Advanced Placement Calculus BC

Course Description:

This yearlong course is designed for learners capable of college level work, follows the description put forward by the College Board, and prepares them to take the Advanced Placement exam.  

Both AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC focus on students' understanding of calculus concepts and provide experience with methods and applications.  Through the use of big ideas of calculus (e.g., modeling change, approximation and limits, and analysis of functions), each course becomes a cohesive whole, rather than a collection of unrelated topics.  Both courses require students to use definitions and theorems to build arguments and justify conclusions.

The courses feature a multi representational approach to calculus, with concepts, results, and problems expressed graphically, numerically, analytically, and verbally.  Exploring connections among these representations builds understanding of how calculus applied limits to develop important ideas, definitions, formulas, and theorems.  A sustained emphasis on clear communication of methods, reasoning, justifications, and conclusions is essential.  Teachers and students should regularly use technology to reinforce relationships among functions, to confirm written work, to implement experimentation, and to assist in interpreting results.

AP Calculus BC is designed to be the equivalent of both first and second semester college calculus courses.  This course applies the content and skills learned in AP Calculus AB to parametrically defined curves, polar curves, and vector-valued functions; develops additional integration techniques and applications; and introduces the topics of sequences and series.

Please visit the College Board-AP Central website for more information (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com).