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BIOLOGY and HONORS BIOLOGY
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Hello Students and Parents,
The school district is making some educational resources available through their (sjusd.org) website--using those resources is recommended but still optional. The last thing we teachers were told by the school district leadership team was that no assignments should be given or graded by any teachers during the three week quarantine period. Hopefully we will resume classes in 2 - 4 weeks, and if we do, then I will just remove the symposium research project from our calendar and we should have enough time to finish our last two units and do our final exam. During this time away from school, Biology students may wish to work on missing / late assignments, and Biology and Honors Biology students may want to to use this time to work on / complete any already assigned work (from the genetics unit, TSOTS, or the ESLP project) that would have been due during the mandated closure period. Completing at least some of this work now will make the transition back to normal school routines a bit less stressful and should offer something to (temporarily, at least) take students minds off of the anxiety-inducing happenings going on around the planet right now. If we don't return this school year, there is a good chance we will use an online learning platform to complete classes for this school year--that would probably start up in two weeks. As soon as I have more information, I will post a blog post on our class website. Until then, stay safe and feel free to reach out to me via email anytime.
Take care,
Mr. Bursch
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Friday, March 20, 2020
What to Do for WGHS AP Environmental Science During the School Closure
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AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
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Hello Students and Parents,
I can’t tell you how the end of the school year is going to play out, but the last thing we teachers were told by the school district leadership team was that no assignments should be given or graded by any teachers during the three week quarantine period. Hopefully we will resume classes in 2 weeks, and if we do, then we'll push hard to finish reviewing content from units 10, 11, and 12 before we do our final exam in preparation for the AP Environmental Science exam from College Board. In any case, I have unlocked units 11 and 12 (our final two units) on the class website (http://mrbursch.blogspot.com/p/ap-environmental-science.html) and strongly suggest working your way through the lectures, articles/readings, and practice assignments from these two units. I have also unlocked the AP Classroom resources on College Board’s My AP website (https://myap.collegeboard.org/). If you still have not registered for our class on the College Board’s My AP website, please go there as soon as you can and use the join code JRXER2. College Board’s My AP website has multiple progress checks (tests you can use to quiz yourself) as well as unit study guides (these are different than those I have already given you on mrbursch.blogspot.com For now I will suspend all labs, unit exams, and projects.
With that said, College Board sent out a public communication recently declaring that AP Exams will still be given for this school year, but they will be online, significantly shorter (only 45 minutes) than traditional exams and offered on two different dates (to be announced later on April 3). Below is an excerpt from the AP Updates for Schools Impacted by Coronavirus page on the College Board website:
March 20, 2020
For more information, please visit the AP Updates for Schools Impacted by Coronavirus page at:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/coronavirus-update?SFMC_cid=EM288604-&rid=47643057
Please feel free to email me anytime at either email address. If anything changes in the coming days, I’ll post details here on the class website and send you an announcement through Remind. Until then, stay safe and feel free to reach out to me via email anytime.
Take care,
Mr. Bursch
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AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
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Hello Students and Parents,
I can’t tell you how the end of the school year is going to play out, but the last thing we teachers were told by the school district leadership team was that no assignments should be given or graded by any teachers during the three week quarantine period. Hopefully we will resume classes in 2 weeks, and if we do, then we'll push hard to finish reviewing content from units 10, 11, and 12 before we do our final exam in preparation for the AP Environmental Science exam from College Board. In any case, I have unlocked units 11 and 12 (our final two units) on the class website (http://mrbursch.blogspot.com/p/ap-environmental-science.html) and strongly suggest working your way through the lectures, articles/readings, and practice assignments from these two units. I have also unlocked the AP Classroom resources on College Board’s My AP website (https://myap.collegeboard.org/). If you still have not registered for our class on the College Board’s My AP website, please go there as soon as you can and use the join code JRXER2. College Board’s My AP website has multiple progress checks (tests you can use to quiz yourself) as well as unit study guides (these are different than those I have already given you on mrbursch.blogspot.com For now I will suspend all labs, unit exams, and projects.
With that said, College Board sent out a public communication recently declaring that AP Exams will still be given for this school year, but they will be online, significantly shorter (only 45 minutes) than traditional exams and offered on two different dates (to be announced later on April 3). Below is an excerpt from the AP Updates for Schools Impacted by Coronavirus page on the College Board website:
March 20, 2020
As schools and communities navigate the unprecedented challenges posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the health and safety of educators and students are the AP Program’s top priorities. Here’s how we’re supporting schools:
- We’re providing free remote learning resources.
- We’re investing in the development of a new at-home testing option.
Through our members across the country, we understand the new time constraints on everyone in the education community. These solutions are meant to be as simple and lightweight as possible for both students and teachers — without creating additional burdens for school leaders during this time.
- Traditional face-to-face exam administrations will not take place. Students will take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home.
- Some students may want to take the exam sooner rather than later, while the content is still fresh. Other students may want more time to practice. For each AP subject, there will be 2 different testing dates.
The full exam schedule, specific free-response question types that will be on each AP Exam, and additional testing details will be available by April 3. We'll also unlock any relevant free-response questions in AP Classroom for digital use so students can access all practice questions of the type that will appear on the exam.
About This Year’s AP Exams
Students remain eager to take AP Exams and to have a chance to earn credit and placement. We surveyed 18,000 AP students and 91% indicated they want to complete this important step, urging us not to cancel this opportunity they have been working toward.
We’ll continue to support students with free resources through exam day. And while we encourage students to wait until closer to the test date to decide, any student already registered for an exam can choose to cancel at no charge.
The AP Program will invest heavily over the next month in the following ways:
- For the 2019–20 exam administration only, students can take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home. Educator-led development committees are currently selecting the exam questions that will be administered.
- AP curricula are locally developed and we defer to local decisions on how best to help students complete coursework. To be fair to all students, some of whom have lost more instructional time than others, the exam will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March.
- Colleges support this solution and are committed to ensuring that AP students receive the credit they have worked this year to earn. For decades, colleges have accepted a shortened AP Exam for college credit when groups of students have experienced emergencies.
- Students will be able to take these streamlined exams on any device they have access to—computer, tablet, or smartphone. Taking a photo of handwritten work will also be an option.
- We recognize that the digital divide could prevent some low-income and rural students from participating. Working with partners, we will invest so that these students have the tools and connectivity they need to review AP content online and take the exam. If your students need mobile tools or connectivity, you can reach out to us directly to let us know.
For more information, please visit the AP Updates for Schools Impacted by Coronavirus page at:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/coronavirus-update?SFMC_cid=EM288604-&rid=47643057
Please feel free to email me anytime at either email address. If anything changes in the coming days, I’ll post details here on the class website and send you an announcement through Remind. Until then, stay safe and feel free to reach out to me via email anytime.
Take care,
Mr. Bursch
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