On April 18th at Shadow Ridge High School, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Advanced Placement United States History teacher Noel Dover hosted a virtual breakfast APUSH boot camp in her classroom, offering students a motivating breakfast as an incentive to attend a study session on a weekend. The event was designed to help students prepare for the upcoming AP exam on May 8th. Shadow Ridge APUSH students joined a Google Meet on their Chromebooks with students from other schools, where APUSH boot camp instructors and AP test graders reviewed what to expect on the exam and how it is scored. APUSH students were able to interact with the instructors by asking and answering questions through the Google Meet chat. The session covered key ideas from Units one to nine, including important events, people, major concepts from each time period, as well as the different years of each period. Students also received guidance on the writing portion of the test, including the document based question (DBQ), long essay question (LEQ), and short answer question (SAQ), along with helpful strategies for managing time effectively during the exam.
“My big reason to hold a breakfast boot camp is because I think it inspired more kids to want to come,” Dover states. “If you make it more fun, they’ll come. I do believe that sometimes when you get to study with your friends or others, it’s a little bit more meaningful than just you by yourself. I wanted to see my APUSH kids have the opportunity to meet with other instructors and ask questions. Sometimes it helps to hear it from another person besides your teacher.”
The breakfast boot camp aimed to create a more engaging and welcoming environment for students preparing for the AP exam. By combining food, active collaborative learning, and review all in one session, the event encouraged more students to participate.
“I felt I was able to absorb the information given to me better in that more relaxed setting,” Daryl Ross Tupas, junior states. “I also got a better understanding of the material and how the test is scored.”
APUSH students who attended felt that the atmosphere was relaxed and helped them engage with the material in a more effective way. The comfortable setting and interaction with peers made studying feel less stressful and more effective.
“I decided to attend to improve my knowledge on all units of APUSH and gain some tips about how to best write the DBQ and LEQ while also getting to eat good food,” Liliya Paik, junior states. “It was a comfortable, stress-free environment that definitely helped refresh some previous knowledge that I haven’t looked back on in months and even helped with current topics I could use more information about.”
For many students, the boot camp provided both academic support and test-taking strategies while also making the experience more enjoyable. Having breakfast with the review session helped create an environment that was comfortable while still learning.
“I think the boot camp was successful,” Dover states. “There were kids there that I would not have expected to come. I think because students had the opportunity to have one-on-one with their own screen on the Google Meet, it worked, and a lot of kids were in groups with other students. I think they used this opportunity to have a study group.”
Overall, the breakfast boot camp was a huge success for APUSH students who attended. The interactive and collaborative session increased student engagement. The structure of the event allowed students to work more independently on their own device while benefiting from group discussions.
