A look into one of the most popular underclassmen courses
By Rebecca Furnari
One of the most popular underclassmen courses at Timber Creek High School is AP Human Geography (APHUG). Many freshmen and sophomores have been taking the course throughout this past year, but what is it actually like? One of the Timber Creek High School (TCHS) APHUG teachers and two students shared their thoughts about the APHUG class and curriculum.
Mr. Tesch has been teaching APHUG at TCHS for 4 years (since 2020). He was inspired by his love of sharing history to young students. When he started teaching he enjoyed learning about population statistics along with his students, because he was not previously educated on it. Tesch expressed how mature and more capable the 2023-2024 freshmen class is compared to his previous freshmen students. Mr. Tesch also mentioned his favorite unit to teach students is “Economic Geography, because we use economics daily, which is very important to teach.” He mentioned that students who take APHUG learn how to push and motivate themselves to learn important topics that people use daily without even realizing it.
Freshmen Sofia Dzoba, who is in Mr. Tesch’s fourth period APHUG class, decided to take the course from a recommendation from her counselor, because of her academic excellence in her previous classes. At the beginning of the year, Dzoba struggled with getting comfortable with the amount of work given, compared to the average middle school class, as more effort and concentration were required to succeed and learn in this course. “The most important thing to me is probably paying attention. If you don’t pay attention in this class, you probably won’t do well. Studying is as important as paying attention as well,” stated Dzoba. When students put in the time and effort it makes the class more enjoyable and valuable overall. Every unit is unique, but both Dzoba and Merryweather expressed their interests in the folk and pop culture unit. Dzoba mentions that she enjoys how interactive and helpful everyone is in class, which makes class even more exciting and enjoyable environment. Mr. Tesch makes learning engaging and intriguing each lesson, which leaves students wanting to learn more everyday, and providing valuable help to each student, which Dzoba appreciates. When the question about ‘reasons why future students at Timber Creek High School should take APHUG?’ was brought up, she claims that the course doesn’t seem very beneficial on the outset, but students actually learn many useful subjects and it is a pleasant course overall.
Another student, freshmen Ariel Merryweather was interested in this specific class because she wanted to challenge herself by taking college level courses. During the beginning of the school year Merryweather thought that the class was relatively uncomplicated compared to her other college level classes. She expressed how engaging and fun each unit is, her personal favorite also being the folk and pop culture unit, which seems to be one of the most popular units within the class. Concentrating and staying on track with assignments each quarter is one of the most important parts to Merryweather in this course. According to Merryweather, what she enjoys most about the class is the freedom of working on assignments. “I enjoy less teacher overbearingness,” she said. She also mentioned that it’s worth to take because of its important and life-relevant topics, as well as being easier compared to other college level classes, plus the exciting activities make the class even more enjoyable.
