Web Technologies will be offered next year as a directed study for students who want to learn about websites from a Computer Science perspective.

Math Department Head Paula Evans, who will teach the class, created the course to broaden the curriculum and support the growing interest in computer science.

“Lots of kids come in and take AP Computer Science as a junior, so as seniors they want to take Design and Data Structures, but they also want to learn past that, and learn other [coding] languages,” Evans said.

Web Technologies allows seniors and juniors taking Design and Data Structures to apply their skills to designing websites, and learning a few coding languages along with that.

The course will start with creating basic web pages. Students will also learn about client and server interactions in websites, as well as standard algorithms on sites, like a shopping cart and a forum board.

“The course will reflect a lot of things from AP Computer Science and Design and Data Structures, but will be separate from those mostly academic courses,” Evans said. “This will be much more practical, it’s designed for kids who plan on using websites as entrepreneurs.”

Later in the course, Evans will direct the curriculum towards what the students want, similar to Advanced Topics in Computer Science.

“The goal is to broaden the curriculum,” Evans said. “We’re bringing in new teachers with lots of experience in computer science. The amount of people enrolled in AP Computer Science next year is more than the number of people enrolled in Calculus AB, so we need to support the growing interest in computer science.”