In previous years at Edina High School, AP Economics has been treated as a normal, lecture heavy Advanced Placement course that students must attend every day. This semester, however, the course has gone blended.

Why the change? Edina AP Economics teacher Jason Szporn noted, “I think the days of students being shuffled from one ‘box’ to the next every 55 minutes are coming to an end. Soon, education isn’t going to be 30 teenagers being ‘talked at’ by one adult and I want to stay ahead of the curve.”

Mr. Szporn has designed the course so that students must only attend class on Mondays, Wednesdays and sometimes Fridays for testing. On “off” days, students are expected to watch online podcasts that cover material that would normally be lectured about in class and are encouraged to come in for help if a concept is ever unclear. After watching the videos and processing the content, homework assignments are completed and submitted online.

Through the use of technology, Mr. Szporn hopes to eliminate wasted class time and make the content more engaging for his students. He hopes to see scores on the Micro and Macro AP tests stay stable or even rise with the average score of his students on either test in years past being right around a 4.

With AP Economics going blended,  Mr. Szporn joins teachers in the English and physical education departments at Edina where similar blended course are currently being offered.