Dear
AP Biology students and parents,
I am privileged and excited to have you as a member of
the Woodford County High School’s AP Biology class.
As you surely know, the Advanced Placement Program is designed to allow
High School students to earn college credit and/or advanced placement above the
introductory course level at the college of their choice.
This is a program of credit by examination.
The College Board hires the Educational Testing Service to compose and
grade the AP exams, given each spring to over 800,000 students in 35 AP
disciplines. The
2007 AP Biology exam will be given nationwide on Monday morning, May 14th.
Grades of 1-5 are assigned, with a 3 being a minimum passing score.
In 2006, nearly 132,000 students world-wide took the Biology exam.
The mean was a 3.05 and 61% of all students taking that exam scored a 3
or higher. In
AP Biology is a college-style course taught in High School by experienced and motivated teachers. AP audits (coming in 2007), will ensure that schools offering AP electives are following AP guidelines for teacher preparation, texts, syllabi and lab experiences. It will be difficult at times and always a challenge, because colleges expect AP students to have had an “equivalent” experience to their freshman non-majors course.
Many private and some out-of-state public institutions
give credit for introductory Biology to applicants with a score of 3 if they are
non-science majors, but many might not accept that same score for credit or
advanced placement if you will be pursuing a science major. Kentucky Senate Bill
74 however, stipulates that all
The reality is that our understanding of molecular biology and the application of biotechnology is reshaping the way that biologists think and how biology is being taught. Over the past 20 years, there has been a staggering increase in the quantity and complexity of information presented to introductory level students in Biology. As a result, marginally prepared students are less likely to succeed in higher level courses. Colleges are also placing more emphasis on the laboratory experience as a way to illustrate the connection between concepts and the “doing of science”.
I am confident that this course, at the very least, will give you the “Advanced Preparation” (AP) you will need to be very successful in a typically large and impersonal college course that is somewhat designed to “weed out” pretenders.
Each student and parent should fully expect AP course requirements and my expectations for your success to go well beyond what was experienced in an advanced level pre-requisite. The number of traditional “daily work” grades will be insignificant. Students are expected to be accountable for their own learning. While I will be very supportive and available for help when needed, I will not employ a “carrot and stick” strategy to entice you into putting forth a quality effort. This you will soon learn in your forthcoming years of schooling.
Pre-class text and lab manual reading will be your biggest daily responsibility. With each assigned chapter, some of the material will be familiar to you and this I will expect you to know or at least re-learn on your own. The bulk of my teaching and our discussion will focus on what you probably don’t already know or understand, with emphasis upon the “big picture” via the 3 E’s. I will Explain, give Examples and provide Elaboration. In order to help both of us stay organized and on schedule, I plan to supply you with hole punched, pre-reading sketches or outlines to which you can add personal notes for a helpful study tool.
Additional reading and sharing of information will be done through periodical reviews, Science News, literature searches, guest lectures on CD from the H. Hughes Medical Institute, suggested Internet links and access to the AP Biology Lab Bench at phschool.com. This site will be used extensively for pre-lab preparation, simulations and “fun stuff”. As a test preparation strategy, I have practice test manuals for student selected study pairs. This can be used throughout the course to self-evaluate and polish up on your weaknesses with the help of a chosen “study buddy”.
I have seen AP Cliff resources and certainly can’t argue against their use IF you are disciplined enough to devote time to reading them prior to the AP test. Since there will be a few topics we will have very little, if any time to address given our 16 week timeline, they may assist in “cramming” if you are so inclined!
Good writing will also be emphasized throughout the course, although it must be said outright, that good science writing is not synonymous with creative writing, much to the dismay of our fine English faculty! Science writing utilizes third person voice to convey objectivity and information clarity. It is succinct and correctly uses terminology needed to convey meaning and demonstrate competence. Rest assured that this is an acquired skill that can be learned through practice. Selected lab reports and free response questions (content specific) as part of quizzes and tests will give you this practice. As the term progresses, these will become timed events so as to simulate how much (little) time is realistically available for complete answers on AP exam day.
The most difficult challenge in any AP or college course is the need to stay academically focused and consistently give a good effort throughout the term. The tendency to “coast” will surely strike everyone and academic malaise can be contagious, as you may know, upon returning from Spring Break. This is especially true for seniors. For others, procrastination and the mindset of compensatory “cramming” may be your downfall. An A or B in this course and/or a passing AP exam score is highly unlikely when these pitfalls are realized.
Regardless of your personal level of preparedness, as your teacher, I fully expect you to give your best effort on exam day so that you and I can both get better at meeting academic challenges.
Learning is an active process and I am a firm believer that you will “reap what you sow” in terms of effort invested. There will be some tough topics, long nights and moments of exasperation that will test the both of us. Accept these as an inevitable adjunct along the road to higher education. Having stated these warnings, I must also say that I want you to enjoy every minute of it! As your teacher, I will do my best to see that this will happen.
Sincerely,
Mr. Steven Bush