AP Chemistry

1. AP Chemistry Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry isIntroductory College Chemistry (ICC) • AP Chemistry is intended to allow students with advanced aptitude as well as academic / emotional maturity an opportunity to complete Introductory College Chemistry (ICC). • Rancho Bernardo’s AP Chemistry course is modeled upon the ICC curriculum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and UC Berkley. • AP Chemistry is not a high school or college preparatory course. It is ICC and the course content covers the entire ICC curriculum at the same accelerated pace one would endure at any of the nations top ranked universities.

2. Who should consider AP Chemistry? • Students that intend to pursue a college curriculum that requires ICC should consider enrolling in AP Chemistry. • Depending upon the College or University one attends, the post-secondary curriculum majors and minors that typically require ICC are: • All branches of Chemistry and Biology; • Pre-Medical & Pre-Veterinarian Majors; • Various Engineering degree programs. • Students that intend to apply to medical schools upon completion of their Baccalaureate studies are strongly encouraged to complete AP Chemistry prior to undergraduate matriculation.

3. Why should you consider AP Chemistry? • ICC is generally used as the initial “gatekeeper” course at most major universities in this country for careers in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. • Just passing ICC is not sufficient to qualify for admission in many of the most competitive post-baccalaureate programs. Applicants to these programs are generally expected to have maintained a level of achievement in the top quartile of their preparatory courses. • The objective of RB’s AP Chemistry course is to ensure that a student ranks in the upper percentile of the ICC course at the post-secondary institutions that they ultimately attend, including the most competitive in this country.

4. AP Chemistry Course Logistics: • The RB AP Chemistry course fulfills the expectations of the major universities in this country insofar as the breadth and depth of the core ICC content. • The course includes weighted components that enable a student an opportunity to determine their emotional and academic aptitude for ICC while maintaining a respectable GPA. • The class time is designed predominately around collaborative problem solving strategies. A minimal amount of time is spent in lectures due to the time limitations as well as the depth and breadth of the material that must be covered • To that end, the lecture notes and worked example problems for each unit are posted online (.pdf) for downloading prior to beginning each chapter throughout the course.

5. Schedule for Success • ICC is a very labor intensive course. The expectation is that students will spend a minimum of four to five hours weekly outside of class in course work. This estimate must necessarily be adjusted based upon each individual’s aptitude and background. What is critical is to plan one’s schedule to accommodate the work load. • The most common reasons for failure in an ICC curriculum, both here and at any post-secondary institution, are a student’s inability to adjust to the time demands of the curriculum, and /or inexperience with the level of course rigor. • The first issue, ‘time constraints’, is easily overcome by realistic scheduling. Unfortunately, the standard primary and secondary school curriculum do not provide a realistic appreciation of a student’s post-secondary aptitude and are thus poor indicators of AP Chemistry / ICC success. With this in mind, schedule conservatively.

6. The second pitfall, ‘academic / emotional aptitude’, is more difficult to overcome but not impossible. • There are a number of strategies that can be adapted to fit most individual circumstances. It is thus imperative that a struggling student be pro-active in seeking help and guidance from the course instructor. • In addition, the course instructor is available to counsel the parents of a student in strategies that are successful at developing their student’s aptitude, regardless of the parent’s specific academic background. • Of critical importance is the realization that if a student has any desire to succeed in a rigorous post-secondary curriculum at a competitive college or university, then this opportunity to overcome their shortcomings may be the deciding factor in their future achievement.

7. A typical week (1 chapter unit) is as follows: • Prior to the beginning of each unit throughout the course students are expected to access the course Learning Point site and download and review the lecture notes and worked examples for the upcoming chapter. The Monday prior to the start of a new text chapter each student is expected to submit a chapter outline. In addition, an outline (flowchart) and completed pre-lab for any scheduled laboratory exercises for the upcoming week are due on the Monday prior to the lab. • The first two standard class periods each week (usually Monday and Tuesday) are devoted to collaborative problem solving. It is not possible to solve too many problems.

8. One extended period each week is devoted to a laboratory exercise. The labs scheduled in this course are those required by the College Board and generally accepted by most major universities in the U.S. as fulfilling the ICC laboratory requirement. • Students will keep a formal laboratory binder. Each lab is assessed individually and completed experimental reports will be kept in the binder. The binder ultimately should be submitted by each student to their chosen university to be evaluate for college laboratory credit. • Friday of each week is devoted to one of several types of assessment.

9. Grading and Policies The grade will be based on a weighted point system. There are four categories within this system. Below is the list of categories and their weightings. Most assignments within a category are worth 100 points each.

10. Class Work and Homework: • Weekly problem sets will be assigned. These assignments will be principally derived from questions at the end of each textbook chapter, and previous AP exam questions. The majority of the scheduled class time each week is devoted to collaborative problem solving. Completed assignments must be turned in each week for credit. Incomplete assignments will receive no credit, there is no partial credit. • Late Assignments will be downgraded according to the following rubric: • 1 day late: -30% of possible pts • > 6 week deadline: No Credit for Assignment

11. Laboratory: • Students will keep a formal laboratory binder. Each lab is assessed individually and completed experimental reports will be kept in the binder. No credit will be given for labs that are not binder-quality complete. For the purpose of this course, all laboratory reports will be submitted in typewritten (word processed) form with the hand written, raw data and calculations (i.e. benchwork) appended. As stated previously, the binder ultimately should be submitted by each student to their chosen university to be evaluated for college laboratory credit.

12. Assessments: • Quizzes will be scheduled after every two weeks of instruction (approximately). Quizzes include multiple choice and free response (show all work) questions. All students are encouraged to complete quiz corrections during the tutorial period of the week following the quiz. Students with quiz grades of less than 80% can, by means of quiz corrections, improve their quiz score by as much as one letter grade. Final Exam: • A comprehensive final exam is given at the completion of the course work for each semester.

13. Instructor: V. Bob Walker, Ph.D. Baccalaureate in Science (BS) Major - Chemistry , Minor - Biology Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Chemistry: Wayne State University (WSU) Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Detroit, MI WSU School of Medicine & Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatrics Endocrinology Research Lab Supervisor1987 - 1997 NIH Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship; Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA1997-2000 High School Science Teacher 2000 - present