Stephen P. Broker
In this section, I provide an overview of the APES course, as this curriculum unit necessarily must fit into an established national curriculum. As with any curriculum, it is the responsibility of the teacher to follow designated content standards and performance objectives. This is best done when drawing on the teacher's personal creativity and background strengths, and it is an approach that I aspire to use in this unit. The APES course is a highly interdisciplinary study of physical and life science and the various social sciences. According to the College Board/Advanced Placement Program Course Description, or Acorn Book, the APES course is "designed to be the equivalent of a one-semester, introductory college course in environmental science." It continues,
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"the goal of the . . . course is to provide students with the scientific principles,
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concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the
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natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and
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human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to
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examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing them" (CEEB/AP.
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2001.).
Six themes are identified as providing the foundation of the APES course, and they pertain to science as a process, energy conversions, the interconnectedness of Earth, human alteration of natural systems, environmental problems from a cultural and social context, and the development of sustainable systems to ensure human survival (CEEB/AP. 2001.) The Acorn Book stipulates six major topics for study in the course, as listed here:
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I. Interdependence of Earth's Systems: Fundamental Principles and Concepts
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II. Human Population Dynamics
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III. Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources: Distribution, Ownership, Use, Degradation
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IV. Environmental Quality
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V. Global Changes and Their Consequences
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VI. Environment and Society: Trade-Offs and Decision-Making
The curriculum unit that I present here has students conduct work on the following topics: the biosphere, including organisms, populations, and communities (Topic I); population dynamics of selected vertebrate species (Topic II); global changes such as habitat degradation and destruction, and also higher-order interactions including loss of biodiversity and (potentially) global warming (Topic V).
My science teaching invariably involves the extensive use of laboratory and field activities, regardless of the course being taught. It also is the expectation of the College Board/AP Program that a strong component of laboratory and field work is central to the teaching of environmental science. This hands-on and minds-on work supports the understanding of concepts and principles of environmental science, provides opportunity for in-depth study of selected subjects, and makes clear to the student that environmental problems faced by humankind are complex, not easily solved, and often involve making choices from among a number of potential solutions. Lab and field investigations that are a part of the APES course teach students about diverse methods of collection and analysis, the value of long-term ecological and environmental studies, and the interpretation of sets of data. Students are taken on trips to representative natural and human-altered habitats (studying communities or ecosystems), and they visit such facilities as a water-treatment plant.
The College Board is very specific in identifying the significance of such laboratory and field work (for example, linkage with major concepts and development of communication skills), and it discusses the performance objectives for such lab experiences (including designing experiments, using instrumentation, thinking analytically, and evaluating results). Finally, I will note that AP students take a national examination in mid-May that includes multiple-choice and free-response questions and requires that the student use both depth and breadth of understanding to recall facts and concepts and apply these to present-day environmental problems. The free-response questions, in particular, are structured to test the student on the analysis of a data set, the interpretation and evaluation of a document, and the ability to synthesize and evaluate environmental issues.