Advanced Placement
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) curriculum is a full-year, rigorous, entry-level course that introduces high school students to the foundations of modern computing. The course covers a broad range of foundational topics such as programming, algorithms, the Internet, big data, digital privacy and security, and the societal impacts of computing. This course culminates in a two-part AP Exam: a 70 question AP Multiple Choice Exam and an AP Portfolio in which students showcase their app development skills.
AP Literature & Composition
This course includes an intensive study of many works of literary merit. Through the close reading of selected texts, students will be able to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use words to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. Students will read and write deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work’s complexity, to absorb meaning in its richness and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form. As they read, students will also consider a work’s structure, style and themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of literary devices. Through these close readings and frequent writing, students will develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. The critical skills that students learn to appreciate through the continued analysis of a wide variety of texts will in turn serve them in their own writing as they grow increasingly aware of these skills and their pertinent uses. As this is a college-level course, performance expectations are appropriately high, and the workload is challenging. Because of the demanding curriculum, students must bring to the course sufficient command of mechanical conventions and an ability to read and discuss prose. The course is constructed in accordance with the guidelines described in the AP English Course Description, and culminates in a 3 hour long AP exam: 55 Multiple Choice Questions and 3 Essays (Prose Analysis, Poetry Analysis, and Literary Argument.)
AP Calculus
An Advanced Placement (AP) course in calculus consists of a full high school academic year of work that is comparable to a calculus course in colleges and universities. AP Calculus will follow the topics outlined by the College Board, along with additional topics that the instructor deems fit to include. Each student will complete a simulated AP exam at the end of the semester that will be counted as the final exam for the course.
AP Biology:
AP Biology is equivalent to a two-semester college introductory biology course. The course is designed to offer students a solid curriculum in introductory college-level biology. The course is structured around enduring conceptual understandings and the biological content that supports them. Students will engage in Science practices that are employed to help students utilize inquiry-based learning that maximizes the depth of their learning. Students will be provided with opportunities to develop skills utilized by biologists as they employ the science practices throughout the course. AP Biology allows students opportunities to develop an appreciation for the science of biology and to identify and understand unifying principles within a diversified biological world. The process of inquiry and the development of critical thinking skills are also important components of the AP Biology Curriculum. Students will also engage in hands-on or Virtual labs to investigate natural phenomena. All the units are organized around coherent storylines, in which students ask and investigate questions related to an anchoring phenomenon or design challenge that is culturally relative to student’s lives.
Requirements: Successful completion of 13 Inquiry required labs along with submitted lab reports as proof of completion.