College Board AP Environmental Science

 In another life I taught AP Environmental Science ( APES) in both public and private schools.  I was an AP Reader, AP Table Leader, and did some consulting with College Board.  Why?  The course is accessible.  College-bound students who want AP credit can probably pass this AP exam if they do some work.  Here is some research Collage Board provides with stats about students.  Students who take an AP and take the exam are better prepared for college.  Not every college-bound kid can take AP Chem; most can take APES.  Here’s the rub.  I was not exactly loved by the APES community with which I worked.  I am a conservative Christian.  Surprise!  There are few conservatives of any stripe in the APES community.  There were very few of us who car-pooled to church during the grading session.  I stuck with it for nine years until it came to a point it was just too stressful to fight for a place in the community.  

How did I teach?  I was neutral with the kids on nearly every issue.  I would not discuss contraceptives for deer. The solution is a bullet and extended deer season.  My students were well aware I was conservative.  However, I was happy to discuss controversial issues, such as population growth.  I just added interesting data such as the many Western countries desperate for more children.  There are pros and cons to every issue.  My kids were very good at discussing any issue.  

Not surprisingly, families avoid environmental science as too political.  I think if you stick with the issues and teach them with both sides of the issue, it’s an interesting course.  Let me share some material.  Here is the Course Description and a list of labs.  Here   are more lab ideas. My favorite lab is Parking Lot Biodiversity.  Here are the past three years of FRQs. Here  is a guide and slide presentation  for answering FRQs.   Khan Academy has an APES Course.  Here is the 1998 released exam,  the 2008 exam, 2010 exam and 2016 exam;  the 1998 is much easier than subsequent AP exams.  I made up my tests and quizzes from FRQs and released exams.  Look for older 2016 FRQs, 2017,  2018, .  You can sign up as an instructor to get all of the FRQs, too.  Here are the scoring guides for2016,  2017, and 2018.  College Board also publishes sample student responses and explanations for scoring: 2016, 2017, and 2018. 

The Miller textbook is the widely used for instruction.  Buy the most current edition you can afford.  However, I wouldn’t buy an expensive, new copy.

I have attended Summer Institutes for APES twice, as part of the certification required by the school.  There are annual AP Workshops which basically review the previous year’s FRQs.  I have attended many of these; for a few years, my colleague had me attend the AP Bio workshop, too, on her behalf.  

Finally, let me share some good resources: Power of the Pyramids (original) (2020 Data), Parachuting Cats in Borneo, Personal Energy Audit, my syllabus, an APES Test Review for the course, the A to Z , Project, and an  APES Math Review.  Warning!  Many, many APES teachers are activists; their websites and Weeblies tend to reflect extremes views.