Discover Hidden Treasures!

Uniquely engaging and enjoyable courses (where you might not know to look)

TPS has hundreds of courses, including many unique courses not found anywhere else. We often hear “I wish I had known about that course!” Here are uniquely engaging courses (including many new courses) you will want to discover for your education plans.

• Writing 5 Adventures – This fun new elementary course provides an enjoyable introductory space for new writers to find their voice and organize their ideas. In-class writing exercises will help students to engage in discussions about the writing traits and how to make their writing organized and interesting. A wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction writing topics will be explored through small writing assignments. Students will also explore the world of poetry through limericks, haikus, and formal verse rhyme scheme. At the end of the course, students will have an opportunity to create a piece that celebrates their writing accomplishments from the year…
• AP Environmental Science – This course is fascinating, fun, and not just for science majors. It gets you away from your computer and out into the world. Even students who don’t like science have called it the “best” course they took in high school. In this course, you will explore the fascinating interrelationships of the natural world and consider how humans societies rely on it. You will also search for solutions to challenges such as pollution, dwindling energy sources, ensuring a clean water supply, and food production for a planet. Much of your learning will come from “getting out there” into the world as your “lab”, and the course will develop your curiosity for the world around you in a practical, fascinating, and fun way…
• American History in Fashion – How did the Puritan’s beliefs impact laws about clothing for men and women? Why did women in the 18th century pin their garments while men used buttons? Even in the poverty-stricken 1930s, why did styles still change? Fashion and its cultural and political contexts are inseparable, as this course will demonstrate by progressing through American history and fashion from early colonization to the present…
• Art 3 – Guided Open Studio – This class is open to students who have completed a prior TPS Art 2 or higher course and want to continue working on a specific area of study in a small group setting with other TPS art students. The classes will be interactive, with the students working concurrently in a virtual studio context. While individual areas of study may vary, students will benefit from a community of like-minded artists who challenge and encourage one another in the creative process. The teacher will provide guidance and address topics of common interest in periodic lectures. The final project will be a polished mini-portfolio of the work completed throughout the course…
• Business Office Applications – This course uses a project-based experiential approach to learning the most commonly used features and functions in “office” software applications that are integral to school and work. Each module in the course will focus on a specific application type (i.e., word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), culminating in a final multimedia professional project demonstrating mastery in each area. The course takes the student on a journey from beginner concepts and tasks to intermediate-level skills and document integration using real-life scenarios.
• Children’s Literature – This high school course uses beloved children’s literature as the media for mature literary discussion and analytical essay. The course develops advanced analytical reading and composition skills by studying works including The Wind in the Willows, Watership Down, Treasure Island…
• Creative Writing – Language is God’s gift to his people to help us know him deeply, reveal his truths to the world, and bring Him glory. This course develops the study and use of language, story, and image in becoming effective communicators. In this course students will read and compose original poetry, memoir, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students will examine and discuss work from published writers to deepen their understanding of the ways writers create both meaning and pleasure for readers. They will also practice writing in various genres to refine their own skills and grow their creative voice…
• Electronics – Electronics are used in virtually every tool, appliance, or device we use today. In this course, we will explore the world of electronics from basic concepts (such as voltage, current, and power), to resistors and capacitors, electrical schematics, and microcontrollers. This course will also include hands-on projects using a digital multimeter, breadboard, microcontroller, wires, resistors, and other components. This course provides an introduction to the field of electronics and a foundation upon which to build further study and experience.
• High Scholars (24 college credits in Lit, History, Composition) – High Scholars is a “classics” (“Great Books”) program that integrates western history, literature, and art from ancient to contemporary times. The integrated nature of this program allows students to dive deep into the events and ideas that have shaped the modern world: students study not only the literature, art, and history of western civilization, but also the intellectual and philosophical movements – the ideas and modes of thought – that lie behind these. These trends and developments are analyzed and considered from a distinctly biblical worldview.
• Holocaust History Through Lit and Film – Through this course, students will gain a better understanding of the history of the Holocaust through primary sources including photographs, newspaper articles, and survivor testimonies in addition to a variety of films like Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and works of nonfiction literature including Night by Elie Wiesel. Students will gain a foundational understanding of the events and factors leading up to the Holocaust…
• Personal Finance – This course covers topics every student will find useful in the pursuit of being a good steward of their own possessions as well as a framework to have something to share with others in need (Eph 4:28). In studying practical strategies and examining real-world examples, students will learn how to manage personal financial goals and study several planning and investment techniques to achieve those goals. Course topics also include the finances of home ownership, automobile ownership, savings and checking accounts, credit cards, investments, insurance, personal loans, income taxes, retirement planning, and more.
• Sports Medicine and Athletic Training – This course equips you with an understanding of the functional concepts of the human body and then teaches you how to apply that knowledge to real-life practice. It combines coverage of Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Kinesiology and therapeutic topics modalities with the latest research, concussion protocols and guidelines for First Aid, CPR and AED. There is also consideration of athletes with disabilities and special challenges that athletes face…
• Teaching the Word – Preparing Bible Lessons and Messages – The purpose and design of this course is to equip and mentor students in the skills and method of communicating the truth of God’s Word to others in group or public settings. This includes the art of study, preparation, construction, and delivery of biblical lessons, devotionals, sermons, homilies, or bible “talks.” Students will be introduced to an inductive approach of presenting the Word which is able to effectively connect with our culture to share the truth of Scripture. By the conclusion of the course, students will have practiced and will be prepared to share a message from the Word in settings such as youth groups, small groups, online meetings, homeschool co-ops, Sunday school classes, church and chapel services, or through electronic means…
• U.S. Military History – This course combines the text For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States 1607-2012 with supplemental in-class presentations and lectures to guide students chronologically through the history of the United States military from the Revolutionary War through the War on Terrorism. Students review major themes, tactics, battles, weaponry, industrialization, and personnel for all branches of the military in wars and conflicts including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the War on Terror. In addition to the broad view, we will also focus on the story of the soldier in the trenches and the bomber in the skies…
• Works of C.S Lewis – Though well-known for The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis was also a renowned lecturer, essayist, apologist, and theologian. Through this course, students will explore the rich array of works and ideas that Lewis has to offer. We will analyze theological concepts and see how those ideas are also presented in works of allegorical fiction like the science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet, the epistolary novel The Screwtape Letters, and the novella The Great Divorce. We will revisit a classic myth retold with a twist in Till We Have Faces and delve into rhetoric and apologetics with Mere Christianity…

Discover all the unique, new, or improved TPS courses by selecting the “New and Improved” category in our Course Catalog.