A.P. Biology
Instructor: Mrs. Jill Ohlsen
What is the Advanced Placement Program?
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program (AP) is an opportunity for students to pursue college-level studies while still in secondary school. Through this program, they may earn credit, advanced placement, or both for college.
A college biology course differs significantly from the usual high school course in respect to the textbook used, the range and depth of topics covered, the lab work done by students, and the time and effort required.
Text: Principles of Life
Hillis, Sadava/ W.H. Freeman Publishing
Additional resources: There are many A.P. Biology study aids available at your local bookstore (Barron’s, Princeton Review, and REA just to mention a few). None of these are required, but they may prove helpful….It’s up to you!
Course Goals:
To prepare students for the Advanced Placement Biology Exam to be given on
by:
A. Helping students acquire the necessary content information
B. Helping students with the suggested lab content and procedures
C. Training students in exam strategies and essay writing skills
Suggested Student Prerequisites:
The AP Grading System
The exam is given an overall grade on a 5-point AP scale:
5- Extremely well qualified
4- Well qualified
3- Qualified
2- Possibly qualified
1- No recommendation
Compatibility studies conducted by the AP Program indicate that an AP grade of 3 is approximately equal to a college course grade of B at many institutions. At some other institutions, an AP grade of 3 is more comparable to a course grade of C. Each college decides which AP exam grades it will accept for credit or advanced placement or both; many accept grades of 3 and above. The procedures and standards for setting AP grades are maintained from year to year so that the value of AP grades is consistent.
Laboratory:
The AP Biology course requires 12 laboratory exercises. These labs are part of the AP biology national exam. Teachers can opt to do as many or as few of these as they see fit.
We will do all 12 labs!
Lab reports will be collected for most of the 12 labs.
Course Pacing:
This course has been designed to cover approximately 45 chapters throughout the year. I will be covering approximately a chapter a week. Students are expected to cover additional chapters by self-study as assigned. Also, as with a college course, in most cases students will not be “spoon fed” information through notes. Class time will be treated more as a lab and recitation session. Students will be expected to come to class prepared and with questions for class discussion.
Additional Time
Requirements:
In certain cases, students will be required to check in before school, after school, or during lunch/super study for either set up, clean-up, or gathering of data for labs. I realize that you are all busy… I will attempt to keep this to a minimum.
Assignments:
Academic
Dishonesty:
Students in AP Biology are encouraged to form study groups and to assist each other with learning the course material. However, students are expected to complete their own written work for homework and lab reports! Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated!
Exams:
The tests used in this course are designed to reflect the style and difficulty of the actual AP exam. Each exam will cover anywhere from 1 to several chapters (depending on difficulty) and will be given during the class period. The national AP Exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions and 4 free response questions to be taken over a 3 hour period. Our exams will consist of 30 multiple choice questions and 1 free response question to be taken in 45 minutes. As with the national AP exam, the free response question will account for 40% of your overall score.
Multiple choice exams and/or free response quizzes will be given for the self-study chapters at periodic intervals. (Either in class or take home)
Grading:
Since the purpose of the AP Biology course is to prepare for the national exam, calculations of grades will be based mainly on exam performance and lab reports. Course grades will be based on the following items and percentages:
Exams: ~60-70%
Labs: ~20-30%
Homework: ~10%
Because of the difficulty of the course, students should NOT expect to earn high percentages on every exam. Just as on the AP exam, students will be competing against each other to “set the curve”. Exams and quizzes are based on a point system and graded against the highest score. Then your points will be divided by the total possible (the highest score) to get your percentage. This percentage will be placed on a normal 90%=A, 80%=B, etc. scale. Labs and homework assignments will not be curved.
Please sign below if you have read and understand the syllabus for AP Biology:
Student signature
Parent
signature
Have a great year!
Mrs. Jill B. Ohlsen
work
853-3331 (prep
cell 459-2773