Written by Patrick Markovics and Wyatt Reu |

AP or Advanced Placement courses are challenging classes offered to students that are gifted in academia or passionate about a certain subject. AP classes are tough. Everyone knows it, but our students at Morgan thrive in challenging environments.

AP classes are more challenging than college prep and even honors classes.  “They tend to have more homework, are at a faster pace and have harder tests” explained Junior Michael Baker, who takes AP Government and AP English Language.

Advanced Placement classes such as AP European History and AP Biology have been at Morgan since 2002, and other AP classes such as Calculus, Spanish, and Physics were added in 2010. AP classes have been very successful at Morgan, and this year we added some new ones.

AP Government, AP English Language and AP Environmental Science have been added to the group. These new classes are taught by Christopher Zawadski, Leslie Chausse, Karen Kastle and Emily Lisy.

In AP Gov students will learn about government and political systems. In AP Lang, students will gain a higher understanding of how language functions, while deepening their understanding of the world. Students who take AP Environmental will learn about ecology, natural resources management, energy, pollution, and human population dynamics.

Senior Ashlyn Chidsey says, “In AP enviormental we do a lot of labs and projects. Sometimes, we go to the stream next to the school and we take samples to see how many organisms are in the water.”

Most students take AP courses to challenge themselves and/or to earn college credit.

Although AP classes are notorious for diminishing your social life, and burdening you with tons of homework, the students in the classes we stepped in were having a good time. Although it is difficult and challenging, it is a very positive environment where classmates are not only supportive but encouraging. When considerding classes for next semester, think about taking one of the new AP courses.