The AP Human Geography course fulfills the sophomore social science requirement for the first time this school year. AP Human Geo increased in enrollment this year partially due to an increased number of sophomores in the class, as a result.

Roseville Joint Unified High School District approved the decision that would allow sophomores in the district to take AP Human Geo for their social science requirement last spring. Students can now decide between World Studies, AP European History or AP Human Geo their sophomore year.

AP Human Geo teacher Mark Andreatta believes that this opportunity could continue to increase enrollment for the class in the future.

“I would say that there’s a good chance we could double the number of classes by next year,” Andreatta said.

This year, there are two AP Human Geo sections compared to one section from last year. According to counselor Graciela Fernandez, 27 of the 57 students taking AP Human Geo this year are sophomores.

Andreatta believes that there is a common misconception of AP Human Geo being easier than AP Euro. He could believes this misconception could serve as a contributing factor for future increases of sophomores taking the class.

However, he believes the material is new to most incoming students and can pose as a challenge for them.

“They’ve got the wrong perception of it,” Andreata said. “They’ve heard how hard AP Euro is without really understanding how hard AP Human Geo is. I think the volume of content is greater in AP Euro. But it’s still new to a lot of kids, so the difficulty level is there.”

Sophomore Kylie Granno believes that AP Human Geo is more suitable for her because of its lighter workload when compared to AP Euro and finds the curriculum more interesting to her.

“I felt that AP Euro, possibly, was too much work for my personal schedule,” Granno said. “[AP Human Geo] relates more towards current events and that’s more of what I’m into.”

AP Euro teacher, Carol Crabtree, believes that taking AP Euro helps students gain the skills necessary to be successful if they choose to take AP U.S. History during junior year. According to Crabtree, the skills required and the structure of the AP tests are identical.

Furthermore, she believes students who don’t take AP Euro or World Studies miss out on important educational background.

“I really think it’s a disservice to students to allow them to graduate from high school without having taken world history,” Crabtree said. “AP European History covers about 90% of the content of  World Studies. So if a student takes World Studies or AP European History, they are graduating with a pretty solid background in the area of world history.”

Having taken both AP Human Geo and AP Euro, senior Tommy Morin believes that AP Euro better prepared him for AP classes than AP Human Geo.

“I think if I had the choice, I would’ve chosen AP Euro,” Morin said. “It gives you the experience of having tougher curriculum and prepares you for other AP classes.”

Andreatta acknowledges that AP Human Geo won’t serve as a remediation for a typical world history course. However, he believes it’s the best class that addresses current events.