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Environmental Science Course Requirements
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The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.
The AP Environmental Science course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in environmental science. Your AP Environmental Science course should be based upon scientific principles and analyses from a variety of scientific fields and approaches, and include a scientific laboratory and/or field investigation component.
Schools' AP Environmental Science courses are typically designed to be taken by students after the completion of two years of high school laboratory science (one year of life science and one year of physical science) and at least one year of algebra. Also desirable, but not necessary, is one year of earth science. Students are encouraged to keep copies of their laboratory and field investigation work for use in determining college credit or placement.
All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.
High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual.
Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:
- Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
- Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
 Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.
Curricular Requirements
- The teacher has read the most recent AP Environmental Science Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Environmental Science Course Home Page.
AP Environmental Science Course Home Page
- The course provides instruction in each of the following seven content areas outlined in the Course Description:
- Earth Systems and Resources
- The Living World
- Population
- Land and Water Use
- Energy Resources and Consumption
- Pollution
- Global Change
- The course provides students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world. The curriculum draws upon various scientific disciplines.
- The course includes methods for analyzing and interpreting information and experimental data, including mathematical calculations.
- The course teaches students how to identify and analyze environmental problems, to evaluate the ecological and human health risks associated with these problems, and to critically examine various solutions for resolving or preventing them.
- The course includes a laboratory and/or field investigation component. A minimum of one class period or its equivalent per week is spent engaged in laboratory and/or field work.
Resource Requirements
- The school ensures that each student has a college-level environmental science textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet the curricular requirements) for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.
- The school ensures that students have access to scientific equipment and all necessary materials to conduct college-level environmental science laboratory and/or field investigations as outlined in the teacher's course syllabus.
- The school ensures that the teacher has copies of recent college-level text(s) or other appropriate college-level materials for his or her consultation.
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