AP Course:

AP BIOLOGY

Consultant Cuellar

CONSULTANT: Melissa Cuellar

Melissa Cuellar has her Bachelors in Biology from Texas A&M International University.  She currently teaches at JB Alexander High School in Laredo, Texas and has over 20 years of teaching experience in AP Biology, General Biology and Honors Biology. Melissa is the science department chair, AP Biology consultant, AP Biology Reader, NMSI instructor, has served on the AP Biology development committee for College Board and is a committee member of the new CED AP Biology binder.  At the District level, she has worked on the biology curriculum and assessment writing committee, STAAR benchmark writing committee and TAMIU master teacher.

Class Description:

Welcome to AP Biology! The AP Biology course is a challenging course that is designed to be the equivalent of a college biology course. AP Biology has been updated for the 2019-2020 school year. This APSI will help you gain insight into understanding the course changes and how to plan your schedule.  We will take a look at the new course and exam description along with  the 8-unit course framework which also includes the advanced level laboratory exercises as recommended by the College Board. Additional exercises will be included to allow a thorough development of science process skills in preparation to take the College Board’s AP Biology exam for potential college credit.  At this summer institute you will be introduced to the test bank, personal progress checks along with the science practices that your students will be able to demonstrate during the course. AP Biology provides students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary skills to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology. 

I want to take this opportunity to WELCOME you to the AP Biology APSI workshop. Your participation in this event is valuable. I look forward to exchanging ideas, learning about what other teachers are doing in their classroom and helping each other. This course prepares teachers to teach AP Biology, a high school course, which has been designed as equivalent to a college freshman year biology course.  Some of the topics covered will include discussion of selection procedures for students and texts appropriate for the course

TEXTS:

  • AP Biology textbook used in your classroom

  • College Board Curriculum and Exam Description (CED)

  • College Board Lab Manual

  • College Board AP Teachers Workshop Manual

  • Consultant Pages to print out

DIGITAL LEARNING PLATFORMS:

  • Blackboard: to access files, complete assignments and share documents

  • Blackboard Ultra: use to communicate in person or groups. Invitations has the link and password for our meeting via email.

  • Google Drive: we will have a shared folder for documents. This will be a place for you to upload documents for the group to have access. Link to be shared on the 1st day of class.

  • Personal Desktop, Laptop, iPad, electronic device, etc.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES:

  • Lab work online or on your own, data collections, calculations of data,

  • Direct Instruction, Presentations, Lectures, Collaborate Group Work,

  • Independent work time, Documents, Data Collecting and Analysis,

  • Chat/Discussion, Syllabus Design, Goal Setting.

GOALS FOR THE WEEK:

  • Overview of the Curriculum and Exam Description Binder

  • Become familiar with AP Classroom and the tools it offers

  • Conduct labs and how to set them up/expected results

  • Be familiar with the AP Course Audit site

  • Understand how Free Response Questions are scored

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

  • Attendance & Participation in Face to Face meetings

  • Timely Submission of Assignments

  • Conduct lab and Discuss data collectio