Don’t beat around the box: CollegeBoard introduces new AP course

An increasingly broad spectrum of courses are being introduced every year. Classes such as Advanced Placement Comparative Government and Politics and AP Pre-Calculus have been introduced for the upcoming school year; however, new courses are being introduced in schools around America to target niche studies for passionate students willing to exercise and improve their specific skills. These courses include AP Beatboxing and a Minecraft path course.

The choice to include AP Beatboxing in the 2023-2024 school year was due to an increase in attention to students’ gifted music abilities. 

According to CollegeBoard, “We had chosen beatboxing specifically as it targets one’s musical ability without the need for expensive equipment… This allows for schools across America to engage their students in their musical talent.”

Furthermore, the course will target a multitude of techniques used in the culture of beatboxing, such as mouth and hand technique, as well as aiming to increase an academic connection between students and teachers through a modern medium.

“We can see that some of our students at McIntosh have quite the musical ability, such as students in my current classes, and I can’t wait to see what our students have to offer us,” McIntosh High School and future AP Beatboxing teacher Bobert Cramlick said.

Students at McIntosh express excitement to enroll in a new AP class.

“I can’t wait to audition, I will try to replicate the Thanos Beatbox by Verbalase,” senior Bartholomew Hopkins said.

In order to enroll in the class, an audition has to take place to find the most advanced beatboxers.

“I’m nervous for the audition, but I can’t wait to spit some fire. Mr. Cramlick is the best teacher for this, you should see him go!” junior Patrick Brimstone said.

Similarly, the course path involving Minecraft combat will seek to improve upon academic connections between students and teachers through the popular video game medium while also targeting precision and the attention span of students.

The path contains the courses as follows: Intro to Minecraft combat, Minecraft combat principles, and Minecraft combat application.

The abilities taught through the courses of Minecraft combat are hand-picked in order to help both students and teachers in perfecting computer mouse precision and effectiveness with typing.

According to CollegeBoard, “With the introduction of Minecraft: Education Edition in 2016 and the implementation into certain classrooms in the following years (such as architecture and coding courses), students can now invest their time into the application that really matters and can quite literally “build” up their resume.”

Students at McIntosh also express excitement for the new course.

“Boy, oh boy! I’d love to take this class especially because of the teacher, Mr. Cramlick, but I really can’t wait to improve on my skills and reign supreme in the Bed Wars minigame. This is a new beginning for me, for McIntosh, and America,” junior Johnothan Frumpkin said.