Young minds from two Thomas County schools joined forces this week for a unique learning experience centered on Advanced Placement (AP) classes.

Tuesday, Feb. 17, was AP Day in Georgia. Thomas County Central High School celebrated the day in a variety of ways, including "I Heart AP" buttons for AP students, an AP Open House, and a special opportunity for younger students to experience an AP course through the eyes of its students.

Students in Thomas County Middle School's Clayton Woodfin's eighth grade Physical Science class took a trip to TCCHS in order to work with Laura Kornegay's AP Chemistry class. The two classes joined forces for an introductory activity on the kinetics of a crystal violet reaction.

"Students were collecting data to determine the relationship between color intensity and light absorbance," Kornegay explained.

Woodfin, who majored in chemistry in college, said any opportunity to promote student interest in chemistry is a welcome one.

"I enjoy having older students available to help younger students learn," he said. "Sometimes they will listen to someone closer to their own age before they listen to me. I hope my students got to see that Chemistry is fun and useful, and maybe it got them interested in pursuing at least AP Chemistry, if not a career in Chemistry."

Student Chase Darley found the opportunity to be "a cool experience."

"I learned how light can be used to determine concentration of a liquid,"

Darley said. "I became more interested (in Chemistry) than I was before because the experiments seemed really cool."

Kornegay's high school students were likewise enthused about the opportunity.

Jane Guo said the experience "was like advertising AP classes."

Cole Donovan thought the exercise educational for both age groups.

"I thought it was good for the kids," he said. "It gave them a taste of the course and showed them it could be fun. For me, I liked engaging the kids in our lab."

AP classes, according to the Georgia Department of Education website(www.gadoe.org) "are college-level courses offered by trained high school teachers in the regular high school setting."

Kornegay hopes the younger students gained some knowledge about the importance of preparing for AP classes.

"The ground work for being prepared for AP level work begins several years before students begin AP classes," she said. "Hopefully this visit allowed some students to see why it's important to work hard and take challenging courses early to prepare them for rigorous work in the future."