Personal Philosophy
Environmental Science is one of the most critical subjects to study. Our society is influenced by it every day. A persons’ overall health is affected by the quality of the environment they live in, from the cleanliness of the air they are breathing, to the purity of the water available to drink, to the habitat they live in. Presently environmental issues are embodied in all aspects of our culture, from the political arena to everyday social settings. I will provide you with current issues, theories and data and how they relate to you, the student and society as a whole. My goal for you as my student is to make sure you have an understanding of the concepts covered in a first year university Environmental Science course and make connections between the concepts you are learning and relevance to your life and the lives of others.
Course Overview
The goal of the AP Environmental Science course is to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing them.
Course themes
- Science is a process.
- Science is a method of learning more about the world.
- Science constantly changes the way we understand the world.
- Energy conversions underlie all ecological processes.
- Energy cannot be created; it must come from somewhere.
- As energy flows through systems, at each step more of it becomes unusable.
- The Earth itself is one interconnected system.
- Natural systems change over time and space.
- Biogeochemical systems vary in ability to recover from disturbances.
- Humans alter natural systems.
- Humans have had an impact on the environment for millions of years.
- Technology and population growth have enabled humans to increase both the rate and scale of their impact on the environment.
- Environmental problems have a cultural and social context.
- Understanding the role of cultural, social and economic factors is vital to the development of solutions.
- Human survival depends on developing practices that will achieve sustainable systems.
- A suitable combination of conservation and development is required.
- Management of common resources is essential.
Demogrpahy lab
Ecological scavenger hunt
AP Test Review Resources