Starting in the 2017-2018 school year, Carlsbad High School will be offering a new AP course for incoming juniors called AP Capstone. This course will have two parts: AP Seminar and AP Research.

AP Capstone is a research based class which will focus on analyzing arguments and creating your own. This class will look at various texts and help students with their critical thinking skills when writing.

“That’s our goal, to be able to read nonfiction text and look at how the arguments are developed and what’s strong and what’s not so strong,” english teacher Mrs. Britton said. “Then also to look at the same topic from different perspectives, and able to write your own arguments.”

CHS offers many AP courses for various students who want to be challenged in various subjects. So why did CHS decide to begin another AP course?

“I think we were looking to expand our AP program and opportunities for students to take more AP classes, and also give them a really in depth research experience,” Britton said.

Because this is an AP course, students will have to work hard to achieve their goals in this class. So although this may be a difficult class, it will still be very feasible for the students here at CHS.

“I think you need to be well-versed in critical reading and writing,” Britton said. “I’m hoping that a lot of this work will be done in class, although second semester you’ll need to do a little bit of work outside because you are generating your own data and your own sources.”

This class is a great addition to any college application and will help prepare students for their future. For students who may know what they want to do in college, this class can help with that.

“I think this can help my future because it’s a really great program especially when you’re applying for college and I know when I’m older I want to do something similar to this, like building cases, so it can overall just help me to prepare,” sophomore Avery Smith said.

This is a universal class that can be helpful to any and all students, and is relevant to college education and the independent study that takes place.

“I think just gaining those research skills are something that would help students do well in college no matter what their major is and where they go,” Britton said. “Because a lot of what you do in college is self directed, so this will give you that foundation to do that.”