Queens Metropolitan HS
The Emphasis on Inquiry-based
Learning in the New College Board
Advanced Placement Science Curricula
Jesus E Hernandez
Queens Metropolitan High School
New York City, NY
An Overview of the AP Program
 Established in 1955 to:
– Provide rigorous, college-level
courses to be taught in high school
– Provide opportunities for advanced
placement in college
 The American Council on Education
(ACE) reviews Advanced Placement®
every 3 to 4 years.
– While ACE recommends granting
crediting/placement for scores of
3 or higher (on a 1 - 5 scale), each
institution establishes its own
AP policy.
In 2010, 3,800 colleges and
universities worldwide (about
90 percent of U.S. colleges)
received AP Exam scores.
National Research Council (NRC) and National
Science Foundation Recommendations for
Improving AP Sciences
A 2002 NRC Report Recommended:
 The primary goal of AP should be to help students develop a
deep understanding of the unifying concepts, principles, and
science practices in the sciences.
 Curricula for advanced study should emphasize depth of
understanding over exhaustive coverage of content.
 Instruction in advanced courses should engage students in
inquiry by providing opportunities to experiment, analyze
information critically, make conjectures and argue about their
validity, and solve problems.
Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science
in U.S. High Schools, National Research Council, 2002
Goals of the AP Science Revision
Produce a More Inclusive and More Engaging
Program of Study for Each AP Science Discipline
by Identifying:
 The concepts to be studied in depth and measured on the exams
 The need for a reduction in breadth of course content and an
increase in depth of understanding
 The essential reasoning and inquiry skills that are to be supported
with instruction and measured on the exams
 Emerging areas of research that capture essential concepts within
the discipline and engage diverse student populations
 The minimum resources required to support these practices
Redesigning Science Courses: Rationale
 Triggered by 2002 National Research Council and
Boston College study that found American students
ranked near the bottom in STEM when compared to
students from other parts of the world.
 In 2004, College Board and the National Science
Foundation (NSF) started study on the reforms
needed to improve science education in AP
programs.
It concluded that AP programs programs should
not be so invested in mimicking exactly how college
is taught, but that they should set an example for
curricula that foster in-depth learning of science and
students' ability to apply that knowledge.
Old ways
 In the past, AP curricula looked like tables of
contents in a textbook, long lists of what students
should learn. Now, it's not just a list of topics, but
it consists of a series of learning objectives that
pair a piece of content with a science practice.
Old Biology Program Outline
Outlook of the New AP Biology Program
Example
 Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the
diversity and unity of life. Big Idea 1Biology_CED_Fall2012.pdf
Enduring understanding 1.A:
Change in the genetic makeup of a population over
time is evolution.
Essential knowledge
1.A.1: Natural selection is a major
mechanism of evolution.
 Learning Objectives:
 LO 1.1 The student is able to convert a data set from a table
of numbers that reflect a change in the genetic makeup of a
population over time and to apply mathematical methods and
conceptual understandings to investigate the cause(s) and
effect(s) of this change. [See SP 1.5, 2.2]
 LO 1.2 The student is able to evaluate evidence provided by data
to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the role of natural
selection in evolution. [See SP 2.2, 5.3]
 LO 1.3 The student is able to apply mathematical methods to data
from a real or simulated population to predict what will happen to
the population in the future. [See SP 2.2]
The Exams
AP BIOLOGY
IMPORTANCE AND RATIONALE OF LABORATORY WORK IN
the AP SCIENCE CURRICULA
AP students should be able to:
• design experiments;
• observe and measure real phenomena;
• organize, display, and critically analyze data;
• analyze sources of error and determine uncertainties
in measurement;
• draw inferences from observations and data; and
communicate results including suggested ways to
improve experiments and proposed questions for
further study.
 Data comparing student background
question responses and student raw
scores indicates that students who
have an intermediate amount of lab
work in their courses have better
mean raw scores than students who
have too much or none, particularly
in the physics courses
PHYSICS LAB COMPARISON
Physics B - 2 Semesters of Physics
74
Mean Raw score (+ or - 2 Std Dev)
72
70
68
66
64
62
60
58
56
(A) > 90 min
(B) 61 to 90 min
(C) 30 to 60 min
Response to Lab Background Question
(D) <30 min - Yes
(E) <30 min - No
The Old Ways to Achieve Science Lab
Literacy in Biology
 Laboratory 2. Enzyme Catalysis
 Overview
 In this laboratory, students will observe the
conversion of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water
and oxygen gas by the enzyme catalase. They will
then measure the amount of oxygen generated and
calculate the rate of the enzyme-catalyzed reaction.
Inquiry Lab: Modified Enzyme Activity
 Problem: Design an experiment to quantify the
effect of pH, Salt Concentration, temperature,
Substrate concentration, or Enzyme concentration
on the effect of the enzyme catalase.
 The primary reaction that catalase catalyzes is the
decomposition of hydrogen peroxide:
 H2O2 → 2H2O + O2
Steps to complete before beginning your experiment:
• Develop a detailed protocol & clear experimental plan for your
experiment.
• Develop a data table for your experiment.
• Determine any calculations that will be necessary for your data.
• Think about how you will graph your results (at least one graph
is required for this lab).
Analysis Questions (to be answered in your report following
your conclusion):
1. Explain the inhibiting effect of sulfuric acid on the function of
catalase. Relate this to enzyme structure and chemistry.
2. Pick two of the variables that you did not study, and predict how
altering those variables would affect the rate of
catalase activity. Explain your predictions.
The New AP Physics 1 & 2 Courses
The new courses will allow AP Physics teachers to
provide instruction that fosters greater
conceptual depth
The current AP Physics B curriculum will be split into two independent
courses: AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 – this allows a reduction in the
“breadth” of material covered in each course to provide teachers
adequate time to focus on fostering conceptual depth for students
The new curriculum framework for teachers expresses each learning
objective in terms of both the content and science practice a student
should “know” and be “able to do”
A new emphasis on inquiry-based laboratory investigations
A College Curriculum Study Informed the
AP Physics Redesign
 To ensure alignment of the revised AP Physics courses,
a college curriculum study was conducted, consulting
dozens of higher education physics faculty members
 The revised course’s concepts, content, and science
skills were compared with those of introductory,
algebra-based, college-level physics courses
Guided Inquiry Activity: an example of
the new emphasis in the development
of science practices.
Tennis Ball Lab:
Does a ball dropped from the fourth floor of a
building have more energy than a tennis ball
dropped from successively lower floors? Design an
experiment to investigate this question.
 Materials:
 Tennis ball
 Stopwatch
Metric measuring tape or metric ruler
Notebook
 Process:
 Construct a poster of your experiment and do a 2-3 minute group
presentation of your experiment. Poster must include: title,
question, hypothesis, diagram of experimental set up, data table,
graph of data and conclusion.