Staples is and has always been a school known for its excellence. When it comes to math, some students have gone above and beyond the typical curriculum. Starting this year, students were given the opportunity to enroll in the brand new differential equations math class.

This class has been designed for students who have exhausted all of the other levels of math courses that Staples has to offer.

“This is the next course in a sequence of courses for several students,” William Wilkes, differential equations teacher, said. Wilkes describes the students as potential math, science, or engineering majors who will need differential equations credits in college.

Currently, there is only one section of differential equations with a class size of only five students. A smaller class size promotes “more teacher involvement and actual learning” according to differential equations student Arun Soni ’16.

“Its going to be a learning experience for me” Wilkes said. “I am not accustomed to having a class size of five.”

Some students show concern that a college-level math class should earn its pupils’ college credit. “Students who are indeed at this level deserve the college experience and college credit for taking these courses,” Cody Johnson ’15, who took differential equations at Norwalk Community College last year, said.

However, according to Wilkes, the school has recognized this concern and rewarded these gifted math scholars with, “AP weighting in terms of calculating GPA because its clearly college level mathematics.”

Now into its second week, the class of five is having positive experiences with the new course. “I don’t really know how it is going to turn out in the end, but it will be exciting and filled with Laplacian Transforms and Differential Equations,” Everett Sussman ’15 said.