Dual Credit / AP Courses

DUAL CREDIT

Olympia High School's dual credit program allows students to earn both high school and college credit through a partnership with Heartland Community College. To enroll, students must apply to Heartland and meet all placement requirements, which generally need to be completed by early April, with a cost of $50 per course (plus textbook cost).

To enroll in dual credit, please view the Steps for Enrollment. You can also view further details about being a Heartland College NOW student on the College NOW Program website.  

DUAL CREDIT COURSES & DESCRIPTIONS

AGRI 110: Agricultural Economics:

This course is a survey of the field of economics with an emphasis on agricultural management and economic analyses of current agricultural, resource, and environmental policies. This course is an introduction to working in agribusiness in today's competitive environment. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI Major Code: AG901 (3 College Credit Hours)

AGRI 120: Horticulture Production and Management:

This advanced course offers instruction in both the greenhouse production and landscape areas of horticulture. Units of study include plant identification, greenhouse management, growing greenhouse crops, landscape design, installation, and maintenance, horticulture mechanics, nursery management, and turf production. Agribusiness units will cover operating a horticultural business, pricing work, advertising, and sales. Participation in FFA student organization activities and Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects is an integral course component for leadership development, career exploration, and reinforcement of academic concepts. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI Major Code: AG905 (3 College Credit Hours.

AGRI 170: Intro to Animal Science:

This is a survey course covering topics such as beef and dairy cattle, companion animals, horses, poultry, sheep, and swine. This course will include the importance of product technology and the basic principles of nutrition, genetics, physiology, reproduction, microbiology, and behavior as they apply to breeding, selection, feeding and management. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI Major Code: AG902 (4 College Credits Hours)

COMM 101: Intro to Oral Communication: 

This introductory course in public speaking helps students understand basic communication principles and improves their oral communication skills. The course emphasizes preparing, selecting, organizing, and delivering oral messages, as well as analyzing and evaluating the speaking-listening process.  Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code - C2900 (3 College Credit Hours) 

EDUC 101: Intro to Education: 

This course provides an introduction to the American education system and teaching as a profession. Throughout the course students will be offered a variety of perspectives on education including: historical, philosophical, social, legal, and ethical issues in a diverse society. A study of organizational structure and school governance will also be included. A minimum 15-hour clinical component is required for this class. *Note: Students who enroll in EDUC 101 will be required to undergo a criminal background check by a college selected vendor. A clear background check is mandatory in order to complete the course/state required 15 hour clinical component for each class. The cost of the background check will be added as a course fee. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI Major Code - ESE901 (3 College Credit Hours)

ENGL 101: Critical Reading and Writing:

This course is designed to improve expository, narrative, and persuasive essay writing and research techniques. Areas of development will include vocabulary building, sentence structure, descriptive techniques, mechanics, and style. The writing process will be stressed with emphasis on revision and peer revision. This course is especially recommended for college-bound students as our focus will be preparing students for college level writing. We will focus on skills needed to write effectively for a variety of audiences and purposes. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code: C1900R (3 College Credit Hours) 

ENGL 102: Multimodal Composition:

In this course, students will put rhetorical principles into useful cultural practice via researching, designing, creating, and sharing multimodal composition projects that contribute to real academic or career purposes and audiences. Conceptual knowledge of genre, textual control, document design, writer responsibility, and collaboration will be applied as students research academic or career interests. Students will learn and apply both primary and secondary research skills, and will compose projects that successfully employ genre-appropriate reasoning, formats, and structures. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code: C1901R (3 College Credit Hours)

HIST 135: History of the US to 1865:

This course covers the major political, social, economic and diplomatic trends that have shaped the United States from the early explorations of America to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Successful completion of this class also fulfills the American Studies requirement. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code: S2900 (3 College Credit Hours)

HIST 136: History of the US Since 1865: This course covers the major political, social, economic and diplomatic trends that have shaped the United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Successful completion of this class also fulfills the American Studies requirement.Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code: S2901 (3 College Credit Hours)

HUMA 101: Intro to the Humanities: 

Introduction to the Humanities is the study of social and cultural values as expressed through the major art forms, including painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, drama, music, dance, photography, and film. The course will examine the elements and formal qualities that are characteristic of each art form, the relationships between the arts, and the social and historical contexts from which they developed. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI GECC Code - HF900 (3 College Credit Hours) 

PSY 101: Intro to Psychology:

This course provides an introduction to psychology as the scientific study of human and animal behavior with an emphasis on the determinants of human functioning. This course also focuses on how we may use the principles of physical and emotional/cognitive growth, learning, personality functioning and coping, and social interactions in our everyday lives. Transferable Elective Course: This course generally should transfer to an Illinois Articulation Initiative college or university. Please consult with your advisor about transferability. IAI Course Code: S6900 (3 College Credit Hours)

ADVANCED PLACEMENT

The College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) courses are high school classes offering undergraduate   university-level curriculum, culminating in standardized AP exams administered annually over two weeks in May. Students at Olympia High School enrolling in an AP class are expected to take the corresponding AP exam in May, and qualifying scores can earn college credit or advanced placement. You can research specific college policies at the AP Credit Policy Search tool: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies.

AP Courses and Descriptions

AP Biology
PREREQUISITE:  AP Environmental Science or AGR 170: Animal Science

Advanced Placement Biology is a course designed to prepare students for the Advancement Placement test in Biology in the spring and for further Biology courses in college. The class will cover biochemistry, cells, genetics, and biodiversity. It is intended for students who are planning on attending a four-year university and studying science or other advanced topics. AP Biology will involve laboratory investigations as well as textbook and research work.

AP Calculus

PREREQUISITE: “C” or better in Precalculus

Topics to be covered will include the typical ones found in a college freshman course; differentiation, integration, area under a curve and application problems. The student will find a graphing calculator essential (a TI 84 Plus or TI 84 CE calculator is recommended).  All students will take the AP test at the completion of this course.

AP Biology 

PREREQUISITE: “C” or better in Chemistry

Advanced Placement Biology is a course designed to prepare students for the Advancement Placement test in Biology in the spring and for further Biology courses in college. The class will cover biochemistry, cells, genetics, and biodiversity. It is intended for students who are planning on attending a four-year university and studying science or other advanced topics. AP Biology will involve laboratory investigations as well as textbook and research work.

AP Computer Science Principles

PREREQUISITE: Geometry or instructor approval

Computer Science is a rigorous, entry-level course that introduces high school students to the foundations of modern computing.  The course covers a broad range of foundational topics such as programming using JavaScript, algorithms, building apps, the Internet, manipulating data, digital privacy and security, and the societal impacts of computing. Computer science is everywhere, from our smartphones and video games to music, medicine, and much more. AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) can help you understand how computing and technology influence the world around you. Learn how to creatively address real-world issues while using the same tools and processes that artists, writers, computer scientists, and engineers use to bring ideas to life.

AP Environmental Science 

PREREQUISITE: Biology and SOPH/JR/SR/ Status or Teacher Recommendation

The goal of the Advanced Placement Environmental Science course is to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving or preventing them. Environmental science is interdisciplinary; it embraces a wide variety of topics from different areas of study. Yet there are several major unifying constructs, or themes, that cut across the many topics included in the study of environmental science.

AP German

PREREQUISITE: German 1 – 4

This challenging course will follow the prescribed AP curriculum.  The material will provide an in-depth study of the German language through reading, listening, writing, and speaking.  Speaking German exclusively in the classroom is a requirement.  At the end of the course, students are expected to take the Advanced Placement Examination.  Upon satisfactory completion of the exam, students may receive advanced credit, advanced placement, or both at the college to which they have been accepted.  AP German may only be taken at a 5th world language course.  However, as the need arises, a student may take AP German with the consent of the instructor and department chairperson as an exception to the 5th course requirement if: 1) a student moving in from another district has already completed German 4 or its equivalent or, 2.) any native speaker of the language in the district currently or moving into the district needs to be placed at a level appropriate to his/her abilities.

AP Human Geography

PREREQUISITE: SO Status or Teacher Recommendation

This Advanced Placement course is designed to meet or exceed the experience of an introductory one-semester college human geography course. The purpose of the course is to utilize geographic processes to systematically study and understand spatial patterns that are evident in the world in which we live.  Students desiring the weighted GPA credit must take the A.P. Human Geography test given in May.  This course can fulfill the World History graduation requirement. 

AP Spanish
PREREQUISITE: Spanish 1 – 4

This challenging course will follow the prescribed AP curriculum.  The material will provide an in-depth study of the Spanish language through reading, listening, writing, and speaking.  Speaking Spanish exclusively in the classroom is a requirement.  At the end of the course, students are expected to take the Advanced Placement Examination.  Upon satisfactory completion of the exam, students may receive advanced credit, advanced placement, or both at the college to which they have been accepted.  AP Spanish may only be taken at a 5th world language course.  However, as the need arises, a student may take AP Spanish with the consent of the instructor and department chairperson as an exception to the 5th course requirement if: 1) a student moving in from another district has already completed Spanish 4 or its equivalent or, 2.) any native speaker of the language in the district currently or moving into the district needs to be placed at a level appropriate to his/her abilities.

For more information on AP, visit: 

AP Students

AP Exam Calendar

AP Credit Policy Search : Find out how your AP credit will transfer

Olympia High School AP Coordinator: Alex Castillo (alex.castillo@olympia.org)