My name is Chris Helseth and I have been teaching social studies here at Desert Ridge High School for the past nine years. I currently teach three Advanced Placement classes; AP Human Geography, AP World History, and AP Seminar (the first class of the AP Capstone Program). These classes focus on introducing students, from Freshman to Seniors, to a wide-range of content and skills. Each year my goals are to provide students with rigorous, and engaging classes that build a variety of skills and knowledge, while preparing them success on AP tests and in their future academic endeavors.

Advanced Placement Human Geography at its broadest is a class that strives to help students to answer two important questions; how has the environment affected humans; and how have humans affected the environment. To answer the questions students will learn to analyze data, both qualitative and quantitative, about humans in regard to population, migration, culture, economics and a variety of other topics. Students will learn effective means of communicating their ideas and findings in the form of projects, presentations, and writing. While this class is offered to all students, freshman are encouraged to take the class particularly as it is an elective level introduction to the challenging, but very rewarding, Advancement Placement classes offered at Desert Ridge. Freshman will learn the many skills that will help them in future classes. Additionally, AP Human Geography provides an introduction to many concepts that will be explored in AP World History for Sophomores the following year.