AP Environmental Science with Ms. Shumer
Explore and investigate the interrelationships of the natural world and analyze biological and human-made environmental problems.
Skills You’ll Learn:
- Explaining environmental concepts and processes
- Analyzing data, visual representations, and writings
- Applying quantitative methods in solving problems
- Proposing a solution for an environmental problem and supporting your idea with evidence
- Analyzing a research study to identify a hypothesis
College Course Equivalent
A one-semester, introductory college course in environmental science
AP Seminar with Ms. Blanding
This course will examine fairy tales from different periods and how those female and male archetypes have influenced us all. We will focus on gender stereotypes and how those stereotypes affect girls and women. Additionally, we will create our fractured fairy tales (tales that show women in empowered positions). It is through our examination of stories such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood from The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, Marina Warner’s Once Upon a Time- A Short History of the Fairy Tale, Ellen Handler Spitz’s “The Irresistible Psychology of Fairy Tales” that we will engage in this critical work. Students will focus on creating and supporting inferences, the research process, analyzing sources’ credibility and relevance, and producing well-written papers through a comprehensive revision process. Since this course has an AP designation, there will be several required through-course requirements (listed below).
Course Requirements
- Individual Research Report (1200 words)
- Team Project and Presentation + Oral defense (8-10 minutes)
- Individual Written Argument (2000 words)
- Individual Presentation + Oral Defense (6-8 minutes)
Students will receive monthly calendars with daily assignments and topics to be covered. The course instructor distributes these calendars at the beginning of November.
AP English Literature with Mr. Lee
The course content outlined below is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. Your teacher may choose to organize the course content differently based on local priorities and preferences.
Skills You’ll Learn:
- Read a text closely and draw conclusions from details
- Identify the techniques used by an author and their effects
- Develop an interpretation of a text
- Present your interpretation and make an argument for it in writing
College Course Equivalent
An introductory college-level literature course
AP English Language with Mr. Lee
Learn about the elements of argument and composition as you develop your critical-reading and writing skills. You’ll read and analyze nonfiction works from various periods and write essays with different aims: for example, to explain an idea, argue a point, or persuade your reader of something.
Skills You’ll Learn:
- Reading closely, analyzing, and interpreting a piece of writing
- Evaluating a source of information
- Gathering and consolidating information from different sources
- Writing an evidence-based argument
- Drafting and revising a piece of writing
College Course Equivalent
An introductory college-level literary analysis course
AP US History with Mr. Otto
In AP U.S. History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in nine historical periods from approximately 1491 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills and methods historians employ:
- Analyzing primary and secondary sources
- Developing historical arguments
- Making historical connections
- Utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, continuity, and change
The course also provides eight themes that students explore to make connections among historical developments in different times and places:
- American and national identity
- Work, exchange, and technology
- Geography and the Environment
- Migration and settlement
- Politics and power
- America in the world
- American and regional culture
- Social structures
AP U.S. History is equivalent to a two-semester introductory college course in U.S. history.
AP Research with Ms. Jones
The AP Research course challenges students to deeply explore an academic topic, problem, issue, or idea of individual interest. In AP Research, students apply the skills and discipline necessary to conduct independent research and inquiry to produce and defend their scholarly work. Students design, plan, and implement a yearlong investigation to address a research question they have generated, developed, and revised. Through this inquiry, they learn research methods, employ ethical research practices, and access, analyze, and synthesize information. Students reflect on their skill development, document their processes, and curate the artifacts of their scholarly work through a process and reflection portfolio (PREP). The course culminates in an academic paper of 4,000–5,000 words (accompanied by a performance, exhibit, or product where applicable) and a presentation supplemented with an oral defense component.
AP Studio Art 2D with Ms. Edwards
Develop your 2-D skills through materials and processes such as graphic design, photography, collage, printmaking, fashion illustration, and others. You’ll create artwork that reflects your own ideas and skills and what you’ve learned.
Skills You’ll Learn
- Investigating the materials, processes, and ideas that artists and designers use
- Practicing, experimenting, and revising as you create your own work
- Communicating your ideas about works of art and design
College Course Equivalent
A one-semester, introductory college course in 2-D art and design
AP Calculus AB with Ms. Grech
The Advanced Placement Calculus AB course follows the College Board Advanced Placement syllabus. AP Calculus AB will cover material typically seen in a first-semester single variable calculus course: a brief review of precalculus, limits, continuity, derivatives, antiderivatives, definite integrals, and some applications of the definite integral. Course study will include properties of functions, limits, differential calculus, and integral calculus. The main focus is a solid background in topics needed to indicate good preparation for the Advanced Placement Calculus Test (AB). Most colleges and universities will grant one semester’s credit for a score of 3 or better.
In your calculus course, you will learn the algebraic formulas for variable rates that will tie together the mathematics you have learned in earlier studies. Fortunately, computers and graphing calculators will give you graphical and numerical methods to understand the concepts even before you develop the formulas. This way, starting on day one, you can work on calculus problems from the real world. Later, once you understand the concepts, the formulas will give you time-efficient ways to solve these problems. You will learn calculus in four ways—algebraically, graphically, numerically, and verbally.
AP Computer Science with Mr. Hargrove
AP Computer Science Principles is an introductory college-level computing course that introduces students to the breadth of the field of computer science. Students learn to design and evaluate solutions and to apply computer science to solve problems through the development of algorithms and programs. They incorporate abstraction into programs and use data to discover new knowledge. Students also explain how computing innovations and computing systems—including the internet—work, explore their potential impacts, and contribute to a computing culture that is collaborative and ethical.