Semester tests using varying approaches this spring

The final exams are coming up, and many of them are not the same as last semester’s.   

For physics class instead of a final test they have a final project. “The students are going to do a final project that will hit a lab standard and allow for remediation. I believe that hands-on learning is beneficial to student progress,” physics teacher Autumn Weaver said. 

She said the final exam for physics is also graded differently too. “In semester one there was a new standard created for the exam; for semester 2 it will be a lab standard,” Weaver said.  “For the lab, the students will have an option to pick which standard they want to do and create a project about that standard.”

Physics is not the only class that has a different finals from last semester. “For English 10 students are doing group fishbowl discussions. It will count for speaking and listening standards,” English teacher Molly Magill said. 

Some AP classes also have different finals.  “They will take a shortened exam of what the AP test will be like, which is the comprehensive of all standards, and it is in a week  It will add a piece of evidence for each strand,” AP geography teacher Traci Walsh said. 

AP Environmental science students already took their finals before the AP tests but will have a project to promote indigenous plants across Cedar Falls.