This school year, Freedom High School has added a new program to its selection of Advanced Placement classes. The woman responsible for facilitating the students of this cutting-edge intellectually stimulating course is Mrs. Lewandowski.

“The AP Capstone program, is a two year diploma program. It encompasses two classes: AP Seminar and AP Research. If a student passes both AP Seminar and AP Research, as well as 4 other AP exams, they get what is called an AP Capstone diploma. If they only pass AP Seminar and AP Research and don’t meet the requirement of four more, they receive a certificate. Both are beneficial,” said Lewandowski.

The program has even allowed modern technology to enter the classroom, unlike some other AP classes.

“We are using our mobile laptops which are provided by the school. These devices are used for all the students’ research,” said Lewandowski.

Mrs. Lewandowski was asked to teach these new classes, and even received training over the summer in order to be up-to-date on the outline of this noteworthy program.

“I love it, it’s an awesome class! I was very excited to be asked. The training I received over the summer cleared a lot of things up in terms of what the whole class is about, because no one really knew. But, from what I’m seeing the students able to do, and the products they are creating, I can tell it’s a great program that we should have had a long time ago. But, it didn’t exist until last year,” said Lewandowski.

Since this program was new to the students as well, Mrs. Lew was interested to see how they would react to the material.

“[The students] seem excited about it. I think with any new class, there’s going to be that buy-in of ‘Ooh this is new, I’m going to do my best,’ so that’s working in my favor. But they to be seem excited with the fact that they get to make choices in terms of what is going to be researched,” said Lewandowski.

As many might’ve guessed, this is not your average AP class. There are a few differences between the AP Capstone program and your other run-of-the-mill AP courses.

”The biggest difference between this program and other AP classes, is that there’s not just one final exam at the end. We have two performance tasks as well as a written exam during the traditional AP exam weeks in May. So, starting mid-December the students are testing. They are working in class and at home on something that’s going to count as part of their AP score. It doesn’t leave room for slacking. However, it is beneficial that they are able to take their time on these assessments. It’s also different that come December, it’s not very teacher driven. I am scoring the AP performance tasks, so I am not able to directly instruct the students. I become more of a facilitator rather than an instructor,” said Lewandowski.

So other than simply receiving the AP Capstone diploma or certificate to show off, why would any of the students at FHS want to take this AP course? Just take it from students currently enrolled in the program:

“In my opinion, AP Capstone is a valuable tool for preparing for college, and teaches you skills that will be useful no matter what you choose. It’s unique because it challenges you in multiple ways,” said senior Maya Patel.

“This program really gives you an insight into what you’re going to be doing in college. I strongly recommend it to all students,” said junior Breanna Snyder.

“This is a class that allows students to research issues and problems that are interesting to them. They basically have no rules or parameters set of where they can’t go. So if something interests them, they can research it. It’s also teaching them skills that colleges decided students were lacking. The skills that they’re learning in here are going to tell colleges I know what you want. I’ve got it. I can come into your classroom on day one and formulate a question. I know how to research it, I know how to look for reliable sources. I know how to get up in front of an audience to present and I know how to defend my research,” said Lewandowski.

Overall, this new program is an exciting opportunity for students to not only learn skills to prepare them to enter the college environment, but also to help them develop their understanding of various research topics. Since the students have been responding well to the material, hopefully the classes for AP Research will be full next year!