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News
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For Immediate Release 10 May 1999
SDSU Hosts Summer Advanced Placement Institutes in Physics and Calculus ABPIERRE-The South Dakota Board of Regents will host two Advanced Placement Institutes at the campus of South Dakota State University. An institute in Physics will be held from July 12 to 16 and an institute in Calculus AB will be held July 19 to 23. The institutes are offered to teachers who want to prepare high school students for Advanced Placement examinations. The calculus institute will be under the direction of Dr. Dan Kemp, Professor in the mathematics and statistics department at SDSU. The physics institute will be headed by Dr. O.W. Leisure, Professor in the SDSU physics department.
The institutes are being hosted by the Regents in response to requests from high school representatives who asked for assistance in preparing teachers to offer the Advanced Placement courses. The universities are supporting the institutes in part with resources from the Reinvestment Through Efficiencies plan. The Reinvestment Through Efficiencies plan calls for the universities to be more efficient and innovative by redirecting financial and human resources to specific system-wide goals. One of those goals is increased collaboration with the public elementary and secondary schools. "When the public school representatives asked for assistance in enriching their curricular offering with AP courses, the university presidents were pleased to help. In developing the institutes the universities are realizing the opportunity to increase communication with the school districts resulting in students that are better prepared for college level work," said Regents Executive Director Robert T. Tad Perry. This is the second year the universities have offered the AP institutes.
Administered by the College Board, the Advanced Placement Program offers high school students an opportunity to study courses that are equivalent to first-year college courses. Following instruction in special AP courses, in honors classes, or in extra independent study, the students can take examinations that demonstrate they have obtained the knowledge and skills of comparable college courses. When those students later enroll in a college or university that accepts AP credit, they can present their AP scores. Minimum passing test scores are accepted by thousands of colleges and universities that participate in the program. "Taking AP courses represents good planning on the part of high school students. They are preparing themselves for college level work and are also giving themselves a head start by earning credit through acceptable scores," said Perry.
Other AP institutes will be held this summer: English Literature and Composition at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology from June 20 to 24; Chemistry at Northern State University from July 12 to 16; Computer Science at the Center for Public Higher Education from July 19 to 23; United States History at University of South Dakota from July 25 to 30. Superintendents and principals may obtain College Board materials on the AP program from Dr. Paul Gough at the Board of Regents at (605) 773-3455. The Regent’s AP policies are available on the Internet at the Board’s web site www.ris.sdbor.edu.
The College Board does not require that high school teachers, who teach the AP courses, have any special training, but it does encourage attendance at workshops and courses. Teachers learn project content, teaching methods, and information about the AP exam.
High school teachers who enroll in the AP institutes have the option of earning two hours of graduate credit. Those who do not want to earn college credit will be charged only for materials. Those seeking credit will be required to complete specific course requirements and will be charged applicable tuition rates.
Announcements and application materials have been mailed to school board presidents, superintendents, and secondary principals. Any interested teacher should contact his or her school officials. Further information about the AP physics institute can be obtained by contacting Oren Quist, Head of Physics Department at SDSU at (605) 688-5428 or via Internet at quisto@sd.state.edu. Information about the AP calculus institute can be obtained by contacting Dr. Ken Yocum at (605) 688-6196 or via Internet at yocomk@mg.sdstate.edu.
AP exams are offered nationally in May each year. The Advanced Placement program contains 32 courses in 18 subject areas. Participation in the program is on the rise throughout the nation and in South Dakota. Nationwide more than a half million high school students took AP examinations in 1998. The total number of South Dakota students who took the exams in 1998 was 1,086 compared to the 882 students in 1997.
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