Hello Ecologgers - My department is trying to figure out how to best assign credit to incoming students who get 4's and 5's on the AP Biology exam. One proposal is to give them credit for the first class in our Intro Bio sequence, which happens to be the one that presents ecology (along with evolution and genetics).
I suggested that this would be a mistake, as ecology is likely given short shrift in many high school classes because it is at the end of all of the textbooks. Quite reasonably, I've been challenged as to whether that is really the case. Does anyone know of any comparison of the weight given to various biology subjects (e.g. ecology, physiology, cell, etc.) in high school classes and the AP exam? I still have a suspicion that ecology is the most likely to be rushed or dropped, but maybe that's just because it is what happened when I took it. In any case, I'd be on firmer ground if I had even one piece of evidence to back it up! Thanks! -Jeff *************************** Jeffrey D. Corbin Department of Biological Sciences Union College Schenectady, NY 12308 (518) 388-6097 ***************************
