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TOPS Advanced Placement CoursesPhysicsIn Grade 12, students are offered a unique opportunity: AP Physics. Usually, students are only able to take this course once they are in university. The course is open to the entire school, but is composed largely of TOPS students.
After taking Grade 11 Physics with the Prime Minister Award winning Mr. van Bemmel, students are given the option of taking AP Physics. For those who choose to take the AP course, school begins to take on a whole new meaning. AP physics is a university style course: tests are written bi-weekly between 3:15 and 4:15 after school, labs are conducted outside of class time and work is assigned at an impressive rate. Students work in groups and must cooperate and help each other to finish everything on time. The final project is one of epic proportions and requires students to reach far above their own assumed potential.
It is this preparation that guarantees that there is always a full class of students willing to work in AP physics.
Students form very close relationships with their peers, the course and their teacher, who, in turn, dedicates a large amount of his time to the program and the students. It is arguable that AP Physics is one of the most advanced and demanding high school courses in the country. CalculusThey say, all roads lead to calculus. TOPS AP Calculus realizes this, so there is a large focus on it. In TOPS, calculus is taken in Grade 11, instead of the normal Grade 12. Within the first month, a TOPS calculus class has covered the complete Ontario curriculum, and for the remaining months covers enrichment topics. The textbook is more extensive than most first year university Calculus text books, and the teacher, Mr. McMaster, has won The Prime Minister’s award for teaching. Every student comes out enriched, and many TOPS graduates have come back to say that comparatively their first, second, and sometimes even third year university calculus courses have been easier.
Mr. McMaster also teaches Linear Algebra to the Grade 12 TOPS class. Together with the Calculus course offered by the program, TOPS Linear Algebra helps students better prepare themselves for the more challenging university programs.
English
Students also learn about ethics and philosophy from the Prime Minister's Teaching Award winner Mr. Hussey. The program's English courses stress extensive work on both students' creative and formal writing skills. This makes for a very rich course suited to the potentials of a highly motivated student group. Below are some of the works of TOPS AP English students:
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Although TOPS is a math and science program, one of its main strengths is its English program. Students study classics such as Heart of Darkness, Oedipus Rex, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Othello and Wuthering Heights as well as more contemporary novels and plays, like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, No Great Mischief and All My Sons. 