Two new AP classes will be added to Diamond Bar High School’s lineup of 23 AP courses next school year: AP Human Geography and AP Computer Science Principles.

DBHS Instructional Deans Matthew Brummett and Gabriel Aguilar were able to include these two new AP classes because the course offering list had room for extra classes for the students to take.

The classes were approved by College Board before they were added to the course catalog.

“The more course offerings you can offer the students, the more access you can give the students to the curriculum,” Brummett said.        

AP Human Geography was introduced to the DBHS administrators by AP U.S. History teacher Ty Watkins.

According to Watkins, he had worked with Brummett and assistant principal David Hong since the summer of 2016 to include this class in the course offerings.

“My son took the class last year at another school, and Walnut has taught the class for over 10 years, so I thought that Diamond Bar students would love it,” Watkins said. “This would be a new challenge for me to teach a new course.”

AP Human Geography will be available to sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Throughout the year, the course will cover regional trends, world patterns and ethnic geography, which discusses diversity and economic trends of immigration with geography.

 “Something I am proud of about this AP course is that it does not require a documented prerequisite, so it’s available to whoever wants to take it,” Brummett said.

Instructional Dean Gabriel Aguilar was responsible for adding the AP Computer Science Principles course. According to Aguilar, he included this class due to the high demand from students for courses related to computer science.

“I have gotten to meet a lot of students that are interested in computer science, several of which have graduated and gone on to pursue computer science degrees,” Aguilar said. “A lot of this is based off of their feedback where students that want to pursue computer science are asking us to increase these types of classes.”

AP Computer Science Principles, which requires a freshman year Computer Systems prerequisite, is an introductory course for sophomores to take before Computer Science A, which is currently taught by Luke Shubin.

Unlike Computer Science A, the new course incorporates multiple coding languages.

In two years, Aguilar intends to introduce a capstone level senior course to follow Computer Science A. In this class, seniors can research and explore projects based on what they want to pursue.

“I hope our students are interested in taking these courses and exploring them, and I also think it’s going to help our Brahma Tech Program by offering a high quality introduction to that field,” Aguilar said.