Environmental Science: Experienced Teachers
AP 527E.200 | Anne Soos
This online class is designed to maximize the learner experience, providing relevant AP content and pedagogy through meaningful engagement – all focused on best practices for preparing your AP students for success. It is designed primarily for experienced AP Environmental Science teachers with 4 or more years’ experience. This intensive four-day course will provide an overview of the entire AP Environmental Science (APES) curriculum. In this Institute we will focus on 1) Analysis of recent FRQ’s: how they were scored, which Units and Topics were included, and tips on improving student’s FRQ scores; 2) Important concepts to include within the revised CED framework; 3) How to conduct meaningful lab experiences in both hands-on and virtual settings; 4) A review of the most basic, required labs. 5) Tips on the Multiple-Choice section of the AP exam; and 6) Successful course planning that may or may not follow the sequence of topics in the CED. Some important features of AP Classroom will be explored, as well as additional teaching aids available on AP Central. Each day, participants will focus on 1 or 2 of the 9 units, including possible labs associated with those units, and they will devise and discuss (in break-out rooms) modifications which could be implemented to extend the labs and make them more inquiry-based. In addition, new AP resources will be discussed. Each participant will be asked to make a short presentation to the group about an activity which they have used successfully in their APES class. Participants will be expected to spend some time on homework which, besides the presentation, could include writing and sharing possible FRQ’s or inquiry-based labs. Participants should have their school calendar for the coming year and a scientific calculator of some type available. Participants will be expected to have read and answered the 2021 Free Response Questions before the Institute begins. The class will include about equal amounts of time spent synchronously and asynchronously. The last half-hour of each day will be reserved for “office hours” with the instructor.
Anne Soos Anne Soos retired from The Hun School of Princeton in June 2018. While at Hun, she
taught AP Environmental Science, Honors Chemistry, and AP Chemistry. She has taught
APES since the program was introduced in 1998 and has taught biology and AP Biology.
Before joining the Hun faculty, she was Head of the Upper School at Stuart Country
Day School of the Sacred Heart in Princeton, NJ, and had served as Science Department
Chair. Anne’s retirement in 2018 marked the end of a 50-year teaching career. She
has been an AP reader for biology and, until her retirement, was a reader for environmental
science. As an AP Consultant, Anne has presented several one-day AP workshops and,
in addition to Goucher College, has led both in-person and online AP summer institutes
at Rensselaerville, NY; Lewes, DE; La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA; Henry
Jackson High School in Everett WA, Oakland University in Detroit, MI, and Middlesex
County College in Edison, NJ. Anne has edited several APES texts and review books
for various publishers. In her spare time, besides gardening, Anne is an AARP Tax
Aide, and a board member of the Princeton Adult School and the Princeton Environmental
Commission. Anne has also taught several classes at the Princeton Senior Center Evergreen
Forum.