HILARY STAPLES
Hilary Staples has been a science educator for over twenty years, both in the field and in the classroom. She believes in bringing relevance to education by working with the important topics of both personal and environmental health. She integrates scientific innovation with a reverence for nature through the lens of Biomimicry. Hilary is also a public speaker on Biomimicry for schools, conferences, community groups, AP Psychology, Biology, AP Environmental Science and even a mini-course in Yoga. Hilary has been teaching APES since it was new and working as an AP Reader since 2003. She has also been a leader in technology, and the 1-1 iPad program initiated by her school in 2010, seeing it as another tool for creativity and sustainability on campus. Her work at San Domenico has been integral to the School's receiving both an Apple Distinguished School designation and the Green Ribbon School Award from the Department of Education.
Hilary can be contacted at [email protected]
Hilary Staples has been a science educator for over twenty years, both in the field and in the classroom. She believes in bringing relevance to education by working with the important topics of both personal and environmental health. She integrates scientific innovation with a reverence for nature through the lens of Biomimicry. Hilary is also a public speaker on Biomimicry for schools, conferences, community groups, AP Psychology, Biology, AP Environmental Science and even a mini-course in Yoga. Hilary has been teaching APES since it was new and working as an AP Reader since 2003. She has also been a leader in technology, and the 1-1 iPad program initiated by her school in 2010, seeing it as another tool for creativity and sustainability on campus. Her work at San Domenico has been integral to the School's receiving both an Apple Distinguished School designation and the Green Ribbon School Award from the Department of Education.
Hilary can be contacted at [email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION
APES COURSE DESCRIPTION
Environmental science is a dynamic course that involves students strengthening science skills as well as gaining confidence with necessary content. I will be supplying teacher-participants with a digital folder of resources to help them enjoy a successful APES class including labs, rubrics, review sheets, sample tests, and more. Participants will become comfortable navigating the resources from the College Board. In addition, I will be sharing labs and activities while modeling how I have adapted some lessons to the distance learning platforms. We will discuss teaching strategies for classroom instruction, and for the AP exam preparedness. After this course teachers should have a clear idea of what their students need for success and have many resources to help them design a curriculum that works for them, their students and their school.
*Some labs will be done using easy-to-acquire materials from home to give hands-on experience and time away from our screens. Some activities we will do together.
DAY 1: Morning: Course overview
DAY 1: Afternoon: Unit 1, 2 & 3
DAY 2: Morning-
Q & A- from yesterday
DAY 2: Afternoon Unit 4 & 5 Land and Water
DAY 3: Morning
Q & A- from yesterday
DAY 3: Afternoon: Unit 6 & 7
DAY 4:
Q & A- from yesterday
DAY 4: Afternoon Unit 9
DAY 5: What is left and what do you need..(this agenda may change for needs of class)
Morning:
Q & A- from yesterday
Afternoon
Planning for your year
SUPPLIES STUDENTS will Need
APPS students should download:
Environmental science is a dynamic course that involves students strengthening science skills as well as gaining confidence with necessary content. I will be supplying teacher-participants with a digital folder of resources to help them enjoy a successful APES class including labs, rubrics, review sheets, sample tests, and more. Participants will become comfortable navigating the resources from the College Board. In addition, I will be sharing labs and activities while modeling how I have adapted some lessons to the distance learning platforms. We will discuss teaching strategies for classroom instruction, and for the AP exam preparedness. After this course teachers should have a clear idea of what their students need for success and have many resources to help them design a curriculum that works for them, their students and their school.
*Some labs will be done using easy-to-acquire materials from home to give hands-on experience and time away from our screens. Some activities we will do together.
DAY 1: Morning: Course overview
- Introductions
- Overview of the New CED=Course and Exam Description!
- Big Ideas
- Science Practices
- Course Framework: Topics and learning objectives
- Solar Capacity of the Earth (Science Practice 6)
- Salinity/acidity Design lab- explanation- Set-up (Science Practice 4)
- Treasure hunt through CED
DAY 1: Afternoon: Unit 1, 2 & 3
- Super cycle (1.4-1.7) * Quizlet live
- Rice Relay (1.10)
- Trophic cascade
- Biome Dating Game (1.2, 1.3)
- Island Biogeography (2.3)
- Tag and Recapture Lab (3.5)*
- Take a hike! Biodiversity- Bioblitz (2.1)*
- Biological Lens (adaptations 2.6)*
- What instructional practices might you use to teach one of the topics from Units 1, 2 or 3? How would you assess for understanding?
DAY 2: Morning-
Q & A- from yesterday
- Share Bioblitz results and biological lens sketches
- Share any ideas for Unit 1-3 instruction
- How to enroll your students in AP Classroom
- Using Personal Progress Checks to inform instruction
- The Progress Dashboard, monitoring student learning
- How to use the question bank to design assessments
- Use the question bank to design an assessment for one of the learning activities for Units 1 or 2 you identified yesterday
- Gather a sample of soil for afternoon activity
DAY 2: Afternoon Unit 4 & 5 Land and Water
- Hands on Tectonics* (4.1)
- Oreo cookie geology*
- Soil Lab - bring a sample and your glass jar* (4.3)
- Teaching about farming (5.3-5.7,5.14-5.16)
- Tragedy of the commons lab + Footprint (5.1 &5.11+ 5.8)
- Watershed activity* (4.6)
- Cookie Mining Lab (5.9)?*
- What instructional practices might you use to teach one of the topics from Units 4 or 5? How would you assess for understanding?
DAY 3: Morning
Q & A- from yesterday
- Share Share activities or assessment ideas for unit 4 and 5
- multiple choice-types of questions
- changes to the exam
- strategies
- NEW- Online database - coming August 1
- FRQ- work through FRQs Talk about rubrics, try scoring.
- What changes have been made?
- Task Verbs
- Compare to CED
- Ways to adapt an FRQ – so students do not copy from online.
- How to test your students
DAY 3: Afternoon: Unit 6 & 7
- Energy Project (6.1-6,12)
- Energy Audit (6.13)
- Science Practice 6: Mathematical Practices
- Packet of Energy FRQs
- Various air labs for class (7.1-7.4)
- particulate lab* (7.4)
- Freeze some blue ice cubes for tomorrow
- What instructional practices might you use to teach one of the topics from Units 6 or 7? How would you assess for understanding?
DAY 4:
Q & A- from yesterday
- Share activities or assessment ideas for unit 6 and 7
- Water Quality Lab (8.1 & 8.2)
- Water Case Studies- jigsaw (8.1-8.15)
- Dam Debate
- Disease Match-up Game (8.15)
- Field Trip options (8.9 & 8.10, 8.11)
- LD50 Lab (8.12)*
- Check on Salinization Seed Lab results
DAY 4: Afternoon Unit 9
- Climate Change T & F activity* (9)
- Convection currents Activity* (9.5)
- Wedge activity * (9.4-9.7)
- Ocean Acidification lab ?* (9.7)
- Feedback loops jigsaw* (9.4-9.7)
- Ozone modeling lab (9.1)
- Albedo Lab* (9.3 & 9.5)
- Check results from particulate lab
- What instructional practices might you use to teach one of the topics from Units 8 or 9? How would you assess for understanding?
DAY 5: What is left and what do you need..(this agenda may change for needs of class)
Morning:
Q & A- from yesterday
- Share activities or assessment ideas for unit 8 and 9
- Review strategies:
- green city
- mind maps
- Visuals practice
Afternoon
Planning for your year
- Course Audit and Curricular requirements
- Strategies for planning and time management
- Time and help to work on your syllabus/unit plans for next year
- Create plant for first unit for APES in fall- with distance learning options
- Create your equipment list
- bare bones & dream list.
SUPPLIES STUDENTS will Need
- College Board will send you: CED and Participant Handbook
- Paper
- pencil
- colored pens
- water in a spray bottle (if possible)
- ziplock bags
- paper towels
- Dry seeds/beans or some type
- Empty glass jar
- 2- Oreo cookies
- 1 package: Goldfish or bunnies or teddy grahams.
- Clear cups (glass or plastic)
- Food coloring blue and red
- thermometer
APPS students should download:
- iNaturalist
- Magnify
- Google suite: Docs, slides and calendar