AP/IB/Honors High School Teachers
students learning

Teachers of AP/IB/Honors curricula have unique challenges. You are teaching college level material to a high school audience. You may find lessons and teaching methods that are within the range of your curriculum in several places within SERC.

Finding Lessons for Teaching

Search for lessons by content area that are appropriate for introductory college level courses (grades 13-14)

Other places to search for lessons:

Finding Resources for Teaching

Students in upper level high school science courses conduct experiments they design, analyze data from scientific reports, and are typically capable of understanding connections between concepts. These students need educators who can advise them, direct them to appropriate sources, and challenge them to think more deeply about topics. The following resources may assist you in providing current information and methods to help students learn.

Geoscience and Environmental Science

Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/index.html
Starting Point Geosciences - Find hundreds of teaching examples (lessons) for 13 topics ranging from Evolution to Atmosphere, Geography to Structural Geology. Also, find teaching methods that are appropriate for delivering some of the lessons described (many of these are outlined in the 9-12 Educators Site Guide as well). The intended audience for this resource is geoscience faculty teaching introductory level courses.
Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/index.html
Teaching Introductory Geoscience Courses - Find hundreds of classroom and lab exercises for introductory level geoscience and environmental science courses. A list of popular books (not textbooks) used by introductory level faculty is presented for a variety of topics. Other topics are presented that are of particular importance to educators of introductory college courses such as motivating students and tips for teaching large classes.
Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/earthsystem/index.html
Using an Earth System Approach - The Earth System Approach acknowledges that changes in the solid earth can impact the atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, or hydrosphere. The interconnections of the Earth system are explored. This resource presents information on how and why to create an earth system course.

Physics and Chemistry

Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/phet/index.html
PhET Interactive Science Simulations - PhET is a collection of free online interactive simulations that demonstrate concepts primarily in physics and chemistry. This resource provides examples of lesson plans created to accompay the simulations, ideas for how to teach with PhET, guidelines for designing your own activities using simulations, and information on how to use the PhET activity database.
Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/uncertainty/index.html
Measurement and Uncertainty - Measurement and Uncertainty are fundamental concepts in science education, but students hold many misconceptions about the processes and procedures in determining these quantities. This resource will help educators understand the importance of addressing student misconceptions, will help educators understand how to incorporate lessons, and give examples of lessons to teach measurement and uncertainty.

Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/dmvideos/index.html
Direct Measurement Videos - These short, high-quality videos of real events that students can use to explore and apply physics concepts. The videos can be used for labs, homework, assessments, or open-ended problems. Several of the videos are paired with classroom-ready activities that integrate videos into the introductory mechanics curriculum. What sets these videos apart from others is that students can measure distances, time, angles, and other variables right from the videos, allowing for a wide variety of quantitative and theoretical exploration.

All sciences

Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/communications_curricula/index.html
Training Student Scientists to Communicate - This resource provides information on how to teach students to communicate scientific findings in a traditional scientific format; a poster, talk, or paper. This resource helps guide educators through how to integrate projects into courses and includes a list of examples of projects focused on students communicating findings.
Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/studentresearch/index.html
Undergraduate Research - The IB curriculum requires students to conduct independent and/or group research projects. Some AP and honors course educators choose to add a student research project component into their curriculum also. Educators become facilitators and advisors during these projects. This resource presents information on how to engage and guide students through the process of conducting their own research.
Go to http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/icbl/index.html
Using Investigative Cases - Investigative cases are starting points for students to design their own investigations and direct their own learning. Students are presented with a problem (or a case) and are challenged to find a solution. This resource would be particularly useful in getting students to design an investigation and to apply knowledge to a situation.



To find more resources, use the resource pages on teaching methods, how students learn, curriculum & assessment, etc. listed on the K-12 Teachers Portal page.

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