In October 2011, the College Board announced that its revised AP Chemistry Course will launch in the academic year 2013–14, with the first version of the new examination to be administered in May 2014. The changes are significant and, with over 122,000 AP Chemistry exams taken in 2011, affect nearly every school district in the country. This article addresses some of the changes to the program and what you can do to prepare for the new curriculum.

Changes to the course
The revised course changes its perspective from a list of major topics to a framework of 6 Big Ideas. The framework for the new AP Chemistry curriculum is now available online at http://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/science/chemistry.

The 6 Big Ideas that establish the scope of the course are supported by a sequence of increasingly specific layers—Enduring Understandings, Essential Knowledge statements, Science Practices, and, ultimately, Learning Objectives, which tie directly to the questions on the exam. Each objective is directly aligned with at least 1 Science Practice. The 7 Science Practices describe ways to collect and analyze data and to use models and theories to explain phenomena. The pairing of Learning Objectives with Science Practices reinforces the application of the course content.

Related Resources

Carolina™ Laboratory Manual for use with AP* Chemistry Carolina™ Laboratory Package for use with AP* Chemistry

To help teachers manage the increased depth of the revised curriculum, the College Board has provided Exclusion Statements, reducing the breadth that has been covered in the past. The statements specify which concepts are now outside the scope of the AP Chemistry curriculum. Excluded concepts include colligative properties, Lewis acid-base theory, phase diagrams, and the Nernst equation. In addition, the memorization of solubility rules is no longer stressed.

Among the additions to the AP Chemistry curriculum is the topic of photoelectron spectroscopy. (PES data supports the shell model of the atom but is not currently part of most chemistry textbooks.) The College Board stipulates that although textbooks older than 10 years may still pass the course audit, the use of additional documents will be required to cover some of the more recent topics and concepts.

Changes to the laboratory component
The 22 recommended experiments that make up the current curriculum will be replaced by 16 experiments, 6 of which must be inquiry-based. The new curriculum requires that at least 25% of class time be spent on laboratory activities (a proportion the College Board assumes that teachers already commit to labs).

To help teachers make the transition from teacher-directed experiments to inquiry-based labs, the College Board will offer a workshop entitled “AP Chemistry: Transitioning to Inquiry-based Labs,” beginning in September 2013. Because the AP Biology course has already been revised, the College Board offers a similar workshop now for AP Biology teachers, “AP Biology: Transitioning to Inquiry-based Labs.” It may be worthwhile to attend this workshop even if you do not teach AP Biology. To find a presentation near you, go to this Web site and view all biology workshops.

Carolina also offers workshops on inquiry-based learning, including 1 that covers our Inquiries in Science® Chemistry Series and 1 on our Carolina Investigations™ for AP* Biology (our kits that address the College Board’s recent revision of that program). These workshops will be presented at the 2012 NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Indianapolis, March 29–31. Visit our Booth (100) at the Convention Center to learn more.

What can I do now to prepare?

1. Subscribe now to the AP Chemistry electronic discussion group on the College Board's Web site. You will find discussion of the revised curriculum already underway.
2. Read the revised curriculum framework, the overview, and the curriculum timeline and schedule for professional development.
3. Periodically check the main Web page for the revision to stay on track with any updates.

*AP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these products.