AP Human Geography classes are kicking off the year with a fantasy-football-style project but rather than drafting players, students draft countries and compete in various challenges to earn points until a winner is declared.

“We thought it was a fun way to introduce the kids to high school and working with each other and accomplishing tasks in small amounts of time.” AP human geography teacher Tim Johannes said. “They enjoy it and they know that [the class material] might not be fun, but in the future, we could do other fun things.”

The project is a collaborative effort among groups of the the students choosing, allowing students to interact more with their peers.

“You get to work with other students and come up with new ideas,” freshman Gurnoor Narula said. “As a freshman, I’m new to this school, so it’s fun to help and meet other students. You learn better with your friends and peers, so I get exposed to new cultures and new ideas and different ways of thinking.”

While group projects can sometimes be more difficult, some students respond better to the more interactive and involved projects.

“It’s definitely better [than other classes’ projects] because you get to choose what you’re doing, so it’s better than essays and tests and stuff,” freshman Ariana Khan said. “You get to learn more about a piece of the world that you don’t know about that’s actually part of the curriculum and you get to figure out how to work with new people.”