AP® Environmental Science
Online High School Course | AP Environmental Science | K12
Course Overview
AP Environmental Science is equivalent to a two-semester introductory college-level environmental science course designed to prepare students for the College Board AP Environmental Science Exam. This course meets guidelines outlined in the College Board’s AP Environmental Science Course Description (2013) and incorporates the most recent changes required of course content and preparation for the AP Environmental Science Exam. This course aims to provide students with scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies needed to understand interrelationships in the natural world, identify and analyze environmental problems (natural and human-made), evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems.
back to topCourse Length
Two Semesters
back to topPrerequisites
AP Environmental Science is a good option for interested students who have completed two years of high school laboratory science, such as a year of life science (e.g., biology) and a year of physical science (e.g., chemistry). It is also recommended that students who enroll in this course have taken at least one year of algebra and have completed a course in earth science.
back to topCourse Outline
Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 2: Science, Matter, Energy, and Systems
Chapter 3: Ecosystems: What Are They and How Do They Work?
Chapter 4: Biodiversity and Evolution
Chapter 5: Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Population Control
Chapter 6: The Human Population and Its Impact
Chapter 7: Climate and Biodiversity
Chapter 8: Aquatic Biodiversity
Chapter 9: Sustaining Biodiversity: Saving Species and Ecosystem Services
Chapter 10: Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: Saving Ecosystem and Ecosystem Services
Chapter 11: Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Chapter 12: Food Production and the Environment
Chapter 13: Water Resources
Chapter 14: Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
Chapter 15: Nonrenewable Energy
Chapter 16: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Chapter 17: Environmental Hazards and Human Health
Chapter 18: Air Pollution
Chapter 19: Climate Disruption
Chapter 20: Water Pollution
Chapter 21: Solid and Hazardous Waste
Chapter 22: Urbanization and Sustainability
Chapter 23: Economics, Environment, and Sustainability
Chapter 24: Politics, Environment, and Sustainability
Chapter 25: Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability
back to top
