Advanced Placement (AP) at Delta High School

Advanced Placement (AP) at Delta High School 2013-2014

AP Courses Offered • Science: • Environmental Science • Physics B • Chemistry • English: • Language and Composition • Literature and Composition • Social Studies: • US Government and Politics • Math: • Statistics • Calculus AB

Schedule

AP Environmental Science Instructor: Steve Reiher sreiher@deltaschools.com Rm. A-39 8:10-9:00 Prerequisites: None AP Environmental Science is designed to give students the opportunity to study our environment through the integration of biological, chemical, physical, and geological concepts as well as the cultural and political aspects. Students will involve critical thinking skills along with the scientific method to gain an understanding of the relationships between living things and their environment as well as human impact on the environment. **This class is open to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors**

Sample Units: • Aquatic Ecology • Biodiversity • Geology • Human Populations • Non-renewable Resources/Energy • Nuclear Energy • Meteorology and the Atmosphere

AP Physics B Instructor: Ben Magtutu bmagtutu@deltaschools.com Rm. D-2 9:05-9:55 Prerequisites: Physics Algebra II • This course is designed to develop an appreciation of the beauty of the physical universe and the laws that govern it. In order to reach this goal we will work daily at developing your intuition, creativity, and inquiry skills. You will be designing and implementing experiments that lead to greater mastery of the laws of the phenomenon we see in the physical universe. We will also be using historical experiments and perspectives to uncover the elegance of how physics has developed over the last 400 years. **This class is open to Juniors and Seniors**

Sample Units • Newtonian Mechanics: Kinematics • Fluid Mechanics • Thermodynamics • Electricity andMagnetism: Electrostatics • Wave Motion • Optics

AP Chemistry • This course is structured around the six big ideas presented by College Board for AP Chemistry. The following is the order of the content presented along with the big idea in which it aligns: • 1. Chemical Elements • 2. Chemical and Physical Properties • 3. Change in Matter • 4. Chemical Reactions • 5. Thermodynamics • 6. Intermolecular Attraction **This course is open to Juniors and Seniors** Instructor: Joe Mock jmock@deltaschools.com Rm. D-3 10:55-11:45 Prerequisites: Chemistry

Sample Units and Labs Labs: Chromatography; Molar Volume of a Gas; Spectrophotometry; Titration: How Much Acid Is in Fruit Juice and Soft Drinks?; Calorimetry: The Hand Warmer Design Challenge: Where Does the Heat Come From? • Units: Chemical Foundations; Stoichiometry; Bonding; Gases; Chemical Kinetics; Acids and Bases; Thermochemistry; Spontaneity, Entropy, and Free Energy

AP Language and Composition • By focusing on American literature, the "AP English Language and Composition [course] 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 genre conventions and the resource of language contribute to effectiveness in writing.” Instructor: Mary Groome mgroome@deltaschools.com Rm. A-29 8:10-9:00/ 1:50-2:40

Sample Texts/Writing Assignments • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Scarlett Letter; The Crucible; The Color Purple; Beloved • Rhetoric and Rhetorical Analysis; Memoirs; Comparison/Contrast; Research Paper

AP Literature and Composition Instructor: Rob Ames rames@deltaschools.com Rm. A-32 10:55-11:45/ 2:45-3:35 • Reading in an AP course is both wide and deep, and 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. The course includes intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods with each study corresponding to an approach to writing about literary works. Writing to understand a literary work may involve writing response and reaction papers, along with annotation, free writing, and keeping some form of a reading journal.

Sample Texts/Unit Themes • Novels: Frankenstein; 1984; A Modest Proposal; Death of a Salesman; Brave New World; The Road; Ethan Frome; Heart of Darkness • Unit Themes: College Application Essay; Elements of Genre; Responsibility and Consequence; Ambition; Perfection; Pain; Beauty;

AP Statistics Instructors: Renee Cronenberg rcronenberg@deltaschools.com Teresa Davis tdavis@deltaschools.com Rm. A-9/A-36 Prerequisites: Algebra II • Advanced Placement Statistics acquaints students with the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. Students will frequently work on projects involving the hands-on gathering and analysis of real world data. Ideas and computations presented in this course have immediate links and connections with actual events. Computers and calculators will allow students to focus deeply on the concepts involved in Statistics. **This course is open to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors

Sample Units • Exploring and Understanding Data • Exploring Relationships Between Variables • Gathering Data • Randomness and Probability • Inference When Variables Are Related

AP Calculus AB Instructor: Marty Rover mrover@deltaschools.com Rm. A-10 10:00-10:50 Prerequisite: Pre-Calculus • The course teaches for major topics during the year: limits, derivatives, indefinite integrals and definite integrals. In each unit, we will study the topics graphically, numerically, analytically and verbally. We will not just learn the how, but the why to each of these four main topics. Students are encouraged to learn calculus through a variety of formats: direct teacher instruction, exploration, reading and writing about calculus topics, and cooperative group learning. **This course is open to Juniors and Seniors**

Sample Units and Activities Units: • Velocity and other rates of change • Derivatives of trigonometric functions • Fundamental Theorem of Calculus • Trapezoidal rule and Simpson’s rule Activities: • MODELING HORIZONTAL MOTION • TRAPEZOIDAL METHOD • CBL BALL TOSS EXPERIMENT

AP US Government and Politics Instructor: Tonya MacKendrick tmackendrick@deltaschools.com Rm. A-42 12:55-1:45 • This course includes both the study of general concepts used to interpret U.S. government and politics and the analysis of specific examples. It also requires familiarity with the various institutions, groups, beliefs, and ideas that constitute U.S. government and politics. While there is no single approach that an AP United States Government and Politics course must follow, students should become acquainted with the variety of theoretical perspectives and explanations for various behaviors and outcomes. Certain topics are usually covered in all college courses. • **This course is open to Seniors**

Sample Units • Origins of the American Republic • Origins of American Federalism • Voter Behavior • Path to Presidency • Interest Groups/Political Parties/Media • Civil Liberties/Civil Rights

Advanced Placement (AP) at Delta High School