New opportunities at DV, from creating video games to crunching numbers

By Anya Tikka
MILFORD — Delaware Valley High School will offer brand-new Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses to students starting this fall, principal Brian Baum said in a presentation at the Board of Education meeting earlier this year.

The courses offer a wide selection in fields ranging from art to mathematics.

Blaum said all students entering 9th grade will take a freshman seminar intended to help them with their integration into high school culture — often a problematic time. The course will run for 45 days.

For those interested in going to an artistic field, AP Studio Art course will prepare students for their application. They can complete a portfolio in either 2-D or 3-D design, or drawing.

More appealing to the business-oriented student, the Practical Video Game Design course can be taken by anyone in grades 9 to 12. Students get to actually try their hand at creating games — a very lucrative field in today’s digital world.

For math-oriented students who want to pursue higher education, but are not particularly interested in continuing with calculus, the school will now offer introductory statistics. Statistics opens up many job opportunities because it’s widely used in many different situations and jobs to analyze data.

DV’s physical education program will get a boost with three new programs for athletes who wish to continue their activities after leaving school. They can choose Physical Fitness and Training, where they’ll learn lifelong fitness strategies; Officiating Team and Individual Sports, which would suit those who’d like to become coaches; and Leadership and Adventure Education for “tomorrow’s leaders.”

In science, remediation is offered to students who need help in gaining proficiency in Keystone Biology exam. The Interactive Biological Science course is offered in a digital format.

Building on the existing Sociology course, a social science course focusing on Social Problems is offered to interested students.

Blaum said the Diversified Occupations program is already running, and five students currently take courses that are not in other CTE program. The courses offered include: Early Childhood Education, Electrical Occupations, Food Management, Production and Service Health Occupations, and Marketing and Business.