On the other hand, it is possible that colleges may not look at AP Environmental Science in quite the same way as AP Chemistry or AP Physics.
I wonder to what extent an interdisciplinary subject such as environmental science can be studied at the college level without the prerequisites of college-level biology, chemistry, physics, and perhaps even economics.
Simple-- it's a
survey course. A mile wide, and an inch deep.
It's no more rigorous than the general education science courses that I used to teach to students from all over the campus.
Then again, that's what you have to bear in mind about
most AP coursework-- it's at that Gen Ed level, with a few exceptions.
And I agree, Quantum-- there isn't much to show that spiraling like this actually produces good results in the end. But that's what I think it is-- so it's not
exactly that higher level content is being pushed downward. Well, it sort of is, I guess. But without genuine mastery of the foundation, for most students (even bright ones) it just can't stick.
It's like trying to paint a teflon building by racing around it in a clown-car spraying a mixture of paint on the walls at each pass with a firehose mounted on the car. IMO, it seems more effective to prepare the surface well and do it meticulously, but the cartoon clown-car approach is a lot more exciting and certainly LOOKS more impressive.
(You're welcome, btw. I dare anyone not to crack a smile and think of that metaphor when encountering an earnest
clow-- er-- educator-administrator espousing the wonders of spiraling pedagogy.
)
