Huge successes from AP course offered at MBJH

Mountain Brook Junior High offers the fastest growing AP course sponsored by the College Board. In 2016 over 187,000 students took the AP exam in Human Geography. First offered in the early 2001, AP Human Geography is one of the newer AP courses. Nationally, approximately half of the students who enroll in the course are in the ninth grade. The course allows students to learn the same material that college freshmen learn. During the past two years that MBJH has offered the course, there has been extraordinary success. One hundred percent of MB students who took the class and the AP exam became eligible for college credit — a remarkable fact considering the national average is approximately 52 percent.   

Lisa Lewis, a 10-year veteran history teacher at MBJH, heard about the course, and with the help and support of the administration and school board, brought it to our school. She has taught the class for the past two years and begins her third this school year. She first became interested when she asked the question, “Is there more that we can offer students who have great success in regular geography?” Lewis notes that geography as a subject is often misunderstood. While many people think geography is simply learning about where places are located, Lewis prefers to think of geography as the “Why of Where” — where are certain trends observable; where do certain customs and practices exist; and why do these things occur in one place and not another?

Students in AP Human Geography study population, migration, cultural patterns and processes, political organization of space, agriculture, food production, industrial and economic development, cities and urban land use. While the course is open to any student who wishes to take the class, students should have a strong interest in current events and world affairs as well as a strong work ethic.  

AP Human Geography is an attractive elective for students who want to be challenged, want to try something new, are looking for something outside their comfort level or simply enjoy geography.

– Submitted by Hayley Young.