Brooklyn Technical High School

AP American History: The course is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States history. Students should learn to assess historical materials - their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance- and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. 

 

AP US Government: The course provides an analytical perspective on government and politics in the United States. This course involves both the study of general concepts used to interpret U.S. politics and the analysis of specific case studies. It also requires familiarity with the various institutions, groups, beliefs, and ideas that constitute U.S. political reality. 

 

Constitutional Law: Students will investigate the major cases that have changed American history, tested the limits of governmental power, and enlarged (or diminished) individuals’ rights. 

 

Criminal Procedure: This course will cover the criminal justice process from crime to punishment. Arrest, investigation and pre-trial procedures will be studied from multiple angles: police, forensic scientists, and the constitutional rights of the accused. Students will also build competency in persuasive, public speaking in both mock trials and legal arguments before appeals courts.

 

Civil Law: Students will be introduced to many topics covered in the first year of law school. The study of torts (civil wrongs) ranges from intentional acts (defamation, assault) to negligence and consumer product liability. Ownership rights and infringement claims will be studied in the property law unit, especially patent, copyright and trademark rights. Contract law and equal protection/discrimination will be covered, as well as the practice of law.  

 

Forensic Criminology: The Crime Scene, Physical Evidence, Physical Properties: Glass and Soil, Organic Analysis, Inorganic Analysis, The Microscope, Hairs, Fibers and Paint, Drugs, Forensic Technology, Forensic Aspects of Arson and Explosion Investigations, Forensic Serology, DNA: The Indispensable Forensic Science Tool, Fingerprints, Firearms, Tool Marks, Document and Voice Examination, Computer Forensics, Forensic Science and the Internet, and the future of forensic criminology. 

 

Criminal Law: What is the difference between justified homicide, negligent manslaughter, and first degree murder? When should insanity defense apply? Criminal law will examine the study of crimes and the moral principles of criminal responsibility and liability. Students will obtain familiarity with the criminal classifications and elements of crimes against persons, property, order, and State.

 

Ethics: Ethics, or moral philosophy, endeavors to establish rational principles of right conduct that can serve as decision-making guides for individuals and groups. Discussion of several historical sources, ethical theories and contemporary moral problems such as euthanasia, capital punishment, and economic justice. Logic is the study of arguments including the study of the conditions under which the premises of an argument adequately support its conclusion.