American Studies is a United States History alternative for juniors. “American Studies is an interdisciplinary class, one of the few offered at Gunn where students have the opportunity to learn in history what they’re reading about in their English class literature,” social studies teacher Lynne Navarro said.

American Studies is only offered every other year when it coincides with the juniors’ American Literature class. “Everything we do in U.S. History we do in American Studies,” Navarro said.

Navarro teaches in collaboration with English teacher Diane Ichikawa. Students who participate in the class will be taught in two periods, one for American Studies and one for American Literature. They use this to their advantage not only in planning lessons but also in coordination of class time. “If we need to we can schedule two-hour long movies, since the classes meet back-to-back,” Navarro said.

The literature class follows the history covered. When the English class is reading “The Grapes of Wrath,” American Studies is learning about the Great Depression.In addition to regular history the class also covers pop culture and explores entertainment mediums.

American Studies is also unique in that it offers three field trips to historically important places in the Bay Area. “I love history and I really love social history so it’s nice to have the literature contribution. It offers a bigger picture,” Navarro said.

Navarro would also like to let incoming juniors know that there is still space in the class.

The Advanced Problem Solving in Mathematics class will be taught at both Gunn and Palo Alto High School. The Gunn class, taught by math teacher Peter Hereshoff, will be directed towards juniors and seniors interested in learning alternate proofs and mathematical applications in other disciplines. Advanced Problem Solving is mainly geared towards competitive math. The class offers two semesters that are not prerequisites of one another and targets math short-cuts and problem solving skills. “There are a lot of students who take problem solving seriously, who would like to take it further,” Hereshoff said.

Because this class is a new class there is no formal curriculum. Hereshoff will be compiling his material from several dynamic sources including booklets, online textbooks and purchased textbooks. The main texts will be “Algebra Through Problem Solving” and “Art of Problem Solving.” Some of the content will include sequences, series, Fibonacci sequences, combinatorics, set theory and matrices. All of these topics are conducive towards competitive math Hereshoff said.

The Paly Advanced Problem Solving in Mathematics is geared towards freshmen and sophomores and is also a two-part independent class. It will be taught by Paly math club adviser Suzanne Antink. “It’s going to be a course that teaches some neat problem solving tricks,” Antink said, “We should be able to tackle all the problems in the American Mathematics Competition.”

In addition to the AMC they will also be covering the American Invitational Mathematics Examination. These classes will not be incorporated in the regular school schedule, they will be offered based on the availability of the students.