Defining What Matters: The Processes and Products of the AP Science Redesign

In redesigning the AP science courses and exams, it was critical to focus each disciplinary group on both the core ideas within their respective disciplines as well as the forms of scientific reasoning and the practices of science that students would be expected to employ to engage those ideas and demonstrate understanding. This led to a much richer description of the nature of the competence desired at the end of an AP course which in turn guided development of the curriculum framework and the assessment design process. In this presentation we will focus on the both the processes used to engage in this work – Backwards Design and Evidence-Centered Design – as well as the products and the implications for instruction and assessment in AP courses as well as K-16 science education more generally.