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This page provides a general overview of AP courses offered at OLHS. A brief course description is given for each course, and each course title links to its AP Students course page. This page includes more information on course content, exams, and college credit.
This page provides a general overview of AP courses offered at OLHS. A brief course description is given for each course, and each course title links to its AP Students course page. This page includes more information on course content, exams, and college credit.
AP is for all students–but you should be ready. You don’t need to be top of your class to be an AP student, but you’ll want to be prepared for the AP course you choose. Some AP classes have recommended courses you should take first, and all AP courses ask that you come willing to do your best work. To successfully complete an AP course you should be prepared to spend a significant amount of time in and out of class working on the coursework and preparing for the AP Exam. You can learn more about AP courses and exams by visiting the What Is AP page.
AP is for all students–but you should be ready. You don’t need to be top of your class to be an AP student, but you’ll want to be prepared for the AP course you choose. Some AP classes have recommended courses you should take first, and all AP courses ask that you come willing to do your best work. To successfully complete an AP course you should be prepared to spend a significant amount of time in and out of class working on the coursework and preparing for the AP Exam. You can learn more about AP courses and exams by visiting the What Is AP page.
The School Counselors at OLHS are happy to talk with you about your AP options and recommendations. If you select one or more AP classes you will be asked to complete an AP Commitment Form.
The School Counselors at OLHS are happy to talk with you about your AP options and recommendations. If you select one or more AP classes you will be asked to complete an AP Commitment Form.
Course descriptions are taken directly from the AP Central website.
Course descriptions are taken directly from the AP Central website.
English
English
The AP English Language and Composition course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing, the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts, and the decisions writers make as they compose and revise.
The AP English Literature and Composition course focuses on reading, analyzing, and writing about imaginative literature (fiction, poetry, drama) from various periods.
AP Seminar is a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues by analyzing divergent perspectives.
AP Research, the second course in the AP Capstone experience, allows students to deeply explore an academic topic, problem, issue, or idea of individual interest. Students design, plan, and implement a yearlong investigation to address a research question.
Prerequisite: AP Seminar
Science
Science
The AP Chemistry course provides students with a college-level foundation to support future advanced coursework in chemistry. Students cultivate their understanding of chemistry through inquiry-based investigations, as they explore content such as: atomic structure, intermolecular forces and bonding, chemical reactions, kinetics, thermodynamics, and equilibrium.
Prerequisites: Chemistry, Algebra II
AP Biology is an introductory college-level biology course. Students cultivate their understanding of biology through inquiry-based investigations as they explore the following topics: evolution, cellular processes, energy and communication, genetics, information transfer, ecology, and interactions
Prerequisites: Biology, Chemistry
AP Physics 1 is an algebra-based, introductory college-level physics course. Students cultivate their understanding of physics through inquiry-based investigations as they explore these topics: kinematics, dynamics, circular motion and gravitation, energy, momentum, simple harmonic motion, torque and rotational motion, electric charge and electric force, DC circuits, and mechanical waves and sound.
Prerequisites: Geometry, Concurrently taking or have taken Algebra II
AP Physics 2 is an algebra-based, introductory college-level physics course. Students cultivate their understanding of physics through inquiry-based investigations as they explore these topics: fluids; thermodynamics; electrical force, field, and potential; electric circuits; magnetism and electromagnetic induction; geometric and physical optics; and quantum, atomic, and nuclear physics.
Prerequisite: AP Physics 1, Concurrently taking or have taken Pre-Calculus
AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism is a calculus-based, college-level physics course, especially appropriate for students planning to specialize or major in physical science or engineering. The course explores topics such as electrostatics; conductors, capacitors, and dielectrics; electric circuits; magnetic fields; and electromagnetism. Introductory differential and integral calculus is used throughout the course.
Prerequisites: AP Physics 1 or Magnet Physics, Concurrently taking or have taken Calculus
AP Physics C: Mechanics is a calculus-based, college-level physics course. It covers kinematics; Newton’s laws of motion; work, energy, and power; systems of particles and linear momentum; circular motion and rotation; oscillations; and gravitation.
Prerequisites: AP Physics 1 or Magnet Physics, Concurrently taking or have taken Calculus
The AP Environmental Science course is designed to engage students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships within the natural world. The course requires that students identify and analyze natural and human-made environmental problems, evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and examine alternative solutions for resolving or preventing them.
Prerequisites: Students should have completed two years of high school laboratory science—one year of life science and one year of physical science (e.g., a year of biology and a year of chemistry). Algebra I
Math and Computer Science
Math and Computer Science
The AP Statistics course introduces students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. There are four themes evident in the content, skills, and assessment in the AP Statistics course: exploring data, sampling and experimentation, probability and simulation, and statistical inference.
Prerequisite: Algebra II
AP Computer Science A introduces students to computer science through programming. Fundamental topics in this course include the design of solutions to problems, the use of data structures to organize large sets of data, the development and implementation of algorithms to process data and discover new information, the analysis of potential solutions, and the ethical and social implications of computing systems.
Prerequisite: Algebra I
AP Computer Science Principles introduces students to the foundational concepts of the field and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world.
Prerequisite: Algebra I
In AP Precalculus, students explore everyday situations using mathematical tools and lenses. Through regular practice, students build deep mastery of modeling and functions, and they examine scenarios through multiple representations. They will learn how to observe, explore, and build mathematical meaning from dynamic systems, an important practice for thriving in an ever-changing world.
Prerequisite: Geometry and Algebra II or Algebra II/Tirg
AP Calculus AB is designed to be the equivalent of a first semester college calculus course devoted to topics in differential and integral calculus.
Prerequisites: Algebra II, Geometry
AP Calculus BC 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.
Prerequisites: Algebra II, Geometry
History and Social Sciences
History and Social Sciences
AP U.S. Government and Politics provides a college-level, nonpartisan introduction to key political concepts, ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the constitutional system and political culture of the United States.
In AP U.S. History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in nine historical periods from approximately 1491 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change.
AP Comparative Government and Politics introduces students to the rich diversity of political life outside the United States. The course uses a comparative approach to examine the political structures; policies; and political, economic, and social challenges of six selected countries: China, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Students compare the effectiveness of approaches to many global issues by examining how different governments solve similar problems.
In AP European History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from approximately 1450 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time.
This course introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine socioeconomic organization and its environmental consequences.
The AP Psychology course introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. While considering the psychologists and studies that have shaped the field, students explore and apply psychological theories, key concepts, and phenomena associated with such topics as the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatments of psychological disorders, and social psychology
World Languages and Cultures
World Languages and Cultures
The AP Language and Culture courses emphasize communication (understanding and being understood by others) by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational skills in real-life situations. This includes vocabulary usage, language control, communication strategies, and cultural awareness.
The AP Latin course focuses on the in-depth study of selections from two of the greatest works in Latin literature: Vergil’s Aeneid and Caesar’s Gallic War. The course requires students to prepare and translate the readings and place these texts in a meaningful context, which helps develop critical, historical, and literary sensitivities
Build your language skills and cultural knowledge by exploring works of literature written in Spanish. Using Spanish to communicate, you’ll read, analyze, discuss, and write about works by Spanish, Latin-American, and U.S. Hispanic authors of different periods.
Arts
Arts
Students create a portfolio of work to demonstrate inquiry through art and design and development of materials, processes, and ideas over the course of a year. Portfolios include works of art and design, process documentation, and written information about the work presented.
The AP Art History course welcomes students into the global art world to engage with its forms and content as they research, discuss, read, and write about art, artists, art making, and responses to and interpretations of art. By investigating specific course content of 250 works of art characterized by diverse artistic traditions from prehistory to the present, the students develop in-depth, holistic understanding of the history of art from a global perspective.
The AP Music Theory course corresponds to one-to-two semesters of typical, introductory college music theory coursework that covers topics such as musicianship, theory, and musical materials and procedures. Musicianship skills, including dictation and listening skills, sightsinging, and harmony, are an important part of the course.
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