City Smarts Electives are 5 to 6-week online classes for young scholars, artists, and scientists. Limited to just five students each, Electives are designed to capture the same intellectual energy and intimacy as a round-table class at a liberal arts college.
We’ve asked some of our most experienced and passionate instructors to build classes around their areas of interest: things like playwriting, medical science, mythology, and film studies. It is our goal that each class should foster deep thinking, engage our stuck-at-home student body, and challenge students far-beyond typical academic standards.
Grades
5, 6, and 7
8, 9, and 10
9, 10, and 11
5, 6, 7
Schedule
FRI, begins 1/8
MON, begins 1/4
THURS, begins 1/28
THURS, begins 1/7
Price
$315
$265
$325
$265
Learn more about our upcoming ELECTIVES and enroll below.
Exploring Our Virtual Galaxy
Students will embark on a 5-week journey to explore the Milky Way Galaxy using online simulators. The goal of this elective is to give students a better understanding of their home galaxy by taking “virtual field trips” to distant solar systems. We will travel to remote locations such as the Crab Nebula and even create our own Galaxy Simulations by the final week.
There will be discussions about life, extraterrestrial intelligence, astrobiology, astrophysics and gravity. Students will also lead group and solo expeditions to remote locations in the galaxy to discover new stars, planets, and systems.
For Grades: 5, 6 & 7
Dates: Fridays – 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5
Time: 5 - 6 PM
Price: $315
Manpreet is a distinguished graduate of NYU, where he majored in engineering. He has been teaching for more than 5 years and dreaming about the galaxy his whole life.
Sitcom Writing 101
Jerry Seinfeld famously identified the four levels of comedy: "make your friends laugh, make strangers laugh, get paid to make strangers laugh, and make people talk like you because it's so much fun." In this City Smart's elective, we can't guarantee students will experience all four levels, but we can promise at least one or two. After studying the elements of the sitcom – from format to dialogue to structure – students will embark on writing their own short comedy pilot.
For Grades: 8, 9, & 10
Dates: Mondays – 1/4, 1/11, 1/18, 1/25, 2/1
Time: 4 - 5 PM
Price: $265
Matthew is a writer, director, and educator. His plays have been produced in New York City and beyond; he has written three short novels and one book of poetry. Matthew has been teaching at City Smarts since 2018.
Everybody is a Body: Anatomy & Physiology
In this medical primer, students will take a journey through some of the body’s major organ systems as we dive into the basic principles of human anatomy and physiology. We will also cover important topics in health and medicine, and learn how to perform a physical exam.
This five-week elective is designed to cover the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary, and nervous systems in addition to the fundamentals of the clinical encounter. Read the full course syllabus…
For Grades: 9, 10, and 11
Dates: Thursdays – 1/28, 2/4, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25
Time: 4:30 - 6 PM
Price: $325
Michael is a medical student at New York Medical College and graduate of Cornell University. He has been teaching with City Smarts since 2015 and plans to pursue a career in pediatric neurosurgery.
Myths, Ancient & Modern
As people of the modern world, it is easy for us to think about mythology as nothing more than the fantastical attempts by ancient people who lacked science to describe the world, or as stories exaggerating the adventures and deeds of their ancestors. But viewing mythology with this modern, critical lens overlooks the most important part of myths: they are stories, created to entertain, or to teach. Myths and legends are the ancestors of our novels, movies, TV shows, comic books, and even video games.
In this course, we will explore ancient mythology, and analyze it like we would any other piece of literature or media we encounter in our everyday lives. Students will learn how to engage with stories, ancient and modern, through their narrative elements, and build skills to analyze stories from different eras through archetypes and tropes. The ultimate goal will be for each student to find a modern “myth” to analyze and relate to the ancient myths we will read during the course.
For Grades: 5, 6, 7
Dates: Thursdays – 1/7, 1/14, 1/21, 1/28, 2/4
Time: 4 - 5 PM
Price: $265
A graduate of Wesleyan with a masters from UTC, Kevin is an expert instructor with more than 12 years of educational experience. He loves puzzling over the mysteries and wonders of ancient mythology.
MODERN TECH: OLD SCHOOl APPROACH
Electives classes meet over Zoom, our preferred video-conferencing platform. While our platform is decidedly modern, our teachers rely on classic socratic methods. This means that students will engage in deep conversation, critical thinking, and self-reflection rather than passive learning (videos) or app-based learning.
BITE-SIZED SEMINARS
Five to six weeks long and 60 to 75 minutes each, we have calibrated our elective courses to allow for growth and discovery without overwhelming students.
Clinic capped at 5 students
In order to maintain individual instruction time and encourage peer-learning, we have capped our classes at 5 students.
ACHIEVING MILESTONES
Each Elective is defined by a milestone, a measurable yet fun objective that students strive to achieve. This approach gives electives sense of mission and purpose, without focusing on grading individual performance.
