A student straightens his tie, his trembling hands smoothing down his blazer as he reaches for his flashcards yet again, silently mouthing highlighted, underlined and numbered words that fill exactly two notecards. He looks up to Chloe Felterman and Melissa Kaplan, the two supervising AP Seminar teachers, and stares directly into the propped-up camera that captures him and his three other classmates and group members. He quickly looks over his shoulder at the presentation that took him and his teammates over three weeks to complete, every slide positioned and written exactly to coincide with their scripts and their chosen issue they chose to address for the class. He takes a deep breath and looks into the lens of the camera. “Hi, my name is Benedict Santos, and I am researching gender inequality in college sports through an economic lens.”
Every year AP Seminar students like Santos are tasked with a TMP, marking the hard work and effort needed throughout the year. The TMP, or Team Multimedia Presentation, is a collaborative presentation created by a group of a group of three to five students, identifying a main issue and analyzing solutions and conclusions students can make based on the issue they choose to explore.
AP Seminar students are given the opportunity to explore global problems, from low income housing availability, to the impact synthetic sweeteners have on health. For sophomore Reya Kurup, her group chose to research urban sprawl. “I was nervous about the TMP, because the AP Seminar teachers record it and then send it to the AP College Board;; it’s a pretty big deal. I think that me and my group did really well though, and we rehearsed and memorized our lines so much and made sure our presentation slides were perfect.”
Unlike other courses, where presentation topics are normally picked out by either the teacher or curriculum, AP Seminar is one of the few classes that gives students the chance to explore issues that pique their interest the most. AP Seminar teacher Michelle Hanson encourages students to explore different topics, and is proud of her students. “I thought the TMPs went really well, from the standpoint that this is the first time we have done it during the school day,” Hanson said. “Typically we have them after school, but this is the first year we have chosen to do them during class. Usually before this year, we would have about 20 to 25 TMPs, but this year we had 64 because of the massive number of students taking AP Seminar.”
Before starting the TMP, AP Seminar students first partake in a mock TMP unit, which consists of the same format for the normal TMP, without the pressure of the actual project. After going through the mock version of the presentation, students are put into groups and begin by researching issues that they may be willing to deeply analyze, research and discuss. Sophomore Edlawit Abebe and her group finally fixated on the issue of gun violence, then started their research. “I think having a mock unit before the actual thing really helped,” Abebe said. “When we did the actual thing, my whole group was really good at being focused and on task and actually being interested in the issue. It got harder as it led up to the actual presentation though, and our preparation for the presentation the week of was pretty stressful.”
In addition to Hanson, AP Seminar teachers who specifically teach sophomores, Kaplan and Felterman and Catherine Boswell, give students weekly assignments that go along with the research they are tasked with completing. The IRR, or Individual Research Report, is a written document completed by students separately leading up to the TMP. Worth 10% of the final, students complete this report and send their final work to AP College Board along with the TMPs, counting as part of their AP exam.
Although the process of presenting in front of teachers, fellow classmates and a camera that records video directly sent to the board that administers AP tests, this year’s round of students partaking in the process of TMPs ultimately were well equipped to succeed, and will reap the benefits of hardwork and dedication, according to their teachers.
