In this year’s course catalog, the STEM section showcased four new electives set to launch in the 2025-2026 school year, depending on student signups. These new courses are Logic in Numbers, Computer Programming, Animal Behavior, and Human Pathology.
Proposed by different faculty members, each course serves a specific interest and academic goal. There is still some uncertainty about when and how often these courses will run if they make their way off the elective guide, but it is convention for new courses to be taught by the teacher who proposed them.
Students curious about health and medicine could explore disease and the human immune system in science teacher Shi Bing Shen’s Human Pathology course. Biology teacher Ruben Durandis’ Animal Behavior class would allow students to research and create projects focused on various observable results of biological and cultural evolution in animals. Geometry teacher Dina Inoyatov plans to lead Logic in Numbers, a college level introductory math course that introduces abstract mathematical thinking through real world applications and historical context. Dean Timothy Connor will bring students into the world of Computer Programming, teaching the foundations of coding and logical problem solving.
According to Assistant Principal of STEM Abid Choudhury, who is in charge of approving these classes, teacher availability and class enrollment rates are significant factors that influence whether a course makes its way off the elective guide. “Do we have enough teachers to be able to run a wide array of electives? Is there a lot of interest for that class or not?” he said, clarifying the necessity of certainty before a course moves forward.
Ms. Shen said she proposed Human Pathology to offer students a non-AP science elective focused on real-world health knowledge.“I thought, [it would] be really interesting for kids to learn when they go to their doctors and [are] told that they have, let’s say, bronchitis, that they actually understood what that meant and what system was actually affected, right? So they don’t go in blind,” she said. She added that the class would be a project-based course where students will perform research on a variety of diseases and that she recommended the course for any upperclassman student with basic knowledge of Living Environment and an interest in the topic of Human Pathology.
Sophomore Sherry Chen said that taking Human Pathology will help her see which aspects of the medical field she is truly interested in, as she plans on pursuing a career in health science. When asked what diseases she would like to learn about in class, she said, “cancer treatments and… cancer research would be really interesting.” When sophomore Karson Chen was asked the same question, he also responded with an interest in learning about cancer. “ He said he wants to know “why [cancer] is such a dangerous disease and why it spreads so quickly. [And for other] things that can’t be cured, how will we find cures for them?”
Additionally, sophomore Bhuri Limlertvate said that he believes Human Pathology is a good foundation for students wanting to pursue a career in medicine or as a physician. “This [course] could lead to a future profession […] I think I’m interested in learning about different types of cancers or mental disabilities.”
According to the THHS elective guide, students in Animal Behavior will be instructed on various mechanisms of evolution and how they affect animal behavior and culture, as well as how animal behavior affects the survival of certain species. Similar to Human Pathology, Animal Behavior is designed to be a project-based course where students will do research and create projects to educate classmates.
Sophomore Stella Hwang, who ranked the class as one of her electives on the course selection form, said that “it’s really important to learn about [animal] behaviors because it also could help you in the future.”
Mr. Durandis, who will be leading Animal Behavior, reflected on some of his own experiences as an undergraduate at Queens College. He said the course was one of the most interesting, educational, and enjoyable classes he had taken “[The class] allowed us to delve so much into evolution and how behaviors can evolve and be passed down through generations […] Every new class was something new, it was a new discussion, and it made the concept tangible for me,” he said. “[Taking this class] will allow kids to delve further into evolution as it covers topics in biology, but will allow them to look at it a bit further, and it will give us an understanding of the world around us and how behaviors either help or hinder species.”
Sophomore Kanon Banno, who also ranked Animal Behavior as one of her electives in the course selection form, said that she chose the course because of her interest in Biology and Environmental Science. She added that she placed Animal Behavior as one of her options in the course selection form, to tone down the course load for next year, as she may be taking an AP Science class as well.
According to math teacher Ms. Inoyatov, “Logic in Numbers will explore topics that aren’t typically covered in traditional math courses, like functions and algorithms, cryptography, the mathematics of money, mathematical modeling, and more.” She said that because students sometimes find math “irrelevant and boring, and [are usually] stressed about standardized exams at the end of the year, [she] wanted to give students the opportunity to learn some genuinely cool math and explore the patterns and mysteries around us.” The course will be aimed at humanities students who have completed Algebra II and wish to take a math elective without taking advanced math courses. Students taking the course will also have the opportunity to earn college credit through a dual enrollment program with Siena College.
The Computer Programming Course, according to the 2025-2026 THHS elective guide, is focused on “practicing standard programming techniques and learning the logic tools and methods typically used by programmers to create simple computer applications.” In addition, through this course, people will “learn to write programs, convert workflow charts into computer programs, and troubleshoot computer programs.”
According to Mr. Choudhury, if the course runs next school year, it would likely be placed for students to take after they have taken Intro to Computer Science and before they take AP Computer Science Principles. Junior Brandon Pinto said, “It’s always good to have more engineering courses available.”
Many students and staff generally agreed with THHS’ push to offer a greater variety of courses. Kanon said, “I think expanding our [selection of] STEM [courses] is a good idea because we are a humanities school. I think having a variety to provide for the students will be good, so they could explore more before they actually decide their career… I really thought it was good that they were providing anything other than AP courses because many people tend to take APs, and they think that’s the only thing that they should do. But sometimes having an easier course is good for your schedule.”
Mr. Choudhury said a decision on running the courses will depend on the programming process for the fall: “If manpower wasn’t an issue, I’d add all the classes in the world that we could add, but it’s definitely not a zero-sum game where we have to worry about taking away classes before adding classes.”
