Advanced Placement Course Offerings
Click on a course below for a detailed description
*taught at Hickory Career Arts & Magnet School
The course is designed to be the equivalent of a one-semester, introductory college course in environmental science. The course requires that students identify and analyze natural and human-made environmental problems, evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and examine alternative solutions for resolving or preventing them. This course meets the graduation requirement for Earth/Environmental Science.
Strongly recommended: B or higher in previous Social Studies course taught at the honors level. The purpose of this course is to develop greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts in different types of human societies. The course highlights the nature of changes in global frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge, leading interpretive issues, and skills in analyzing types of historical evidence. Periodization, explicitly discussed, forms an organizing principle to address change and continuity throughout the course. Specific themes provide further organization to the course, along with consistent attention to contacts among societies that form the core of world history as a field of study. Upon completion of this class, students will have completed the graduation requirements for World History. At its conclusion, students are expected to take the AP exam, which offers the opportunity to earn college credit.
Students explore everyday situations using mathematical tools and lenses. Through regular practice, students build deep mastery of modeling and functions, and they examine scenarios through multiple representations. Students will learn how to observe, explore, and build mathematical meaning from dynamic systems, an important practice for thriving in an ever-changing world. Course follows the College Board syllabus.
College level texts and laboratory experiences are used to study evolution, classification, ecology, behavior, and the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals. The course is highly laboratory oriented and requires critical thinking and strong analytical and written communication skills. Course offered in the spring.
Strongly recommended: B or higher in previous Social Studies course taught at the honors level. This course will follow the outline from the AP Bulletin. Students will engage in an in-depth study of the discipline of psychology, its history, theoretical approaches, and contemporary research methods.
Strongly recommended: B or higher in previous Social Studies course taught at the honors level. Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics will provide students an intellectual foundation for observing, analyzing, and understanding national politics in the United States. Using primary and secondary source documents, as well as analysis of specific examples, students will examine and evaluate the institutions of American government, political parties and elections, mass media, political behavior, public policies, and the development of individual rights and liberties and their impact on citizens. The content of this course is the equivalent to that of an introductory college course in U.S. government and politics.
This is a foundational course that engages students in cross-curricular conversations that explore the complexities of academic and real-world topics and issues. Students learn to synthesize information from multiple sources, develop their own perspectives in written essays and design and deliver oral and visual presentations, both individually and as part of a team.
Strongly recommended: B or higher in previous Social Studies course taught at the honors level. This course will follow the outline from the AP bulletin. The importance of geography as a field of inquiry into the dynamics of human population growth, movement and culture provides the foundation for this course. At the conclusion of the course, students are expected to take the AP exam, which offers the opportunity to earn college credit.
The course will focus on critical reading and analysis of prose, writing, language and imaginative literature. Students will be expected to read and write both in and outside the classroom and be prepared for discussion.
This course is the companion course to Honors Early American History. It is designed as the equivalent of college introductory courses in the subject. It emphasizes events in American History during the twentieth century. This course places emphasis on critical and evaluative thinking skills, essay writing, and interpretation of original documents. At the conclusion of the course, students are expected to take the AP exam, which offers the opportunity to earn college credit.
A study of the concepts of calculus including functions, graphs, limits, derivatives, integrals, and provides experience with its methods and applications. Course follows the College Board syllabus.
Students will explore the concepts, methods, and applications of differential and integral calculus, including topics such as parametric, polar, and vector functions, and series. Students will perform experiments and investigations and solve problems by applying their knowledge and skills. Courses follows the College Board syllabus.
It is an in depth study of topics such as molecular geometry, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, gas laws, kinetics, acid‐base chemistry, equilibrium systems, electrochemistry, and nuclear chemistry.
Computer Science Principles introduces students to the foundational concepts of the field and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world. Students may be able to earn college credit if they score high enough on the AP exam.
Students cultivate their understanding of French language and culture by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication in real-life situations as they explore concepts related to family and community, personal and public identity, beauty and aesthetics, science and technology, contemporary life, and global challenges.
Students will cultivate their understanding of physics and science practices as they explore the following topics: Kinematics, Dynamics, Circular motion and Universal Law of Gravitation, impulse, linear momentum, conservation of momentum, collisions, simple harmonic motion, work, energy, conservation of energy, rotational motion (torque, rotational kinematics and energy, rotational dynamics and angular momentum, electrostatics, electric charge, electric force, DC circuits, mechanical waves and sound.
Students cultivate their understanding of Spanish language and culture by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication in real-life situations as they explore concepts related to family and community, personal and public identity, beauty and aesthetics, science and technology, contemporary life, and global challenges.
An introduction to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. Students will observe patterns and departures from patterns, decide what and how to measure, produce models using probability and simulation, and confirm models.
AP Research
This is the second course in the AP Capstone experience. Students design, plan, and implement a yearlong investigation to address a research question. Through this inquiry, they further the skills they acquired in the AP Seminar course by learning research methodology, employing ethical research practices, and accessing, analyzing and synthesizing information. The course culminates in an academic paper and a presentation with an oral defense.
This course emphasizes preparation for the Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Exam. The course includes 10 novels and plays, short prose works, poetry, study of syntax, advanced literary terminology, and college level composition. The type of writing emphasized is critical analysis.
This course is for serious music students to prepare for freshman college theory and/or to expand their musical knowledge. AP Music Theory covers the basic materials and processes of music that are heard or presented in a musical score. Achievement of these goals is approached by addressing fundamental aural, analytical, and compositional skills using both listening and written exercises.
Students learn to critically analyze works of art within diverse historical and cultural contexts, considering issues such as politics, religion, patronage, gender and ethnicity: explore architecture, sculpture, painting and other media from a variety of cultures, articulate visual and art historical concepts observation, discussion, reading and research. Students must possess a high degree of skill in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to meet college standards.
This course follows the outline as provided by the Advanced Placement Program. Students will develop an advanced drawing technique and conceptual portfolio which contains quality breadth, and concentration sections. Students will engage in critiques of their own peers' art. Students must be self-motivated and exhibit perseverance in completing their portfolio.