After a year of absence, AP chemistry is back, under the new instruction of Mrs. Katharine Watson.

Last year, if students wished to take AP Chemistry, they had to travel to North.

“I wanted it back so bad,” Watson said. “They’ve had it every other year since like forever. I fought all summer to have this class.”

Only three students were enrolled at the start of this school year, but now there are five juniors and two seniors.

“Before we left for summer break, there were 11 or 12 in the class,” Watson said, “but we ended up with three at the beginning of the year and now we have seven.”

Junior Michael Robinson enjoys having a small class.

“I like the one-on-one time we have since there’s only seven people,” Robinson said. “We actually get to go through everything and learn the material. Mrs. Watson really goes into depth and she works personally with her students.”

As an AP class, they have a large amount of information to cover.

“This is my first AP class and there’s a lot of material,” Watson said. “It’s a lot harder than sophomore chemistry. AP’s a whole different can of worms. But we’re really having a good time. It’s a great group.”

Mrs. Watson teaches the lessons in detail and gives her students practice AP tests from past years to prepare them for the exam in May.

“She reviews what we already know from last year and then expands more deeply,” Junior Vana Bahram said. “She won’t stop teaching until we all understand.”

To help her students learn more efficiently, Watson tries to make the material interesting.

“I try to be real energetic and silly,” Watson said. “Even with AP, you still have to teach them things so that they remember. There’s so much to know that if you make some silly tricks to remember stuff, that helps. I just try to use variety.”

Bahram feels that Watson will prepare her students to be successful for the AP exam.

“I’m nervous about the test now, but I think that when the time comes Mrs. Watson will prepare us for success.”

by Lexy Ludwig

Photo by Gunnar Lund