, essay, independent research projects, formal presentations and lab-based experiences. More than a million students participate in Cambridge programs in over 160 countries.
Cambridge qualifications are accepted by universities all around the world. Universities understand the demand of the Cambridge curricula and the rigor of the assessments.
Courses
English
IGCSE First Language English
This course helps students develop the ability to communicate clearly, accurately and effectively in both speech and writing. They learn how to employ a wide-ranging vocabulary, use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, and develop a personal style and an awareness of the audience being addressed. Learners are also encouraged to read widely, both for their own enjoyment and to further their awareness of the ways in which English can be used. This course also develops more general analysis and communication skills such as synthesis, inference, and the ability to order facts and present opinions effectively.
IGCSE English Literature
The course enables learners to read, interpret and evaluate texts through the study of literature in English. Learners develop an understanding of literal meaning, relevant contexts and of the deeper themes or attitudes that may be expressed. Through their studies, they learn to recognize and appreciate the ways in which writers use English to achieve a range of effects, and will be able to present an informed, personal response to the material they have studied. The course also encourages the exploration of wider and universal issues, promoting students’ better understanding of themselves and of the world around them.
AICE General Paper
Students will gain knowledge and understanding of issues in these three broad topic areas:
- Economic, historical, moral, political and social
- Science, including its history, philosophy, ethics, general principles and applications; environmental issues; technology and mathematics
- Literature, language, the arts, crafts, and the media.
Students will consider topics within local and international contexts. Through the study of these broad topic areas, students develop effective reading and writing skills in English. They work with information, ideas and opinions. They analyze and evaluate opinions and ideas. They also learn how to build an argument.
AICE English Language
This course provides learners with opportunities to make critical and informed responses to a wide range of texts. Learners will also demonstrate their ability to produce writing to specific briefs and for given audiences. The students will also develop a strong foundation in the study of linguistics, focusing on language change, child language acquisition, spoken language, English in the world, and language and the self.
AICE English Literature
Students will study a range of texts in the three main forms: prose, poetry and drama. Set texts are offered from a wide range of different periods and cultures. Learners will develop skills of reading and analysis of texts, and are encouraged to undertake wider reading to aid understanding of the texts studied. They will learn skills of effective and appropriate communication including the ability to discuss the critical context of texts.
Mathematics
IGCSE Math I and IGCSE Math II
An essential subject for all learners, Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics encourages the development of mathematical knowledge as a key life skill, and as a basis for more advanced study. The course aims to build students’ confidence by helping them develop a feel for numbers, patterns and relationships, and places a strong emphasis on solving problems and presenting and interpreting results. Students also gain an understanding of how to communicate and reason using mathematical concepts.
AICE Pure Math
• Problem solving: Mathematics is fundamentally problem solving and representing systems and models in different ways. These include:
– Algebra: this is an essential tool which supports and expresses mathematical reasoning and provides a means to generalize across a number of contexts.
– Geometrical techniques: algebraic representations also describe a spatial relationship, which gives us a new way to understand a situation.
– Calculus: this is a fundamental element which describes change in dynamic situations and underlines the links between functions and graphs.
– Mechanical models: these explain and predict how particles and objects move or remain stable under the influence of forces.
– Statistical methods: these are used to quantify and model aspects of the world around us. Probability theory predicts how chance events might proceed, and whether assumptions about chance are justified by evidence.
• Communication: Mathematical proof and reasoning is expressed using algebra and notation so that others can follow each line of reasoning and confirm its completeness and accuracy. Mathematical notation is universal. Each solution is structured, but proof and problem solving also invite creative and original thinking.
• Mathematical modelling: Mathematical modelling can be applied to many different situations and problems, leading to predictions and solutions. A variety of mathematical content areas and techniques may be required to create the model. Once the model has been created and applied, the results can be interpreted to give predictions and information about the real world.
Science
IGCSE Biology
Cambridge IGCSE Biology helps learners to understand the biological world in which they live and take an informed interest in science and scientific developments. Some of the content includes: characteristics and classifications of living organisms, plant nutrition, human nutrition, diseases and immunity and human influences on ecosystems.
IGCSE Chemistry
Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry helps learners to understand the technological world in which they live and take an informed interest in science and scientific developments. Some of the content includes: particulate nature of matter; atoms, elements and compounds; electricity and chemistry; chemical energetics; chemical reactions; the Periodic Table; metals; carbonates; and sulfur.
IGCSE Physics
Cambridge IGCSE Physics helps learners to understand the technological world in which they live and take an informed interest in science and scientific developments. Some of the content includes: general physics; thermal physics; properties of light and sound waves; electricity and magnetism; and atomic physics.
AICE Biology
The key concepts are:
• Cells as the units of life: A cell is the basic unit of life and all organisms are composed of one or more cells.
• Biochemical processes: Cells are dynamic structures within which the chemistry of life takes place. Biochemistry and molecular biology help to explain how and why cells function as they do.
• DNA, the molecule of heredity: Cells contain the molecule of heredity, DNA. DNA is essential for the continuity and evolution of life by allowing genetic information to be stored accurately, to be copied to daughter cells, to be passed from one generation to the next and for the controlled production of proteins.
• Natural selection: Natural selection acts on genetic variation and is the major mechanism in evolution, including speciation. Natural selection results in the accumulation of beneficial genetic mutations within populations and explains how populations can adapt to meet the demands of changing environments.
• Organisms in their environment: All organisms interact with their biotic and abiotic environment. Studying these interactions allows biologists to understand better the effect of human activities on ecosystems, to develop more effective strategies to conserve biodiversity and to predict more accurately the future implications for humans of changes in the natural world.
• Observation and experiment: The different fields of biology are intertwined and cannot be studied in isolation. Observation, enquiry, experimentation and fieldwork are fundamental to biology, allowing relevant evidence to be collected and considered as a basis on which to build new models and theories.
AICE Chemistry
The key concepts are:
• Atoms and forces: Matter is built from atoms interacting and bonding through electrostatic forces. The structure of matter affects its physical and chemical properties, and influences how substances react chemically.
• Experiments and evidence: Chemists use evidence gained from observations and experiments to build models and theories of the structure and reactivity of materials.
• Patterns in chemical behavior and reactions: Patterns in chemical behavior can be identified and used to predict the properties of substances. By applying these patterns, useful new substances can be designed and synthetic routes created.
• Chemical bonds: The understanding of how chemical bonds are made and broken by the movement of electrons allows us to predict patterns of reactivity. Appreciation of the strength of chemical bonds leads to the understanding of a material’s properties and its uses.
• Energy changes: The energy changes that take place during chemical reactions can be used to predict the extent, feasibility and rate of such reactions. An understanding is gained of why and how chemical reactions happen.
AICE Marine Science
The key concepts are:
• Observation and experiment: The scientific process of observation and enquiry, experimentation and fieldwork are fundamental to marine science.
• The science of water: Water is the key component of the oceans and an understanding of water at a molecular level underpins concepts such as salinity, pressure, density and the availability of key gases and nutrients, which in turn affect the distribution and abundance of living organisms.
• Forming and shaping the ocean floor and coastlines: Dynamic interactions between the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere lead to the development of diverse marine habitats, which are subject to ongoing changes.
• Organisms in their environment: The marine biome is the largest biome on the planet and contains many diverse habitats, within which organisms interact with the biotic and abiotic environment. The morphology, physiology and behavior of organisms are adapted to niches within these habitats. By understanding this diversity, students will have a greater appreciation of the marine environment and the need for its conservation.
• Human influences in local and global contexts: Human activities may have a local and global impact. The exploitation of marine resources and the disposal of waste in and around our oceans must be managed if our use of the oceans is to be sustainable for future generations.
AICE Environmental Management
The key concepts are:
• Sustainability: The use and management of resources to meet the needs of the present global population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs is a goal underlying all environmental management strategies.
• Interactions: The interactions within and between the living and physical environments shape all environments on Earth. Environmental management strategies aim to protect and maintain this balance.
• Pressure on the environment: Human activities create challenges and put pressure on the local and global environment. Diverse influences may be environmental, economic, social, political or historical and need to be managed to protect the environment.
• Global dimensions: Actions taken at a local level may have local, regional and global environmental impacts which must be considered. Consequences may be positive or negative, may not take effect immediately, and may not be easily detected.
• Research methodology: Scientific investigations and research are fundamental to understanding an environment and developing environmental management strategies. Using the appropriate methodology to answer a specific question means the results are more likely to be reliable.
Social Studies
IGCSE World History
Cambridge IGCSE History looks at some of the major international issues of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and covers the history of particular regions and events in more depth. Some of the content includes World War I, World War II, Cold War, League of Nations, Communism, Germany, Russia, China and Israel.
IGCSE American History
Cambridge IGCSE American History explores the history of the USA from the mid-18th century to the end of the 20th century. Some of the content includes the emergence of a nation (1754-1890); consolidating the nation (1890-2000); Women’s Suffrage Movement; American society and popular culture; U.S and the world; and manifest density and early expansion.
AICE Global Perspectives
This course encourages students to think about and explore issues of global significance. It enables them to explore and make judgements about global issues of relevance and importance to their own lives. It offers students opportunities to acquire, develop and apply skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, research, communication and collaboration. In short, this course encourages the development within young people of global competency – the ability to define a global problem, reflect and take action. This syllabus is firmly based on skills rather than specific content. Through the study of a range of global issues, learners will explore different and sometimes opposing perspectives. Recognizing these perspectives will help to nurture a climate of cross-cultural awareness and promote cultural agility.
AICE Economics
Through this course, learners study how to explain and analyze economic issues and arguments, evaluate economic information, and organize, present and communicate ideas and judgements clearly. The syllabus covers a range of basic economic ideas, including an introduction to the price system and government intervention, international trade and exchange rates, the measurement of employment and inflation, and the causes and consequences of inflation. Learners also study the price system, the theory of the firm, market failure, macroeconomic theory and policy, and economic growth and development.
AICE History
The key concepts are:
• Cause and consequence: The events, circumstances, actions and beliefs that have a direct causal connection to consequential events and developments, circumstances, actions or beliefs. Causes can be both human and non-human.
• Change and continuity: The patterns, processes and interplay of change and continuity within a given time frame.
• Similarity and difference: The patterns of similarity and difference that exist between people, lived experiences, events and situations in the past.
• Significance: The importance attached to an event, individual or entity in the past, whether at the time or subsequent to it. Historical significance is a constructed label that is dependent upon the perspective (context, values, interests and concerns) of the person ascribing significance and is therefore changeable.
• Interpretations: How the past has been subsequently reconstructed and presented by historians.
AICE Sociology
In a rapidly changing world, Cambridge International AS and A Level Sociology offers learners the opportunity not only to explore the processes that are shaping current trends, but also to develop an understanding of the complexity and diversity of human societies and their continuities with the past.
The study of sociology stimulates awareness of contemporary social, cultural and political issues, and focuses on the importance of examining these issues in a rigorous, reasoned and analytical way.
Available Electives
AICE Art
The key concepts for Cambridge International AS & A Level Art & Design are:
• Communication: An essential purpose of any piece of art and design is to communicate, from the simplest sketch to the most complex work. Artists and designers need to understand that the relationship their work builds with the audience is influenced by many things, including their chosen media and methods.
• Creativity is at the heart of an artist or designer’s processes. It pushes them to question, investigate, experiment and take risks to create work that is original and meaningful.
• Intention: An intention is the starting point of any project, from which an artist or designer starts to develop ideas. An intention or purpose can come from a brief, proposal or research, while at other times it might begin as an idea or feeling.
• Materials and processes: Experimentation with materials and processes builds confidence, and helps develop awareness of spatial, textural and color relationships, which are fundamental to art and design.
• Critical reflection is the ongoing process that helps artists and designers to learn what works and what doesn’t. Artists and designers need to evaluate how the materials, techniques and processes they choose affect how their work communicates meaning.
• Research and context: First-hand research helps artists and designers to develop their ideas and refine their practice. Actively researching and responding to other practitioners, cultures and creative movements gives the artist or designer a broad view of the world.
AICE Divinity
This course focuses on how to study and interpret historical text; the history to both the Jewish and Christian Bibles; a scholarly understanding of the life and teaching of Jesus; the history and development of the early Christian church; and the authorship, composition and purpose of Acts and the epistles.
AICE Geography
The key concepts for are:
• Space: the implications of spatial distributions and patterns of a range of physical and human geographical phenomena.
• Scale: the significance of spatial scale in interpreting environments, features and places from local to global, and time scale in interpreting change from the geological past to future scenarios.
• Place: the importance of physical and human characteristics which create distinctive places with different opportunities and challenges.
• Environment: how the interactions between people and their environment create the need for environmental management and sustainability.
• Interdependence: how the complex nature of interacting physical systems, human systems and processes create links and interdependencies.
• Diversity: the significance of the similarities and differences between places, environments and people.
• Change: the importance of change and the dynamic nature of places, environments and systems.
AICE Physical Education
The Cambridge International AS & A Level Physical Education syllabus is both practical and theoretical. As well as fostering enjoyment in physical activity, it will encourage students to develop an understanding of the interaction between theory and practice by focusing on the performer and performance. Students learn about anatomy and physiology, movement skills and contemporary studies at Cambridge International AS Level. The syllabus provides an excellent grounding for students intending to pursue careers in teaching and coaching, sports development, the leisure industry, recreational management and professional sport.
AICE Thinking Skills
Through this class, students will develop
• a facility for independent thinking in the real world
• the ability to organize and evaluate different types of information
• the ability to create strategies for solving unfamiliar problems
• the ability to present logical, ordered and coherent arguments
• a facility for making well-reasoned judgements and decisions
• a transferable set of critical thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills which are essential for success in higher education and employment.
AICE Travel and Tourism
Through this class, students will learn to
• appreciate the scale and importance of the travel and tourism industry
• learn that the travel and tourism industry is dynamic in nature and how the industry responds to change, e.g. external factors such as changing consumer needs and expectations and developments in information technology
• recognize the positive and negative impacts the industry may have on people, environments and economies.
AICE Spanish Language
The Cambridge International AS Level Spanish syllabus enables learners to achieve greater fluency, accuracy and confidence in the language as it is spoken and written, and improve their communication skills.
They will learn how to improve their use of Spanish in a variety of situations, understanding how to read texts and other source materials, extract information, initiate conversations and respond to questions both orally and in writing.