The school recently shook up its curriculum with the introduction of AP Human Geography for freshmen, aiming to engage students in critical global issues and geographical concepts, setting the stage for students’ journeys who wish to challenge themselves.
“It also helps, overall, in preparing freshman students for the harder classes in high school and eventually, college courses,” AP Human Geography teacher Jared Ewing said. “Of course, there is also college credit involved, which students like.”
Although it might sound odd for an 8th grader to enroll in an AP class, it’s commonly offered in other districts.
“I took it for the college credit so that I can skip a history class in college, I guess, and the GPA boost,” freshman Austin Morgan said. “I also just prefer more challenging classes.”
Like the other AP courses, if students score 3 or higher on the AP test, most state colleges and universities take that for either general education or elective credit.
“This is a 201 level class, meaning it’s a college sophomore level class,” Ewing said. “Of course, having 14-15-year-olds in a class meant for 20-21-year-olds—it’s going to be tough.”
Despite being a freshman AP class, it’s not just an easy GPA boost. There is a relatively heavy course load with a lot of note-taking. The test has a 54.4% pass rate, and the average score for the exam from the 2023 AP exam season was 2.75.
“I haven’t struggled much so far,” freshman Isla Mrstik said. “It’s a lot of work and notes. It’s just a matter of not falling behind.”
The class covers a wide range of topics, helping students prepare for the AP exam by giving them a thorough understanding of human geography.
“AP Human Geography studies how humans have used, understood, and changed the surface of the earth, and social or economic patterns involved,” Ewing said. “The biggest difference between this class and regular geography classes is that this class goes much more in-depth over regularly covered topics.”
The class content along with the course load can be a lot for a freshman to handle coming out of middle school history classes, even the honors-level history courses.
“It is really heavy on note-taking, with quite a bit of content for students,” Ewing said. “It is a pretty hard class for freshman students to take on, but it is worth it, especially in preparing for college and the remainder of their time in high school.”
