It’s out with the old and in with the new. Along with the block scheduling changes that will take place next year, there are new or updated curriculums for several classes, including Advanced Placement Physics, World History, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and Agricultural Science.

Starting next year, the AP Physics B class is going to be AP Physics C Mechanics. The curriculum is changing because the College Board changed the AP Physics B class into two different classes with two separate AP exams, according to physics teacher Todd Busse. Busse also says that the biggest changes are that the class is now more calculus based than algebra based, and the new class only covers what was taught in the first semester of AP Physics B with added topics. This allows for the class to go more in depth on the topics that they have.

“This change is good because the number of topics covered is far less than the old class,” Busse said. “There should not be much of a change for the students taking the class next year [except] it will be a little less intense than in the past and we should have more time to review for the exam. The exam itself is also shorter.”

The World History classes are adopting a new textbook next year as the class will be a year long class instead of a semester long class. Since the social studies department was going to need to order more books anyway, they “saw this as an opportunity to adopt a new curriculum that is better aligned with what [they] are doing as a department,” social studies teacher Brian Lee said.

Lee also said that the biggest differences are the layout of the textbook and access to online resources.

“[The students] will have a book that we feel is easier to read and really focuses on what we want kids to learn. Also, they should expect fun, engaging activities related to the content of the class,” Lee said.

The AP Biology curriculum was also changed by the College Board. Currently, AP Biology students are using the 2006 version of Campbell & Reece, and next year they will be updating to the 2014 version. The new curriculum emphasizes Seven Science Practices and 55 Essential Knowledge Components which together determine the 155 Learning Objectives tested on the national exam. Students will be expected to apply their scientific reasoning skills using equation and calculators to analyze data sets and interpret results rather than being tested on basic recall and memorization. In addition, the new curriculum has updated the teacher-directed laboratory experiments to guided and open inquiry.

“This change is epically great,” AP biology teacher Joyce Block said. “Doing inquiry research, applying mathematical reasoning to interpret data and drawing conclusions based on statistical analysis much more closely mimics the work that real scientists do.”

There are also several changes to the AP Chemistry test next year made by the College Board that are in favor of students. There are now 60 four-choice multiple choice questions instead of 75 five-choice multiple choice questions within the same time frame. Students will also be allowed to use their periodic table and equation sheet for the entire test and use their calculator for the entirety of the free response section.

In class, the changes are much less noticeable. There are now 16 labs that are required rather than suggested and there is a new textbook with an e-book companion that has practice quizzes, videos, and simulations tied to the hard copy textbook. The old textbooks were purchased in 2006 and do not include updated information and contain outdated information.

“We needed to have some kind of new resource that we could look at and use so that we could be more up to date with what the changes were,” AP chemistry teacher Cheri Paine said. “[The changes] shouldn’t affect students at all.”

The agriculture science change is an entire curriculum change. There is no textbook, but online material that is available to students and teachers. It will be updated yearly on a national level as the science standards change and provided to each school.

“It’s an excellent change,” said agriculture science teacher Matt Asplund. “We’re getting back to our roots of agriculture, we’re getting students more of those hand on labs they’ve been looking for. [We’ll be] working with really high tech equipment, it should be pretty neat.”