Thomas County Central High School has added two Advanced Placement classes to its growing roster of rigorous education options: Computer Science A and U.S. Government. TCCHS Assistant Principal Dr. James Rehberg said the school is “constantly seeking new challenges” for its students and “providing opportunities for them to master.”
“Our computer science class really tops off our system-wide programming initiative that extends down into the elementary grades,” he said. “As a STEM area, it really struck a chord of interest with our students looking toward the future.” AP Computer Science A instructor Patricia Beach teaches the course in order “to introduce computer science and programming to students in Thomasville.” She loves coding and enjoys “seeing the light come on for students when they realize what they can do with programming.” The class is a Java (not to be confused with Javascript) programming course that prepares students to take the AP CS A exam. It is also the final course students must take in order to complete the school’s Computer Science pathway.
“This is a challenging course,” Beach explains. “The main goal is to learn how to write programs in Java. Students study and prepare independently, like college students, and work labs during class. There is a great volume of material to cover and students must take responsibility for their learning.” Austin Kelly is taking the class to get his “foot in the water” when it comes to programming. His career choice is hardware engineering, which “will involve heavy amounts of programming.” “I hope this class gives me the knowledge of programming and the experience to tell if this is really what I want to do with my life,” he said.
Brendan Brock joined the class to increase his knowledge in the field prior to college and to finish his pathway. “I hope to gain deeper knowledge of the Java coding language,” he said. “My teacher’s instruction, so far, has been effective and challenging. It keeps me on my toes.” Many of the course’s students feel at ease with Beach and appreciate her teaching style. “Mrs. Beach is an awesome teacher, her instructions are easy to follow and she will give us a challenge to make us better programmers,” Hailie Hutchison said. Jameson Smith said Beach “teaches wonderfully” and he hopes “to gain knowledge in how computers and programs work.”
Haley Wharton joined the class in order to learn more styles of programming. “My teacher’s instruction is very easy to understand and straight to the point,” she said. “I find everything that we’ve learned so far to be very interesting. The most interesting would probably be Java though. It’s very easy to use and I enjoy it.” Other classmates agree that learning Java has been interesting. “It has given me a better understanding of code,” Cameron Tudor, who enjoys having the ability to program things, said of Java instruction. Hunter Hudson has enjoyed learning about how to edit and fix broken or buggy Java code. He said “Java is much more precise than HTML.”
Kelly said the lesson on debugging has, so far, been the most impressionable thing to him. “I realized this was going to be the hardest part for me before I took this class, but it’s been harder than I thought,” he said. “A lot of work goes into just debugging; it can really eat away at you because sometimes mistakes are just letters that should be lowercased, but instead they were capitalized. It really helps me understand just how much work people in these careers put into their jobs.” Beach hopes her students learn that “programming requires practice and discipline” and gain “a sense of accomplishment knowing that with confidence and determination, a person can do difficult things.”
Rehberg said “students were in overwhelming support” of adding the AP U.S. Government course this year. “I believe there is a great deal of interest in politics and how we govern, especially during an election year, and we have some very gifted young minds who want to understand the process more fully and perhaps become more involved on a daily basis,” he said. Joshua Niswonger is teaching the class. He believes “understanding the functions” of the nation’s government is “very important” for all Americans. “The course displays how each level of government has an impact on our lives,” he said. “That is what makes this course so interesting and valuable. The course provides the student a chance to learn the intricacies of how government works and the opportunity to see how they can be involved in the process.” Course activities will range from political cartoon construction to debates on policy and the upcoming election cycle, Niswonger explains. He encourages anyone with questions or interest in the course to stop by his room (C-8). “The main thing I want students to take away from this course is to be responsible, well-educated U.S. citizens,” he said. “They should strive to know the issues and be part of the solution.” Senior Chandler Watson wanted to take the course because he’d found his previous government class to be “extremely interesting and fun.” “I hope to gain a more in-depth understanding of our government’s history and processes today, especially the influences it has,” Watson said. One of the most interesting topics to Watson, so far, has been America changing how it interprets the Constitution over the last two centuries. “It’s amazing to see how the government has adjusted over time,” he said. Classmate William Cole Redfearn is taking the course to earn college credit and further his education in government topics. He calls Niswonger “a very influential teacher.” Watson said Niswonger “is awesome.” “Once, maybe twice, a week we debate different policies and insert several laughs,” he said. “There’s a lot of one-on- one interaction and the topics in class are things we use or relate to every day.”
Beach said AP courses are a positive for high school students. They “are academically rigorous,” “interesting” and “delve deeper into topics than regular high school courses,” she said. Also, colleges look for applicants who took challenging high school courses and many grant credit for AP exam scores. Brock, too, encourages peers to take AP classes and to not give up when it gets hard. “All it takes is a little bit of studying, a little bit of practice and the ability to learn from your mistakes,” he said. “That’s all you need to pass about any AP class. No matter how hard an AP class may be, don’t let it discourage you. When you give up, that’s when you’ll fail the class. It won’t be a good feeling, for you especially.”