It may seem absurd that there’s a class at Lake Highland where students can do projects on anything from AI to anatomical science. But that’s what AP Seminar is. AP Seminar, a class offered at Lake Highland, consists of researching, writing about, and creating presentations about almost any topic that students choose. Its following class, AP Research, focuses mainly on developing advanced research skills; again, on almost any topic. Together, these two classes offer students the opportunity to graduate with the AP Capstone Diploma. But with only 12 students in AP Seminar this year, one might wonder why these classes are less popular and lesser known.
Mrs. Chelsea Christensen, the current AP Seminar teacher at LHP, says that in AP Seminar, “Using an inquiry-based framework, students practice reading and analyzing articles, research studies, and foundational literary and philosophical texts.” The AP Capstone Diploma is described by College Board as a certification that, “Helps students develop key skills that they will use over and over in college: conducting research and communicating their results.” Indeed, AP Seminar and AP Research have a structure of working on these skills. And being able to conduct research is important in every aspect of life. Simply relying on what others have already researched, argued, and discovered is not enough to keep humanity moving forward.
As Mrs. Christensen explained, “I want my students to learn, yes, but maybe more importantly, I want them to question what they learn as well as what they read and see and hear.” Accordingly, in AP Seminar, critical thinking is at the heart of the curriculum. Students get to read arguments by other authors and evaluate their effectiveness. This helps students improve their own critical thinking and writing skills, as evaluating other authors’ arguments helps them improve their own. Additionally, AP Seminar requires students to write their own essays about research they’ve done. As for communicating results of research, AP Seminar involves many presentation projects, and Dhanush Tella, grade 11, says he enjoys the many presentations he’s done in AP Seminar so far.
Lake Highland has offered AP Seminar for several years, but right now, it only has two class periods, each with less than 12 students. Interestingly enough, AP Seminar can help people with a variety of interests. Minh Bui, grade 11, said, “I chose to take AP Seminar because I had previous experience in debate and believed the class would be a good way for me to hone those skills.” I took AP Seminar as a way to improve my writing for my personal creative writing pursuits as an aspiring fiction writer.
Additionally, AP Seminar fosters the exchange of perspectives and ideas between students. Mrs. Christensen said that in AP Seminar, “Students engage in conversations about complex academic and real-world issues through a variety of lenses, considering multiple points of view.”
In AP Seminar, students have a lesson in the library from LHP librarian, Mrs. Cindy Wray, on how to conduct research for their projects. Mrs. Wray said that databases are better for evidence for an argument, as opposed to Google, which is good for answers to questions. She stated that LHP’s databases can all be found in the “Library and Research” section of Classlink, something from which all students, not just AP Seminar students, can benefit. But AP Seminar isn’t just about an independent skill.
It’s about teamwork. Dhanush Tella, grade 11, said that something he enjoys about AP Seminar is, “Doing work with pretty chill people,” and that it helps him think in a, “Multi-faceted manner.” In AP Seminar, students must work on teams for several research presentation projects, some of which last an entire semester. While some essays and analyses are written alone, a group research project counts for a large part of the AP exam and a large part of the grade in the class. This teaches students that group work has a true, tangible value in school, just as it does in college and in the workplace. As the only AP classes with group work on the AP exam, AP Seminar and AP Research hold an important place in our curriculum, and they should be valued and recognized.
Individuality also holds an important worth in school. Mrs. Christensen has said that one of the things that make AP Seminar so unique is that it, “Allows them to take ownership of their own learning experience.” So, overall, the opportunity for group work, as well as the college-preparatory research skills and the freedom of research choice that students get, marks AP Seminar and AP Research as unique, applicable classes that may be just what some students are looking for.
