Catholic Central School launches Innovative middle school electives

Courses include engineering, podcasting and coding applications

Catholic Central School is the area's only pre-K through Grade 12 Catholic school.

Catholic Central School (CCS) announced last month that it will be implementing an innovative program of elective courses for its middle-school students this fall. The school will offer fifth- through eighth-grade students courses that range from engineering and podcasting, to coding and design thinking. The engineering course will integrate the Siemens’ “Hour of Engineering” curriculum, launched by the company last December 2022. The activities require that students use their knowledge of math, science and technology combined with specialized topics to create new objects and solve problems.

“When we began our strategic planning process six months ago, our intent was not just to navigate the creation of the only pre-K-12th grade school in the Capital Region, but to ensure that our students acquire the life preparatory skills that will make them successful in an emerging workforce,” said Lily Spera, co-principal of CCS. “The “Hour of Engineering” program has already proven in Siemens’ pilot schools that exposing students to engineering and design concepts gets them excited about learning, and also raises an entire school community.”

Every elective course aligns to the existing school curriculum and offers students the opportunity to apply context to their learning through additional, hands-on activities and problem-solving tasks. The overall electives program supports the use of podcasting for music creation using a cloud-based digital creation platform, and the applications of coding to AI and sustainability.

“We are so proud to offer these opportunities to our students; it’s amazing to see our early learners using coding and robotics in their regular classes, and now to offer such state-of-the-art courses to our middle-school students continues our standard of excellence,” said Ritch Harrigan, CCS co-principal. “As a former history teacher, the application of technology to facilitate everyday instruction across the curriculum engages learners in subjects they used to think were boring - this is an exciting opportunity for our students.”