Game-Changing Revisions in AP Science Courses

The College Board, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and eminent science educators, has revised AP Biology (the first of the AP science course revisions) to produce a course that will result in major changes in the way that biology (and other sciences) is taught at the high school level across the country. The revised course reduces breadth, shifts the instructional emphasis from content to skills, and promotes the complex thinking and reasoning skills essential for in-depth study of biology at the college level. The revised course is designed to achieve the following objectives: 1) reduce the breadth of content to promote conceptual understanding; 2) provide an explicit, comprehensive course and exam description; 3) emphasize scientific inquiry and student-directed labs; and 4) articulate clear learning objectives. The new AP Biology course will first be taught in the Fall of 2012 and, in May 2013, students will take the new AP Biology Exam, which is now being developed by a team of College Board and Educational Testing Service experts.