Environmental Science is a multidisciplinary course focused on the scientific principles, ideas, and skills needed to understand how human beliefs and actions impact the natural world. Students explore environmental issues, identify challenges and problems, and propose solutions using data they have collected in the laboratory, on campus, and online. Topics include ecosystems, biodiversity, populations, Earth systems and resources, land and water use, energy resources and consumption, atmospheric pollution, aquatic and terrestrial pollution, and global change. Students who enroll in the AP Environmental Science are expected to complete a summer assignment prior to the start of the school year and to take the AP examination offered in May. Successful completion of this exam may earn college credit. Enrollment in this course requires a grade of B or better in both Biology and Chemistry. 

(Year Course - 1 credit)

Oceanography is a one semester course with a strong emphasis on problem-based learning.  Course content is structured to help students understand the physical, chemical, and biological features of oceans and the critical role that oceans play in climate and life.  Covering 71% of Earth’s surface and making up 95% of the space for all life on our planet, oceans regulate global climate, store carbon and trap heat, drive the weather, mediate temperatures, and provide us with oxygen and food.  Through lecture, laboratory inquiry and data-based investigations, students will examine what the sea is made of, how currents, waves and tides work, the nature of the ocean floor and shoreline processes, the diversity of ocean life, and the connections between these features and processes and how the ocean responds to climate change.  During a field trip to area beaches, students will examine shoreline features and evaluate some of the civil engineering and environmental challenges humans are facing due to rising sea levels.  Because its waters drain into the Atlantic, the Great Lakes Basin will be used to study how local and regional environmental practices and policies impact the oceans.  The course emphasizes an interdisciplinary and systems approach to problem-solving, critical thinking, and environmental issues.  Half of the course grade stems from individual performances on laboratory work and assessments, and the other half will be based upon a group research project into the impacts of climate change on fish populations, coral reefs, glaciers and sea-ice, sea-level rise, or severe weather.  Enrollment in this course requires successful completion of Biology and Chemistry.

Oceanography will be offered in the 2^nd semester.

(2^nd Semester - ½ credit)

This course will guide you through a comparative overview of how organisms have evolved to maintain homeostasis, survive, and reproduce.  Through comparative animal dissections you will learn how structure, or the anatomy of various organisms, relates to their function or physiology.  Emphasis will be placed on the mammalian body plan.  Studying the mammalian body plan is essential to understanding modern medicine and human behavior.  Comparative dissections will include various invertebrates (annelid and mollusk), dogfish, cat and animal organs (eye, heart, brain).  Enrollment in this course requires the recommendation of the science department and the successful completion or concurrent enrollment in AP Biology.  

(Semester Course - ½ credit)

This semester-long course will begin with a review of DNA structure and replication, RNA structure and function, protein synthesis, and enzyme structure and function.  Next, a lab skills section will introduce the tools and basic techniques to be used throughout the course.  The bulk of the course will focus on the preparation, design, running, and analysis of several labs in which biotechnology techniques and skills may be practiced.  Possible labs include bacterial transformation, polymerase chain reaction, restriction digestion, gel electrophoresis, and CRISPR DNA editing.  Readings from scientific journals and the popular press will be interspersed throughout the course to prompt discussion of historical and ethical uses of these rapidly expanding technologies.  Enrollment in this course requires the successful completion or concurrent enrollment in AP Biology. 

(2nd Semester - ½ credit)