At the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, De Soto High School made AP Calculus BC available for students to take for college credit. The class was meant to allow students to continue their education in Calculus through a webcam with the Mill Valley High School equivalent class. The class was to be taught by the Mill Valley Calculus instructor Brian Rodke.

However, despite having a large amount of students attend the AP informational meeting last school year, only three DHS students were enrolled in the class: juniors Elizabeth Seidl, Cody Moose and Zach Deibert.

According to Seidl, the class itself is beneficial.

“[The class] is a good opportunity for getting college credit,” Seidl said. “I’m getting five hours out of it.”

The three were meant to stay at DHS and be taught through a live webcam, set up in Rodke’s classroom in Mill Valley. However, the technology was not quite the best fit for the class to use.

“The camera meets minimal needs, but it has it’s issues,” Seidl said. “Mr. Yarbrough and Mr. Rodke work hard to get it working.”

The camera’s picture was working, but the students found out the sound and communication would not go through at times. This led the three to decide to travel to Mill Valley for the class.

“We have it [the class] on white days,” Seidl said. “We all have first lunch, so we drive there during lunch and get to Mill Valley. We have to leave 15 minutes early in order to make it back to DHS.”

Unfortunately, the drive to Mill Valley has it’s drawbacks.

“We normally eat during the drive to Mill Valley,” Seidl said. “I miss the experience of getting to eat with my friends that day. Not being able to go to [Rodke] and check their answers is hard too, due to him being at Mill Valley. We email him instead. We still have to obey by normal tardy rules and bells, so we have to leave class early.”

Despite the inconveniences, Seidl recommends taking the class because of the benefits and experiences it provides.

“I would recommend taking the class,” Seidl said. “[Rodke] does a really good job exposing you to things outside normal high school math to prepare you for college. It’s nice getting to know some of the Calc 2 students at Mill Valley, and they have been very nice and welcoming to us.”