Golfing AP Statistics Away

By Leyla Lee

As we approach the end of high school and everyone has finished with AP exams, Mr. Kilgo, the AP Statistics teacher, takes his class on a golfing simulator trip to Gurney Paragon. A few days before the trip, Mr. Kilgo took the class up on upper field to practice some golf club swings.

As everyone stood in a line, he laid yellow cones about ten meters away from the line and had us aim the golf balls at them. With no surprise, the golf balls flew in every direction, and standing in that line was not even safe. Although some people managed to hit the yellow cones and cheered like they had won the lottery, they were lucky shots by the way they swung their golf clubs. The class had a special guest, Mr. Knutson, a high school teacher of many great classes, who came in with a glove on his hand and swung the golf club like a pro with nothing but talent! No one there could describe the impressiveness Mr. Knutson showed.

On the following Monday afternoon in May, Mr. Kilgo’s class had the privilege of skipping the second half day of school, and off they went to Paragon. The class had an hour to grab a bite of lunch by the food court before they were ready to use their whole bodies to give full-blown swings into a flat screen. Mr. Kilgo had split the class into teams for a competition to see who could hole putts with the fewest strokes. 

First, we started with practice rounds, and practice rounds…. and practice rounds… and more practice rounds…? We never got to the competition. Mr. Kilgo had intended us to keep statistics of our strokes and putts, but I guess he thought we were so bad at golf that he had forgotten about the competition. 

Even though we were all excited to see who was the best or worst golfer in the class, we all had fun at the golfing simulator. Kyra Brewster (11) said, “I had a great time learning to golgf and getting the swing of things. It was a nice break from a heavy year of work in AP Statistics, and I enjoyed learning a new sport.” 

The day ended with great pride in the swings some could do or boredom in those who were not bothered. In the end, the class got to experience one of Mr. Kilgo’s great after-AP exam field trips.