The Advanced Placement (AP) Seminar class of 2023 is being instructed by Mrs. Borger-Germann, with her students already half way through their AP seminar course. Mrs. Borger-Germann has worked hard to guide these students through the difficulty of an Advanced Placement College course. The AP seminar class is the first year of two of the years in the AP Capstone Program for the College Board. Juniors take on this rigorous research work to excel their researching and writing skills as well as problem solve present day issues outside of school. 

During tShe second trimester the junior scholars work together in a team project to research and problem solve through these real world issues.

“We’ll deliver our presentation next week and after that we will write a long research paper which we are given about 30 days to work through,” said Veda Fitzpatrick, ‘24.  

The presentations that each group of scholars is working on were picked by the students in each group. Working on their investigating skills these students plug away daily, during sixth period with Borger-Germann who has enlightened these students to find their passion in research work. 

“Mrs. Borger-Germann talks a lot about being mindful and taking care of ourselves which is really important and helpful because we have lots of difficult work,” said Elli Hagedorn, ‘24.  

Each group has been inspired by topics that they find interesting or want to learn more about. Scholars have been working on their research skills individually and as a class all year to build up their knowledge of how to properly write a well- rounded research paper. Unlike the first trimester, the second trimester of the class revolves around learning to coercively work as a team on controversial topics. 

“My group is working on the team media presentation. We’re synthesising those into one big idea, each group member looked at one problem through their own lens and we put them all together, voiced our opinion, and came up with solutions to present on the current issue,” said Puck Carlson, ‘24.

The team media presentation isn’t the only topic of discussion, variety in the ideas this class covers is important to know in this course. 

“We’re doing the effects of extracurricular activities and school on mental health and academic success based on stress, and additionally the aspect of culture and the social lens” said Elli Hagedorn.

The AP seminar class is a student oriented class, where the scholars have an opportunity to be more independent and time sufficient with their group workload. Being an AP course, Mrs. Borger-Germann has provided the guidance and teaching she can but still she cannot conduct the course though due to it being led by the College Board. 

“Mrs. Borger-Germann is limited in what she can help us with, since we’re submitting all of our work to the College Board,” said Veda Fitzpatrick. 

Scholars have to be independent as well as working together in their own student body teams. Before creating these presentations the teams have to work on their own to come up with ideas they are interested in before collaborating in their project.

 “I’ve had to work through a lot of things on my own in order to be self-sufficient instead of depending on someone telling me what to do, which is something that I’ve learned taking this class,” said Veda Fitzpatrick.  

This advanced placement course challenges these scholars to work sufficiently on difficult research papers with college level writing. These challenges and tasks allow students to develop those problem solving and critical thinking skills that will assist them in their futures. 

“This class has actually really helped me with the understanding of academic and formal writing works; which I think will be valuable to me, especially through college because I want to pursue a STEM degree,” Puck Carlson said.