What I have noticed is that much of the curriculum in all the major subjects (math, science, reading, language arts, social studies) have been "pushed down". I would venture to say that most elementary students (in decent schools) are covering topics formerly introduced in middle school while most middle school students (in decent schools) are covering topics formerly introduced in high school. This is most obvious in math where first graders get questions like 5 + ? = 14, second graders get to create bar graphs and third graders are asked to calculate the area of a rectangle, etc. In the science area, I actually see a lot of coverage of topics in biology, physics and environmental science between 3rd to 5th grade. I think that by the time students get to high school, they actually have studied quite a bit of biology, chemistry and physics, certainly enough to handle an environmental science course without high school biology, chemistry & physics. In our district, it looks like AP Environmental Science would typically come after GT or Honors courses in Biology, Chemistry & Physics so presumably sufficient preparation for a college level course same as the other AP Science courses.
