For years now, students have gone through the numerous levels of math — Geometry, Algebra 2 Honors, Trig/Pre-Calculus — and have had only one main option: to continue with Calculus AB or Calculus BC, both AP courses.
Starting next year, students might be able to continue their math education in Calculus without being subjected to the difficulty of an AP class. For the 2015-2016 academic year, provided that enough students sign up, a Calculus course without the rigor of an AP level class will be offered. College Prep Calculus, the only Saratoga Calculus course without AP credit, will be introduced as a new math course for students who have finished Trigonometry/Precalculus Regular or Honors.
This will not be the first time that CP Calculus has been introduced into the curriculum; it was discontinued years ago because of a lack of signups. A combination of requests from parents and the results of student surveys conducted by teachers in math classes has prompted the faculty to put out the class for signups next year.
As of now, the faculty members have not yet decided who will teach the class, but teachers feel that it would be ideal for one of the Trigonometry/Precalculus Regular teachers to teach.
Trigonometry/Precalculus Honors and AP Computer Science teacher Debra Troxell said that the whole idea came mainly from interested students.
“One student came up to me asking why the school did not offer a non-AP course to continue on with after doing Trigonometry, and she said she and a list of students would have been interested had the course been offered,” Troxell said. “This is pretty much how everything started and the course became a real possibility.”
Troxell also said that a survey given to students in trig level math classes and above were given about the possibility of a new class from the choices Regular Statistics, Regular Calculus and half stats and half Calculus, an overwhelming majority chose the choice of Calculus Regular.
According to junior Maya Kumar, the option of a non-AP math class would reduce overall stress for students.
“Some of the students feel pressured to take as many AP classes as possible, so by offering a regular Calculus class, it helps us lighten the mental load and stress,” said Kumar.
The option of a non-AP math class allows students who don’t plan on pursuing a STEM path in college to take a math class their senior year without extreme rigor.
“Math usually isn’t a big focus of mine and its something I pretty much work on to get done,” said junior Luke Salin who plans to study film in college. “I’m fine with being in a class without AP credits for math since its not so important to me, so I’m really glad it was added for the upcoming year.”
