Environmental Science (AP® option)

This course has been designed to allow students the option of doing additional, related work to prepare for the AP^® Environmental Science exam and transcript the course as an AP^® Environmental Science course whether they take the exam or not in compliance with the requirements of College Board. This additional work is put in a clearly marked folder each week so that non-AP® level students are not accidentally doing extra work.   We can also help you find a test seat for the exam if desired.  This must be done in September for the May 2026 exam.

This instructor is trained in College Board’s project-based learning version of the AP course and has the prerequisite training and experience through PBL Works to do so.

Primary Text:  Living in the Environment, 19^th edition; Miller; ISBN: 9781337094153 (no online codes needed) Other Required Course Materials

• 1-1/2″ to 2″ 3-ring binder with 3 dividers (more dividers are fine, but fewer will be difficult)
• Spiral-bound grid ruled notebook
• Black or blue ballpoint pens and pencils
• One set of colored pencils (at least red, green, yellow and blue)
• One highlighter
• Ruler

Additionally, students will need technical ability to access College Board Portal, Zoom, Nearpod.com, Discovery Education Streaming, Study.com and Canvas (our learning management system).

At home, students will need access to the internet (home or library) intermittently to look up information, related published materials and/or videos.  Some videos will be subscription-based and issued by illuminat-ED (all students will have accounts for Discovery Streaming and Study.com for additional video support).  Some videos will be freely available.  AP® students will also access the College Board Portal for additional checkpoints and materials.

Topics may or may not proceed in the listed order

• Preparing to Succeed
• The Living World: Ecosystems
• The Living World: Biodiversity
• Populations
• Earth Systems & Resources
• Land & Water Use
• Energy Resources & Consumption
• Atmospheric Pollution
• Aquatic & Terrestrial Pollution

Live class time will assume students have done their pre-reading, online content and labs/fieldwork. We will be collaboratively sharing lab results and discussing results in the context of the assigned readings.

Amount of time will depend on your student’s speed/fluency with writing and reading or the content of the week–which is often lab or field studies. Students can expect to spend 2 to 2-1/2 hours/week doing lab work, lab documentation, readings and other class preparation. Families should allocate approximately 3 hours/week to the calendar to assure enough time is available for the student to finish their work.

Combined with our live class time, this is a total of 3-1/2 to 4 hours/week for a course total of 120-150 hours.  This equates to one full credit of English Language Arts using the Carnegie unit methodology.

AP® students can expect to spend 2-1/2 to 4 hours/week outside of our live class times for a total of 5 to 6-1/2 hours per week when you include our live class meetings.

This course requires some “field trips” to local parks and forest preserves or keeping inventory of household usage of resources.  Homework is not always “read and do assignment”.

Course time will be devoted to discussion related to the content that is the culmination of the students pre-reading and other assigned activities for the week. Pre-reading and asynchronous work is an essential skill for this class. As such if your student does not have the required time available each week, this may not be a good fit for your family this year.

In addition to listening and taking notes, students are expected to actively participate in the course, through asking and answering questions and doing research to expand on the material. Students will be asked to consider the social, ethical, environmental, and global consequences of the material and to synthesize that understanding into informed discussion.

Ecological, Evolutionary, and Physiological systems will be discussed in-class and the students will need to participate in these discussions in a respectful and mature manner.