Courses offered at Berlin High School

Firefighter

Full Year 1.00 credit

Grades 11 and 12

Prerequisite: Must be at least 16 years of age

The study of firefighting is strongly STEM based as students continually make connections to English, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Fire Science in relation to real-life fire situations.  Participants learn to be effective problem solvers working with multiple academic disciplines simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.  Firefighting develops students’ ability work as aprt of a team where communication on the job is essential.  Firefighters control and extinguish fires or respond to emergency situations where life, property or the environment is at risk.  Topics include PPE, SCBA, Fire streams, Water Supply, RIT, Forcible entry, Extrication and Hazmat.  Firefighting teaches multiple transferable life skills and covers’ the fundamentals of firefighting for students who have fire service career interests or those students who wish to learn.  This course is a precursor to community involvement at a volunteer fire department.  With a positive job outlook by 2020 there will be over 110,000 openings with an average salary of over $60k.  This course is correlated with the 2002 edition of NFPA 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, Level I, widely accepted as the standard of knowledge and skills measurement for all firefighters in North America.

Firefighting Leadership

Full Year 1.00 credit

Grades 11 and 12

Prerequisite: Firefighting or Firefighter

Firefighting Leadership encourages students to take active leadership roles within the firefighting class.  Acting as an officer causes students to integrate their problem solving, communications, and organizational skills together to accomplish the task.  This combination of English (communications), Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Fire Science makes this a true STEM based class where students master transferable skills.  Leaders work to be effective problem solvers working with multiple academic disciplines simultaneously in a fast paced environment.  Firefighters control and extinguish fires or respond to emergency situations where life, property or the environment is at risk.  Duties may include fire prevention, emergency medical service, freeing-trapped individuals, hazardous material response, and search and rescue.  The course covers the fundamentals of firefighting for students who have fire service career interests or those students who wish to learn as a precursor to community involvement at a volunteer fire department; with a positive job outlook by 2020 there will be over 110,000 openings with an average salary of over $60k annually.  This course is correlated to the 2002 edition of NFPA 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, Level 1, widely accepted as the standard of knowledge and skills measurement for all firefighters in North America.