ECS | Advanced Placement (AP) Courses

Advanced Placement (AP) Courses

Elkhart offers an extensive Advanced Placement curriculum. These programs are designed for highly motivated students who would like the challenge of earning college credit while still in high school.

Elkhart’s AP classes are college-level courses taught by ECS teachers who have been trained by the College Board, which runs the AP Program nationwide. Students enrolled in AP classes take an AP exam at the end of the course and can earn college credit based on their AP exam scores.

Elkhart was recently selected to participate in the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program in Indiana (AP-TIP IN), which provides training for AP course teachers and financial incentives for both AP teachers and students. The program also covers AP exam fees.

Participating AP math, science, and English teachers will receive $100 for each student’s exam score of 3 or higher. Likewise, students will receive $100 for each AP exam score of 3 or higher.

The AP-TIP IN is a program of the National Math and Science Initiative and is administered by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives. The goals for AP-TIP IN are to increase the number of students enrolled in AP math, science and English courses, and to increase the number of students who score a 3 or higher on the corresponding AP exams.

Students who earn a score of 3 or higher on an AP exam typically receive college credit or advanced placement. Students who take several AP courses could earn enough college credits to bypass their freshmen year of college, saving them both time and money.

Central High School AP biology students
Students enrolling in AP courses should be prepared for a rigorous course-load. Most of the assignments will be completed on the student’s own time and will require extensive independent study and research. Once enrolled in an AP course, the student will not be able to drop the course until after the first session is completed.

The AP Program is a cooperative educational endeavor of secondary schools, colleges, and the College Board. AP courses are recognized in nearly 3,000 U.S. and foreign colleges and universities.

The AP exams are offered each May. The exams, which typically last 3 to 3.5 hours, contain free response, either essay or problem solving, and multiple choice. They are administered at the student’s home school.

The exams are graded in June and the results are reported to students in July. AP Scholars Awards are granted for college-level performance (grades of 3 or better on a 1-5 scale.)

The IDOE currently pays students’ AP exam fees for all math and science courses. These courses include biology, calculus, chemistry, physics, and statistics.

For more information on Advanced Placement in Indiana, visit www.collegeboard.com/student or www.doe.in.gov/ap.

AP Course Offerings A comprehensive description of courses can be found on the College Board AP web page at: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/descriptions/index.html

Advanced Placement (AP) Courses are intended to be the equivalent to the comparable college level course. Most AP courses require instructional time equivalent to two traditional semesters, or one academic year in order to adequately address the course content and prepare students for the associated exam.

BIOLOGY, Advanced Placement (L)
is a course based on the content established by the College Board. Topics include: (1) molecules and cells: chemistry of life, cells, cellular energetics; (2) heredity and evolution: heredity, molecular genetics, evolutionary biology; and (3) organisms and populations: diversity of organisms, structure and function of plants and animals, ecology. The major themes of the course include: science as a process, evolution, energy transfer, continuity and change, relationship of structure to function, regulation, interdependence in nature and science, technology, and society.
· Recommended Grade Level: 10-12

· Recommended Prerequisite: Biology I and Chemistry I

· Credits: A two credit course, 1 credit per semester

CALCULUS AB, Advanced Placement

is a course based on content established by the College Board. Calculus AB is primarily concerned with developing the students’ understanding of the concepts of calculus and providing experience with its methods and applications. The course emphasizes a multirepresentational approach to calculus, with concepts, results, and problems being expressed graphically, numerically, analytically, and verbally. The connections among these representations also are important. Topics include: (1) functions, graphs, and limits; (2) derivatives; and (3) integrals. Technology should be used regularly by students and teachers to reinforce the relationships among the multiple representations of functions, to confirm written work, to implement experimentation, and to assist in interpreting results.
· Recommended Grade Level: Grades 11 or 12

· Recommended Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus

· Credits: A two credit course, 1 credit per semester

CALCULUS BC, Advanced Placement
is a course based on content established by the College Board. Calculus BC is primarily concerned with developing the students’ understanding of the concepts of calculus and providing experience with its methods and applications. The course emphasizes a multirepresentational approach to calculus, with concepts, results, and problems being expressed graphically, numerically, analytically, and verbally. The connections among these representations also are important. Topics include: (1) functions, graphs, and limits; (2) derivatives; (3) integrals; and (4) polynomial approximations and series. Technology should be used regularly by students and teachers to reinforce the relationships among the multiple representations of functions, to confirm written work, to implement experimentation, and to assist in interpreting results. · The content of Calculus BC is designed to qualify the student for placement and credit in a course
that is one course beyond that granted for Calculus AB.

· Recommended Grade Level: Grades 11 or 12

· Recommended Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus

· Credits: A two credit course

CHEMISTRY, Advanced Placement (L)

is a course based on the content established by the College Board. The content includes: (1) structure of matter: atomic theory and structure, chemical bonding, molecular models, nuclear chemistry; (2) states of matter: gases, liquids and solids, solutions; and (3) reactions: reaction types, stoichiometry, equilibrium, kinetics and thermodynamics.
· Recommended Grade Level: 11 or 12

· Recommended Prerequisite: Chemistry I, Algebra II, Precalculus/Trigonometry

· Credits: A two credit course, 1 credit per semester

CO COMPUTER SCIENCE A, Advanced Placement

45 is a business mathematics course that provides students with the content established by the College Board. The course emphasizes object-oriented programming methodology with a concentration on problem solving and algorithm development, and also includes the study of data structures, design, and abstraction. The course provides students an alternative to taking pre-calculus or calculus to fulfill the four-year math requirement for graduation.
· Recommended Grade Level: Grades 11 or 12

· Recommended Prerequisites: Digital Communication Tools, Computer Applications, Algebra I, and Algebra II

· Credits: A two-credit course, 1 credit per semester

ENGLISH LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION, Advanced Placement

is an advanced placement course based on content established by the College Board. An AP course in English Language and Composition engages students in becoming skilled readers of prose written in a variety of rhetorical contexts, and in becoming skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes. Both their writing and their reading should make students aware of the interactions among a writer's purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.
· Recommended Grade Level: Grade 11 or 12 (College Board does not designate when
this course should be offered).

· Recommended Prerequisites: English 9 and English 10 or other literature, language, composition, and speech courses or teacher recommendation

· Credits: 2 credits, a two-semester course with 1 credit per semester

ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION, Advanced Placement

is an advanced placement course based on content established by the College Board. An AP English course in Literature and Composition engages students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work's structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. The course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit.
· Recommended Grade Level: Grades 11 and 12

· Recommended Prerequisites: English 9 and English 10 or other literature, language, composition and speech
courses or teacher recommendation

· Credits: 2 credits, a two-semester course with 1 credit per semester

· College Board does NOT designate the grade level (Grade 11 or 12) when this course should be offered.

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