AP Psychology and AP Human Geography courses are now being offered in classrooms at Chapel Hill High School, following them only being offered online.
Principal Charles Blanchard said the main reason for this transition was the high cost of offering both courses online for a large volume of students.
“There is a cost every time a student takes a North Carolina Virtual Public course; we were well over 100 kids taking AP Psychology [last year] at $400 to $500 per student,” Blanchard said.
AP Psychology is taught this year by both Parker Whitehouse and new staff member Clara Hidalgo.
Prior to teaching at Chapel Hill High School, Hidalgo taught psychology at Grimsley High School.
She said teaching AP Psychology in a classroom setting will be beneficial to students.
“I think it’s great because we can do more hands on activities that help drive concepts home, and, if students have questions, they can ask them in real time and get a real time response,” Hidalgo said.
One activity she is excited to do with her classes is creating brain models. Students will make a model of the brain and its cortices using materials such as candy or yarn.
Hidalgo’s student, sophomore Kaitlyn Porterfield, said AP Psychology in a classroom allows for a closer relationship between the teacher and students.
“I feel like we have more of a connection in a real classroom and are able to do interactive and hands-on activities we wouldn’t be able to do in an online class,” she said.
AP Psychology teacher Parker Whitehouse also sees benefits in teaching students in a classroom setting.
This year marks Whitehouse’s first time teaching AP Psychology; other courses he teaches include Civics and American History.
He said students being able to interact with one another and play situations out is necessary for AP Psychology.
“You can read all that you want to about all of these psychological perspectives, but until you are able to actually go through simulations that show things, it isn’t going to have as much impact,” Whitehouse said.
Whitehouse’s student, junior Karolina Orocz, said face-to-face interaction with teachers and students in a classroom setting is especially important in AP Psychology.
“You get to collaborate with other students, and I feel like that’s one of the best parts,” she said. “We go through the social and behavioral aspects of psychology, and being able to work in a physical classroom makes learning so much easier.”
AP Human Geography teacher Jacob Manning said teaching in a classroom setting also allows for more in-depth instruction.
“You can go way more into depth on topics if you teach it in a classroom, and human geography is all about taking these big ideas and applying them to modern case studies,” he said.
Manning said the class will talk about migration crisis in Syria, people migrating from Africa to Europe and problems at our own border this year in class.
“It’s cool because we can see events happening in real time and apply human geography terms to them,” he said.
Manning said the main reason for the transition was the high interest in AP Human Geography.
“We had a critical mass of kids taking AP Human Geography online, and I have taught it before at a previous school, so it made sense for me to step up and do it,” Manning said. “To pay to do it online and not have an instructor or feedback on the writing was more expensive than figuring out how to get teachers in the school to do it.”
Manning’s student, senior Jack Baddour, said the class is entertaining and intriguing.
“I feel like we are always learning, and, on top of that, having a good, in-person relationship with my teacher is something that I think is essential to have,” he said.
