There are currently many AP informational meetings taking place at Hart to help students make informed decisions about the classes they may take next year. The first AP informational meeting that took place was about AP Biology. Mrs. Bae described how AP Biology gives students the opportunity to do very technologically advanced labs that people can not replicate in other classes. She also is the Honors Human Anatomy teacher. 

Mrs. Bae shared that “Students [consistently tell me] how valuable the class is, because they’ll go to the doctor and understand what the doctor’s saying. It makes students more informed medical consumers,” Bae said. 

Another AP Science class that is available to students is AP Physics. Mrs. Smith, an AP Physics teacher at Hart, said there are two prerequisites for AP Physics, “completion of [Honors] Geometry or Geometry with A/B, [and] strong algebra skills [are] recommended,” said Smith. 

The code to join the informational google classroom on AP Physics is zxn5yy. Smith also teaches AP Chemistry.  

“Completion of [Honors] Algebra 2/Trigonometry or Algebra 2/Trigonometry with A/B [is required to enroll in the course]” Smith said. 

AP Environmental Science, also known as APES, is one of the only AP classes available to freshmen. There is a parent-student information meeting on March 16 for anyone who is interested in taking APES. 

There are two AP English classes offered at Hart. The first students can take is AP Lang, or AP Language and Composition. 

“AP Lang is a really good class for reading and writing in [a] real world context,” said Mrs. Mohsen, one of the AP Lang teachers here at Hart. 

The works that students read in AP Lang are nonfiction. The other English AP class offered at Hart, AP Lit or AP Literature and Composition, “focuses more on fictional texts including poetry, short stories, plays and novels,” said Ms. Groscost, one of the AP Lit teachers at Hart. 

The class is very beneficial for students who love to read, and are going to major in English, or other careers that require a lot of reading such as law or journalism. All of the writing in AP Lit is literary analysis. 

For students who love History, there are three AP classes you can take. The first one available to students beginning their sophomore year is AP World History. 

“[AP World] is an excellent course for tenth graders to develop their skills and to prepare for college. It also teaches them a lot about global issues, [and] how the world has come to be in the last 600 to 1,000 years,” said Mr. Williams, one of the two AP World teachers at Hart. 

The history class following AP World History, AP U.S History, also known as APUSH, “is a year-long course for 11th graders interested in exploring US History at a deeper level and to prepare themselves for a college course and the AP exam,” said Mrs. Wanjon, an APUSH teacher at Hart. 

 She also shared the benefits of taking APUSH, such as “preparing yourself for a college-level course, gaining higher-level thinking skills, and passing the AP exam can give you college credit and save you money in the future,” Wanjon said. 

AP Government is a semester long course available for incoming seniors. 

The course “explores topics like the relationship between liberty and order, civic participation, competing interests in policy making, and current political events,” said Mrs. Ross, the AP Government teacher at Hart.

The class is intended to help students understand the founding of the United States, and to gain a better understanding of the workings of the U.S government. One of the AP math classes offered at Hart, AP Statistics, is a course that is taught by Mrs. Pauer.  

“Students learn about the major concepts and tools used for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. You’ll explore statistics through discussion and activities, and you’ll design surveys and experiments,” Pauer said. 

“The class does require lots of work and writing explanations and processes, but is a lot of fun,” Pauer said.  

The foreign languages taught at Hart, French and Spanish, also have AP classes students can enroll in. Both classes give students the chance to learn more in depth about the language they are studying, and can lead to students being fluent in said language. Taking AP French or AP Spanish also gives students the opportunity to be a part of either the Spanish Honors Society or the French Honors Society. 

Elective classes are the final subject offered to students in AP. There are four AP elective classes, two involving Computer Science. AP Computer Science Principles is the first class in the Computer Science CTE Pathway, and is “designed for students to learn about the technology that is a part of our everyday lives,” said Mrs. Armour, the AP Computer Science Principles teacher. 

AP Computer Science A is similar but focuses more on coding, and is an introduction to computer programming. AP Psychology and AP Music Theory are the other two AP elective classes. 

“AP Psychology covers a number of topics like neuroscience, perception, personality, disorders, treatment and social psychology,” said Mr. Koebel, the AP Psychology teacher at Hart. 

AP Music Theory helps students reinforce their knowledge of reading music and teaches them how to analyze as well as compose music. If you have any additional questions about AP classes, feel free to contact your counselor or one of the AP teachers. You can also visit Hart’s counseling website and click on the AP@Hart tab.