Social studies

Students can only make choices in their social studies course in their junior and senior years, as all sophomores must take World History. The social studies department provides diagnostic tests for AP U.S. History (APUSH) and informational meetings for AP Government and Politics. 

APUSH teaches the material through a variety of mediums, including historical documents, socratic seminars and lectures. There are quizzes on chapters in the textbook every few weeks, and summer homework includes reading the first three chapters of the textbook and memorizing presidents and U.S. geography. Students learn how to write humanities essays, which are different from the writing for language arts classes. 

AP Government and Politics and regular Government and Politics are semester long courses, with the other semester as Economics. Students either take the class in first or second semester, meaning that for AP Government and Politics, they may have the AP test after or during the course. In terms of the workload, the AP class is at about the same level or more manageable than APUSH.

“The course load is fairly manageable especially for an AP class but if you slack off you can get behind pretty easily,” senior Mitchell Evans said. “I think choosing AP Gov. was the right choice. I did it because I wanted to learn about the government and how it affects our everyday lives.”

An appealing aspect of both courses, whether AP or not, is that the U.S. government is a topic that is directly applicable to students’ lives and understanding how it works could be helpful to students in the future. 

Both AP history classes help increase students’ understanding of the world around them and allow students to learn foundational skills. On the other hand, while regular history classes have a smaller workload, they are just as effective in teaching the necessary skills.