AP Human Geography students create superheroes

Melody Tavallaee

Freshman Shreya Jagan works on a comic to represent her chosen natural disaster.

“We’re studying how natural disasters affect different countries and places on the planet,” teacher Tim Johannes said. “They picked a country, then they have to figure out what natural disasters they have in their country, and then they have to create a superhero that stops the natural disaster, and a lot of times they’ll create a supervillain too; so there’s lots of superpowers going on but they have to use geography to solve the problem.”

Making the assignment more individualized and expressive students were able to utilize their creativity.

“My favorite part was coming up with the characters,” freshmen Shreya Jagan said. “You see a lot of superheroes but since this was our own, we got to create women that could be powerful and empowering so that was really fun.”

Freshmen Nicolly Moreno believes that the project helped her expand her knowledge of geography as it combined the curriculum with a hobby she enjoys.  

“I personally like drawing and coloring,” Moreno said. “It helped me get a better understanding of geography and how it can impact other countries and different places.”

For some students, the project catered to different learning styles and help students have a better grasp of the content of the class.

“Also, drawing is really fun so if I’m doing something that I’m interested in and I see it it’s kind of easier for me to remember it,” Jagan said. “I think this will benefit me because I’m a visual learner and so whatever I see gets etched into my brain more than if I hear it.”

Ultimately, Johannes believes the assignment will help students adapt to the workload they will have throughout their high school careers.

“As 9th graders, just getting into the flow of having assignments that are due,” Johannes said. “They are kind of rushed on it so they’re working kind of frantically to get it done, which kind of helps them set the stage for keeping up with their homework and knowing when it’s due and it’s a fun way to learn as well.”