After Exams
What happens after AP ExamsBY KEELEY GAY ON JUNE 5, 2014
AP exams have finished up and the two weeks of constant studying and stress for many has come to an end. With the pressure of AP exams lifted off of their shoulders, students and teachers do not have to worry about learning and teaching new information.
“It’s nice that we have a little bit of time where we can do more fun stuff, so we’re not stressed all the way until the end of the year,” social studies teacher Liza Knight said. With excess time, teachers must find a way for students to spend their class time for the rest of the year. Some teachers assign projects for students to work on, while other teachers show movies or play games in class. “The extra time after AP exams allows you to do some things that you wouldn't have had time to do otherwise,” Knight said. “Like maybe show a few curriculum related movies that you didn't have time to show before the exam.” Knight has shown two movies relating to the Comparative Government curriculum, and has also assigned a project that her students were able to work on and have fun with. “I planned a model UN simulation so that we could continue to learn a little bit about countries we’ve studied in here and other countries, but still have fun while doing it,” Knight said. Taking a similar approach to Knight, math teacher Vasanthara Sundarapather assigned a project for her Calculus students to complete after AP Exams. “We have to do a project on a calculus concept and make it fun,” junior Ashley Weingartz said. “There is one group that’s doing a rap, and another group thats doing a story book, and one that’s doing a jeopardy game.” Not all students have been given the chance to watch movies and work on fun projects. AP English and Composition teacher Ashley Hutchinson has continued to teach her class to help them complete a junior research paper. “In English we have been working on a research paper, which has been helpful because we really haven’t gotten a chance to do one at all this year,” junior Meredith Edmonds said. Having extra class time has given some classes, such as the AP Environmental and AP Human Geography classes, a chance to experience new things by taking field trips. “I’ve partnered with a professor from ECU and we have been working on a storm water grant project,” science teacher Todd said. “We have taken a field trip out around Greenville to see how storm water has eroded different urban environments.” The AP Environmental class has also done review work and engaged in many hands-on activities during class. “We have made a solar water heater, done courtyard beautification, and written papers,” senior Paul Tennison said. After AP exams, social studies teacher Brian Callahan planned for his AP Human Geography students to work on GSI navigating with a professor from ECU, eat lunch at traditional Mexican restaurant, and take an urban field walk downtown to observe the geography of the downtown area. “On the Urban field walk we had to look at the different types of architecture and see what had been gentrified,” sophomore Maggie Hallow said. “We looked at a lot of urbanization and then we had lunch at Supdogs.” Some people complain that AP Exams come too early and that students waste their time in AP classes after the exam has been completed. However, this extra time gives students a chance to fully embrace the AP course in new and exciting ways. “It’s a good time to be able to do more fun things that actually open students’ eyes to what [a specific AP course] is all about,” Todd said. HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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