Instead of sitting and taking notes during a lecture last week, some AP students suited up for war, dodging imaginary bullets and bombs. It was part of an interactive lesson with social studies teacher Alexander Adkins, who is an Iraqi war veteran.

The AP Language and Composition students are currently reading the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. The novel is a collection of short stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War.

The lesson was meant to help students better understand aspects of war.

“I enjoyed this class because I learned things I didn’t know before,” said junior Kiley Pazcoguin. “Mr. Adkins really put a lot of emotion into what he was talking about because he, himself, experienced a war. We got to get a first person point-of-view.”

Pazcoguin not only learned new things about war but also experienced it. A part of the lesson included students dressing up in military uniform. They reenacted a war scene by running across the class, while quickly leaping to the floor for safety.

In addition, Adkins’ AP U.S. History class learned to rhetorically analyze one of the United States’ most important documents, the Declaration of Independence, with English teacher Margy O’Kelly.

The collaborative effort between the two junior-level classes was a first of its kind and provided students with new perspectives on traditional classroom curricula.