The Advanced Placement (AP) Exams were administered in high schools nationwide from May 5th to May 16th. Many Choate students took one or more of the twenty-five AP exams offered. Although all of the AP exams have been completed, the Advanced Placement classes are not coming to a halt just yet.
Math teacher Mr. Tom Day says that his AP AB Calculus students “watched the movie ‘Stand and Deliver’ for a couple of days. The movie is about math students from an East Los Angeles High School who were encouraged and coached through AP Calculus.” He notes that students have not stopped learning. “We have been studying additional topics that will help the students as they go on into the second semester in college calculus.” Bo Ra Kim ’10, a student in Mr. Day’s Calculus class, has no problems with the plan: “I really don’t mind what we’re doing in class right now. It’s nice that we’re learning other material that we’ll be learning next year, and although we are assigned homework, it isn’t bad at all.”
Latin 450 students, who read Virgil’s Aeneid all year long, are continuing their studies in other aspects of the language. In past years, there had only been one week of school after the Latin AP exam; therefore, there were no projects or papers involved. Caroline Bazinet ’10 elaborates: “This year we have two weeks, so we are reading Latin by other authors. I think it’s pretty cool. We read the story of Dido and Aeneas in the Aeneid, and now we’re reading a letter about other perspectives. Also, we went over the AP, and we have a final translation/essay project to compare a new passage to the material covered in the course.”
AP European History is also finishing its material. “Well, we’re just continuing to study material we have to complete, which is Post-WWII Europe. It’s exciting,” states European History teacher John Connelly. He adds, “We’re required by College Board to cover the material on the course syllabus, whether the AP exam is over or not.”
Sheryl Kang ’09 states: “After the AP exam in U.S. History, we had a debate about the best modern president and worked on our term papers. There are no more reading assignments, therefore in class and for homework, we work on our papers.” Kang said her AP Physics B class is one of the rare AP classes that have finished their syllabi. “There are no more assessments after the AP exam. We’re just watching videos about string theory.” She also mentions that Mrs. Armour’s AP French Language class “watched ‘Three Men and a Cradle’ in both French and English. Now,” she said, “we’re writing an essay comparing the two movies and two cultures.”
AP Chemistry students, under the guidance of Mr. William Morris, have undertaken a project to fuel all of the lawnmowers on campus with cheaper, cleaner burning bio diesel fuel. Using discharged vegetable oil (taken from the Dining Hall) the students, through a few basic procedures have been able to successfully produce bio diesel at a cost of about $2.25, which is less than half of the retail price of diesel fuel now a days. Mr. Morris hopes to expand this project over the coming years, with the help of future classes, to a large enough scale that he will be able to free maintenance services from the crippling prices and wasteful emissions of the current diesel market.
Another AP student, Kimberly Lum ’10, said, “In my AP Chinese class, we’re watching movies still pertaining to the Chinese culture and history. We also discuss and do presentations on the upcoming Beijing Olympics.” Her classmate, Ian Chan ’10, said, “We are watching a Chinese movie called ‘Farewell My Bride.’ Instead of writing papers, we’re doing PowerPoint presentations for aspects of the Olympics; we have to learn about each of the Olympic mascots, and et cetera. Pre-AP and post-AP aren’t too different. I had hoped that after the AP, the class would be much more relaxing; however, we still have to do a lot of work and analyze. It’s still as rigorous.”
