A Look into AP Biology with Dr. Vetter

This article was part of a series by the Board of Student Academic Support Services (SASS) that interviewed OHS teachers about the classes they teach. We hope these articles will be a useful resource for students who are selecting courses for following years.

SASS: What is your favorite thing about teaching AP Biology?

Dr. Vetter: I really like biology and I'm fascinated by the world around us. I love when I have a chance to help students understand how incredible the world is, whether that's through labs or whether that's through working through different interesting phenomena or videos. I especially love it when I can help non-scientists see how cool the world is.

SASS: What challenges students the most in AP Biology? How would you recommend that students overcome these challenges?

Dr. Vetter: I think that one big challenge is time management. I think that, especially given how busy and committed OHS students are, some of them do sometimes struggle with the amount of work that's required, especially on weeks where students have labs to do. I think the best strategy there is to start early so that when unanticipated delays happen, you're not caught behind. Also, another struggle is the vast amount of content. Students can keep up with the material by using the weekly discussions and office hours to ask questions, as opposed to having all the work pile up at the end of the semester.

SASS: What does the average workload for each week look like?

Dr. Vetter: On heavy weeks, where there are labs, doing the lab is often two or three hours of active work. Sometimes that's spread over a six hour period or so if there's incubation steps or things like that. Writing up the lab sometimes takes two or three more hours. So that's, say, six hours of homework plus three hours of preparing for the discussion sections. So, although it depends on how fast people work, I'd say eight to ten hours of work per week, probably closer to ten for some. This is a pretty time-intensive course.

I think the homework workload is a little less on the weeks where we have free-response questions, maybe three or four hours instead of six hours. I think the workload also depends a lot on the student and how proactive they are. If you prepare for the lecture by simply watching the lectures, that's only two hours of preparation. If, on the other hand, you're reading the textbook and actively working to understand the material, that's more like four hours.

SASS: How do you recommend that students prepare for exams in AP Biology?

Dr. Vetter: I asked the top-performing students this question last semester to see how they prepared for exams. One of them made the really good point that you shouldn't be learning the material right before the final. You should be making sure to understand the material as you go. The weekly objectives are a pretty good way to do that. I recommend that students use the weekly objectives to check their understanding each week so that by study time, it's review rather than learning concepts.

I think that students also talked about using the practice tests when they're available and explaining complicated concepts to siblings or parents, which they felt was a really good way of checking their understanding. In addition, a lot of people find learning the vocabulary to be a challenge, so we have a Quizlet that can help students master the vocabulary.

So the four strategies are: Use the weekly objectives on a weekly basis to check your understanding, take the practice tests, explain challenging concepts to somebody else, and use the Quizlet to practice vocabulary.

SASS: How is a student's overall grade in AP Biology determined? What percentage of a student's overall grade is determined by exams, homework, quizzes, participation, etc.?

Dr. Vetter: The percentages vary somewhat from fall semester to spring semester and, in addition, there's some slight adjustment of the percentages from year to year depending on what labs we're doing.

For the fall semester last year, I think about 22-23% of the grade came from free-response questions and 22-23% of the grade came from labs. 5% came from class participation, 20% came from the midterm, and 30% came from the final.

In the spring, we have the added assessment tool of oral presentations and so the percentages are a little bit different. 10% of the grade comes from the oral presentation. The midterm and final exams are each 20%. The lab and free-response questions and class participation grades are similar to the fall semester: 22-23% each for free-response questions and labs and 5% for class participation.

SASS: How is the participation grade for AP Biology determined? 

Dr. Vetter: That mostly comes from three things: attendance in class, taking a weekly online quiz, and contributing at least once orally or a couple of times on text chat during class discussion. If you don't take the online quiz, you can't get above 70% in class participation.

One thing I should say is that I do look at people who raise their hands but don't get a chance to participate. I also value clarifying questions rather than just expertise. I don't just care whether or not a student answers a question correctly but also whether they're asking questions to further the discussion. That's as important to me as whether they give the correct answer to a question.

SASS: What materials do students use in the course (textbooks, lectures, online resources, etc.)?

Dr. Vetter: We have a variety of materials. I strongly recommend that students purchase the Campbell's Biology textbook. We'll be using a new edition next year; this year we used the ninth edition and next year students will use the eleventh edition. We also have some prerecorded lectures that students can watch if they struggle with the textbook. That said, I encourage ambitious students to read the textbook because the textbook has a level of detail that can't be conveyed in the lectures. Plus, you'll all probably be going off to college someday and this will help you learn how to read scientific textbooks.

We also have a big lab kit that's made specifically for this class. Students use it for their home labs. We have some dissections as well so, in addition to the lab kit, students need to purchase a simple dissection kit and some simple specimens. There are alternative assignments that students can complete if students aren't able to perform dissections.

SASS: Are students expected to be on camera for the entire class?

Dr. Vetter: Yes, unless we're having some kind of severe lag problem in Adobe Connect. My very strong preference is that students be on camera the whole class. I know this is something that not everybody is used to but I feel that it encourages community to have everyone on camera. If it's just me on camera, I feel like I'm talking to a black hole. Furthermore, my teaching experience is in brick-and-mortar schools and I'm used to seeing the body language that students exhibit while I'm teaching the material and adjusting my instruction in response. In addition, being on camera also helps students stay focused. But most importantly, being on camera helps to establish a community and helps students to feel less vulnerable and hopefully helps them become more willing to contribute.

SASS: How does AP Biology prepare students to take the AP Exam?

Dr. Vetter: Well, I hope it prepares students very well to take the AP Exam. In terms of how we prepare students, the structure of the whole course, especially the midterm and final, is based on the AP. While the questions on the exams may not be AP questions, the sections of the exams mirror the AP exam in style: we have a multiple-choice section, a quantitative reasoning section, and a free-response section.

Also, the weekly objectives cover at least the expectations of the AP. There are some weekly objectives that I add because I think they're really important even though they go beyond what the AP is expecting. So if you understand those weekly objectives, then you should be in pretty good shape. Furthermore, I forgot to mention, we have weekly quizzes that are styled like AP multiple-choice questions.

In addition, there's an optional nine-week AP prep workshop where we learn test-taking strategy for the AP. We discuss particular strategies for multiple-choice questions, we go through the formula sheet so that students know how to use it, we go through the labs that show up on the AP, we go through how free-response questions are written and scored so that students can better anticipate what each question is worth, and we do a lot of practice. I hope that the material woven throughout the year and the extra workshop before the AP helps students.

SASS: What about biology interests so many students?

Dr. Vetter: I think one big draw of biology is that we all have bodies so biology classes can be a little bit like a user's manual. I think a lot of students enjoy knowing a bit more about how food is digested when they eat, how their brain works, how their muscles work when they play sports, what happens when they get sick and recover. I think there's a natural hook there. Also, for those students who may be into nature, taking a biology class is a really nice opportunity to learn a little bit more about the surrounding world. Furthermore, in addition to learning about biology for our own enjoyment, by learning biology we can learn how to protect and help the surrounding world.