Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Any of your AP Sciences more than one period?

Our AP Physics C is also two periods. It does include both Mechanics and E & M. I assume all AP Physics C courses cover both but not concurrently.

They get two high school (not college) credits only because the course takes up two periods. Our students take eight courses each year and graduate with 32 credits (barring Fs) plus a few earned in middle school although they only need twenty-something (23?) to graduate.

That is a nice variation. Unfortunately, I believe in our case it is literally two periods of class.

That is strange to us, mostly because of the facilities limitation. Our students are assigned one of three lunch times since only so many students can fit in the cafeteria or get through the lines and eat within a 30 minute timeframe.

DS/DD are on a block schedule so each period is about 90 minutes every other day. That does make labs easier although in my day, we managed AP science courses with labs within 50-55 minutes. The trick is in the planning, including preparing ahead of time, getting started immediately, and some labs can go over into the next day.

The after school exams also discriminate against school bus riders who may not be able to get alternate transportation . . . I guess they know to not sign up for those AP history courses.

Hmm . . . I am pretty sure we have to pay for our kids' AP exams so that would never be an issue. Our AB is one year, follow by BC the next year so DS would take the AB exam this year after the AB course and the BC exam next year after the BC course.

I need to look up AP Chem on the College Board website - in my day it was one AP Chem test.

Extra time for labs can make sense as that is how it was in college but it would be too difficult to schedule them within our school day.

We have a late bus run, so that’s not an issue, it just takes a looong time (fewer buses, so the trips are longer). But it’s yet another demand on kids’ time.

I now understand why so many parents here find a way to let their kids drive to school as soon as they are able- even the extra time saved in the morning is valuable when your kid is sleep-deprived (yes, it’s crazy that people let sleep-deprived kids drive, but I digress...).

But I agree with you in that scheduling work after school makes unfair demands on kids who have to take the bus. Wish that were the only way school discriminated against lower-income kids, but that’s an issue for another thread.

Wow, a late run bus is such a great idea! DS/DD literally have no time to stop by their lockers on the days that they take the bus home.

Along the same vein, the system really discriminates against kids who do not have access to private transportation or live within walking distance of their school. Our district recently adopted a new philosophy of grading, which aims to encourage learning and emphasize ultimate mastery by allowing students to "re-do" smaller assignments and quizzes to earn a higher grade. Unfortunately, that meant kids have to either come in early or stay late on the date/time scheduled by the teacher. I am just thankful that it is extremely rare for DS/DD to redo any assignments/quizzes.