.jpg)
High achieving U.S. high school students typically study Advanced Placement (AP) courses since they are the most rigorous offerings at most secondary schools. They are sometimes considered “college-level” courses, and many universities offer credit for students who score well on AP exams in May. However, there are better ways to experience what higher education is like, and the college preparation that AP courses offer is overstated.
Lack of Depth
Several AP courses attempt to survey an entire subject area, sacrificing deep knowledge of any particular topic as a result. The AP Biology exam features eight units with completely different content, from ‘Cell Structure and Function’ to ‘Ecology.’ The ideas are interrelated, but the wide topic range restricts the depth to memorizing vocabulary and processes. In May of each year, students are tested mostly on their ability to apply basic biological concepts.
College-level biology courses often have a more specific focus as the professors teaching them have defined research interests. Examples within biology include neurobiology, molecular biology, and evolutionary biology, and the same principle applies across most academic disciplines. Having in-depth knowledge of a particular topic within a field is necessary to conduct research, and studies support restructuring introductory biology courses to focus more on specific topics.
Having a fundamental knowledge of biology is helpful to dive deeper into a particular subdomain and figure out the areas in which one is most interested. However, motivated high school students are capable of building a deeper understanding and performing their own research. High-achieving high school students have performed research in computational biology and neurobiology among many other topics. Curriculums should encourage them to reach their full potential.
If high school curriculums do not adapt, passionate students should use online learning tools and research advising to explore and contribute to knowledge in their favorite subjects. Jinso, a network for research mentorship, can provide research advising services to students looking to write and publish original work. Jinso’s research mentors will instruct students on the proper methodologies and techniques they need to create academic work.
Test Preparation
Many students rely on passing AP tests in May to receive college credit for their high school coursework, so AP teachers and students naturally spend time preparing for the exams. Classroom time is often spent reviewing old content, analyzing rubrics, and practicing how to structure responses to test questions.
Students would learn how to think more critically and independently if the goal was to build a deep understanding of a subject instead of passing the test. If a high schooler is passionate about a particular subject, they should lower their expectations for the associated AP course and self-study related materials online. Coursera courses and Jinso mentors can be great places to discover information and modern research. Completing a research project with Jinso is also a better way to demonstrate strong knowledge and motivation than a high AP score.
GitHub is a popular platform used by computer scientists to manage their collaborative projects, but a similar program does not exist for academic work. There is no standard platform to create work, connect with others, and share work in one place. Most platforms only fall into one or two of these categories.The Jinso collaboration tool is a better way for groups to work on projects. By bringing the entire academic collaboration process onto one tool, it simplifies workflows and communication.The first steps for using the Jinso platform are:
Once a user builds a network, they can create new Groups that consist of their network members. By default, the creator of a group is the admin. The most common Group is a research group, but the platform can manage several other types of academic projects. Platform users can create study groups for sharing course materials or groups of club members for extracurricular work.The admin of the Group has the ability to add new members at any time.
Admins are also responsible for creating Projects within Groups.
A Project for a research group is usually a research paper, but Projects can also be other forms of documents that could benefit from discussion and revisions. Examples include study guides, business plans, articles, and essays. Each Group can have an unlimited number of Projects within it, and all Projects within a Group are shared among the same members.
Once a user builds a network, they can create new Groups that consist of their network members. By default, the creator of a group is the admin. The most common Group is a research group, but the platform can manage several other types of academic projects.
Platform users can create study groups for sharing course materials or groups of club members for extracurricular work.The admin of the Group has the ability to add new members at any time. Admins are also responsible for creating Projects within Groups.
A Project for a research group is usually a research paper, but Projects can also be other forms of documents that could benefit from discussion and revisions. Examples include study guides, business plans, articles, and essays. Each Group can have an unlimited number of Projects within it, and all Projects within a Group are shared among the same members.
When a new Project is created, an initial revision must be shared. This can either be plain text or a PDF.
The Project will be immediately visible to all Group members with the first revision shown. Group members can comment on the revision with questions or feedback, and others can reply to comments.When another revision of the paper has been completed, the Group admin can add a new revision to the same Project.
The revision will become visible above the prior revision, and it will have a new comment box associated with it. Projects make it simple to keep track of a paper’s entire revision history and discussions at each stage.
For each revision, Group admins can also create subtasks. Arrows allow Group members to view all of the different subtasks and comment on them individually. Subtasks allow a paper to be analyzed in unique components. For example, a research paper can have a unique subtask for each of its sections, and collaborators can discuss them all separately in the comment boxes. Jinso is a quicker way to collaborate on long-term projects. It makes it easier to connect, share, and manage the development of ideas and papers. You can create a Jinso account and start using the platform today for your research and academic needs at jinso.io.
High achieving U.S. high school students typically study Advanced Placement (AP) courses since they are the most rigorous offerings at most secondary schools. They are sometimes considered “college-level” courses, and many universities offer credit for students who score well on AP exams in May. However, there are better ways to experience what higher education is like, and the college preparation that AP courses offer is overstated.
Lack of Depth
Several AP courses attempt to survey an entire subject area, sacrificing deep knowledge of any particular topic as a result. The AP Biology exam features eight units with completely different content, from ‘Cell Structure and Function’ to ‘Ecology.’ The ideas are interrelated, but the wide topic range restricts the depth to memorizing vocabulary and processes. In May of each year, students are tested mostly on their ability to apply basic biological concepts.
College-level biology courses often have a more specific focus as the professors teaching them have defined research interests. Examples within biology include neurobiology, molecular biology, and evolutionary biology, and the same principle applies across most academic disciplines. Having in-depth knowledge of a particular topic within a field is necessary to conduct research, and studies support restructuring introductory biology courses to focus more on specific topics.
Having a fundamental knowledge of biology is helpful to dive deeper into a particular subdomain and figure out the areas in which one is most interested. However, motivated high school students are capable of building a deeper understanding and performing their own research. High-achieving high school students have performed research in computational biology and neurobiology among many other topics. Curriculums should encourage them to reach their full potential.
If high school curriculums do not adapt, passionate students should use online learning tools and research advising to explore and contribute to knowledge in their favorite subjects. Jinso, a network for research mentorship, can provide research advising services to students looking to write and publish original work. Jinso’s research mentors will instruct students on the proper methodologies and techniques they need to create academic work.
Test Preparation
Many students rely on passing AP tests in May to receive college credit for their high school coursework, so AP teachers and students naturally spend time preparing for the exams. Classroom time is often spent reviewing old content, analyzing rubrics, and practicing how to structure responses to test questions.
Students would learn how to think more critically and independently if the goal was to build a deep understanding of a subject instead of passing the test. If a high schooler is passionate about a particular subject, they should lower their expectations for the associated AP course and self-study related materials online. Coursera courses and Jinso mentors can be great places to discover information and modern research. Completing a research project with Jinso is also a better way to demonstrate strong knowledge and motivation than a high AP score.
