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Meeting Date:
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Category:
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Type:
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Subject:
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15.3 CURRICULUM: Revised Advanced Placement Social Science Courses: AP Government, AP Human Geography, and AP Psychology (meets A-G requirement “A”) |
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Strategic Plan:
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Enclosure:
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File Attachment:
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Summary:
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The District's Educational Services Department has recommended updates in our district-wide course catalog. When a course is discovered to need to be updated, it is requested that the department team work together to bring the course of study current. The Advanced Placement Social Science courses AP Government, AP Human Geography, and AP Psychology are currently being offered and revised to align with the current content standards and practices. AP Government, AP Human Geography, and AP Psychology meet the CSU/UC A-G graduation requirements of "A" 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. Students will study U.S. foundational documents, Supreme Court decisions, and other texts and visuals to understand the relationships and interactions among political institutions, processes, and behaviors. Underpinning the required content of the course are several big ideas that allow students to create meaningful connections among concepts throughout the course. Students will also develop skills that require reading and interpreting data, making comparisons and applications, and developing evidence-based arguments. In addition, they will complete a political science research or applied civics project.
AP Human Geography introduces high school students to college-level introductory human geography or cultural geography. The content is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline's main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies are drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich the analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human–environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction. Specific topics with which students engage include the following: problems of economic development and cultural change consequences of population growth, changing fertility rates, and international migration impacts of technological innovation on transportation, communication, industrialization, and other aspects of human life struggles over political power and control of territory conflicts over the demands of ethnic minorities, the role of women in society, and the inequalities between developed and developing economies explanations of why location matters to agricultural land use, industrial development, and urban problems the role of climate change and environmental abuses in shaping the human landscapes on Earth.
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 major units of study, such as biological bases of behavior, cognition, development and learning, social and personality, and mental and physical health. Throughout the course, students employ psychological research methods, including ethical considerations, to evaluate claims, consider evidence, and effectively communicate ideas. |
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Funding:
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Recommendation
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It is recommended that the Board of Trustees receive, for its review and consideration, as part of the first reading, the revised Advanced Placement Social Science courses: AP Government, AP Human Geography, and AP Psychology. |
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Approvals:
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Recommended By: |
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Signed By: |
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Dr. Shannyn Cahoon - Director - Curriculum and Instruction |
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Signed By: |
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Kindylee Mackamul - Interim Assistant Superintendent |
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Signed By: |
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Grant Bennett - Superintendent |
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