AP & SAT PREPARATION

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AP PREPARATION ENGLISH

LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

AP englishlanguag and comp

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

Please Note: This is a preparation course only. A credit will not be issued by WISS Online. Students wishing to earn an Advanced Placement credit must write the official AP exam that is administered by the College Board.

The AP English Language and Composition online course aligns with an introductory college-level rhetoric and writing curriculum, which requires students to develop evidence-based analytic and argumentative essays that proceed through several stages or drafts. Students evaluate, synthesize, and cite research to support their arguments. Throughout the course, students develop a personal style by making appropriate grammatical choices. Additionally, students read and analyze the rhetorical elements and their effects in non-fiction texts, including graphic images as forms of text, from many disciplines and historical periods.

UNIT ONE

Introduction To Rhetoric

Essential Question: What is rhetoric?

In this unit, students will explore rhetoric by investigating the many different approaches to shaping an argument, understanding their audience, establishing a purpose and investigating style. This unit will provide students with the foundations for the course, by preparing them with the analytical tools to explore various texts.

UNIT TWO

Education, Community & Economy

Essential Question: How has language shaped society?

In this unit, students will be provided with the opportunity to explore issues in Education and Community through the rhetorical analysis of various texts. Students will also continue to explore how to analyze arguments (from reading to writing).

UNIT THREE

Gender & Sports

Essential Question: How has language contributed towards gender stereotypes?

In this unit, students will be provided with the opportunity to explore issues in Gender and Sports through the rhetorical analysis of various texts.

UNIT FOUR

Language & Popular Culture

Essential Question: How does language impact pop culture?

In this unit, students will be provided with the opportunity to explore issues in Language and Pop Culture through the rhetorical analysis of various texts.

UNIT FIVE

Environment and Politics

Essential Question: Do language and politics go hand in hand?

In this unit, students will be provided with the opportunity to explore issues in Environment and Politics through the rhetorical analysis of various texts.

CULMINATING PROJECT

This project is one of the final tasks of AP English Language and Composition online. This project will provide students with an opportunity to practice a writing task discussed in this course.

FINAL EXAM

Proctored Exam

This exam is the final evaluation of the course. Students need to arrange their final exam 10 days in advance. All coursework should be completed and submitted before writing the final exam, please be advised that once the exam is written, any outstanding coursework will be given a grade of zero. The exam will be two hours.

AP PREPARATION ENGLISH

LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

ap english literature and comp

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

The AP English Literature and Composition online course aligns with an introductory post-secondary level literary analysis course. The course engages students in the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature to deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as its use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Writing assignments include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays that require students to analyze and interpret literary works.

UNIT ONE

Thinking About Literature

Essential Question: Why do we study literature?

In this unit, students will be provided with the foundations for the course, by preparing them with the analytical tools to explore various texts.

UNIT TWO

Close Reading

Essential Question: How does annotation help us to understand poetry more deeply?

In this unit, students will learn what close reading, or explication of text is. Students will analyze the elements of style to figure out how a writer’s stylistic choices convey their work’s message. Students will also learn about special consideration for reading poetry closely. This unit will also cover annotation.

UNIT THREE

Home, Identity & Culture

Essential Question: What is exploratory writing?

In this unit, students will discuss several strategies to help them become more active readers, students will also be provided with opportunities to practice annotation. Students will learn about graphic organizers, which are another approach to close reading. Students will closely analyze a poem themselves.

UNIT FOUR

Conformity & Rebellion

Essential Question: How does close reading develop our analytical skills?

In this unit, students will explore how the themes of conformity and rebellion are represented in a broad range of literary works.

UNIT FIVE

Independent Study Unit

Essential Question: How can the use of literary devices help us convey our understanding of an author's overall theme/message?

In this unit, students will explore a work to demonstrate their understanding of the big ideas and enduring understandings.

CULMINATING PROJECT

10% of Final Grade

This project is one of the final evaluations of AP English Literature and Composition online. This project will challenge students’ knowledge of concepts learned in this course and is worth 10% of the final grade.

FINAL EXAM

Proctored Exam

30% of Final Grade

This exam is the final evaluation of the course. Students need to arrange their final exam 10 days in advance. All coursework should be completed and submitted before writing the final exam, please be advised that once the exam is written, any outstanding coursework will be given a grade of zero. The exam will be two hours.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT PREPARATION PHYSICS 2

Advanced physics 2

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

AP Physics is an algebra-based, introductory college-level physics course. Students cultivate their understanding of Physics through inquiry-based investigations as they explore topics such as fluid statics and dynamics; thermodynamics with kinetic theory; PV diagrams and probability; electrostatics; electrical circuits with capacitors; magnetic fields; electromagnetism; physical and geometric optics; and quantum, atomic, and nuclear physics.

UNIT ONE

Science Practices

Essential Question: How can you plan and implement data collection strategies in relation to a particular scientific question?

In this unit, students will learn about the three fundamental System International units. Students will also learn about vectors and their applications. Finally, students will learn about the accuracy and precision of a measurement.

UNIT TWO

Fluid Mechanics

Essential Question: How are moving fluids used to transfer energy and by what method is the pressure of a fluid measured?

In this unit, students will learn about Hydrostatic pressure and how to calculate it. Students will also learn about buoyancy and fluid flow continuity. Students will learn Bernoulli’s equation and about the Bernoulli Effect, as well as viscous flow.

UNIT THREE

Thermodynamics

Essential Question: How are gases used to do work and what influences a heat engine whether its used as a refrigerator or a heat pump?

In this unit, students will explore thermal expansion and the ideal gas laws. Students will learn about the mechanical equivalent of heat. Students will learn about the different changes of state and the transfer of thermal energy. Finally, students will learn the laws of thermodynamics.

UNIT FOUR

Electrostatics

Essential Question: How are field forces different than contact forces and what will determine the results of a distribution of charge?

In this unit, students will learn about electric charge and Coulomb’s law. Students will also explore electric fields and electric potential.

UNIT FIVE

Current Electricity

Essential Question: How do simple circuits conserve energy and how does a capacitor and resistor form a simple circuit?

In this unit, students will learn about electrostatics with conductors and capacitors. Students will learn the concepts of current, resistance and power. Students will also discuss direct current and circuits, resistor-capacitor circuits and Kirchoff’s rules.

UNIT SIX

Magnetism

Essential Question: How is a current induced by a moving magnet and why does a current create a magnetic field?

In this unit, students will learn about magnetism. Students will gain an understanding of forces on a moving charge and forces on current-carrying wires in magnetic fields. Students will also learn about Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction.

UNIT SEVEN

Light and Optics

Essential Question: How is an image focused on a screen and how are light waves diffracted?

In this unit, students will learn about light and optics. This unit will go over wave basics, including the types of waves. Students will explore reflection, refraction and the different types of mirrors. Students will also learn about lenses and Ray diagrams.

UNIT EIGHT

Atomic and Nuclear Physics

Essential Question: How can light behave like a particle and why can waves describe one of the basic features of matter?

In this unit, students will learn about photons and the photoelectric effect. Students will study atomic energy levels and wave-particle duality. Students will learn about nuclear reactions and the different types of decay. Students will also learn about mass-energy equivalence.

PRACTICE CULMINATING PROJECT

This project is one of the final tasks of Advanced Placement Physics 2 online. This project will challenge students’ knowledge of concepts learned throughout this course.

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM

This exam is the final task of the course. This exam will provide students with the opportunity to test the knowledge they have learned throughout the course.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT PREPARATION CHEMISTRY

advancd chemistry

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

The Advanced Placement Chemistry online course provides students with a college-level foundation to support future advanced coursework in chemistry. Students cultivate their understanding of chemistry through inquiry-based investigations, as they explore topics such as atomic structure, intermolecular forces and bonding, chemical reactions, kinetics, thermodynamics, and equilibrium.

UNIT ONE

Structure of Matter, Bonding and Intermolecular Forces

Essential Question: How can the periodic table make sense of bonding, structure, and forces between atoms/molecules?

In this unit, students will learn about the atomic models put forth by Thompson, Rutherford, Bohr and Schrodinger. They will review the trends in the periodic table as well as reviewing the elemental families and development of the periodic table. Students will also review the types of intramolecular forces (or bonds) that exist within molecules. Students will examine the forces between molecules of a similar and different type that lead to properties such as solubility & state. Students will learn how to draw Lewis structures and will examine the orbital geometry of molecular structures. Students will also learn about the Quantum Mechanical Model, will draw electron configurations based on this Model and make renewed links to periodic trends. Students will learn about the concept of hybridization and be given the chance to practice their hybridization skills.

UNIT TWO

Organic Chemistry and Applications

Essential Question: Talking Chemistry, are all organic compounds good for us?

In this unit, students will be introduced to what it means to be organic…chemically. Students will explore naming and drawing simple, cyclic, and aromatic hydrocarbons and their properties. Students will also explore naming and drawing properties of functional groups that have one bond, groups that have a double bond to carbon and groups that link two hydrocarbons together. Students will learn about the different organic reactions and about the different types of polymers, how they are formed and their social, economic, environmental and physiological importance.

UNIT THREE

Chemical Kinetics and Applications

Essential Question: Why are some reactions slow and some are fast?

In this unit, students will learn how to appropriately report answers and observations. Students will learn how to find the rates at which different reactants and products are being used or formed during a chemical reaction using stoichiometry. Students will gain an understanding of what a rate law is and how to determine a rate law experimentally. Students will also learn about reaction mechanisms.

UNIT FOUR

Thermochemistry and Applications

Essential Question: Why do some chemical reactions occur spontaneously while others do not?

In this unit, students will discuss various forms of energy and the relationship between heat, temperature, energy and the motion of particles. Students will learn about the laws of thermodynamics what the difference between chemical and nuclear reactions is. Students will use the calculation of estimations to relate energy changes when associated with heating or cooling a substance to the heat capacity; with phase transition to enthalpy of vaporization/fusion; with a chemical reaction to enthalpy; and with energy changes and work. Students will gain an understanding of Bond Energy and Hess’ law. Students will also learn how to use representations and models to predict the sign and relative magnitude of the entropy change associated with chemical or physical processes.

UNIT FIVE

Chemical Equilibrium and Applications

Essential Question: How can industry produce chemicals as efficiently as possible? Why do acids and bases behave so differently?

In this unit, students will learn about equilibrium systems and make connections between the value of the equilibrium constant and the position of equilibrium and represent this in a variety of ways. Students will also learn how to calculate the Reaction Quotient, Q. Students will use Le Chatelier’s principle to predict the direction of the shift resulting from various possible stresses on a system at chemical equilibrium. Students will learn how to set up and use ICE tables and learn about solubility Equilibria. They will use molecular structure and intermolecular forces to classify molecules as strong or weak acids or bases and calculate the pH of solutions containing salts. Students will determine the amount of acid or base required to reach equivalence point in a titration and the pH of the solution at that point. Students will also identify what a buffer is comprised of and its properties.

UNIT SIX

Electrochemistry and Applications

Essential Question: How do batteries work?

In this unit, students will learn about oxidation, reduction, an oxidizing agent and reducing agent and be able to identify which species in a chemical reaction are oxidized or reduced and which act as the oxidizing or reducing agent. Students will assign oxidation numbers to each species in a chemical reaction and identify a reaction as redox-based on the transfer of electrons. Students will learn how to balance redox reactions under neutral, acidic or basic conditions using the half-reaction or oxidation number method. Students will learn how to describe and draw a galvanic cell and name its components, as well as calculate the cell potential for a given set of electrodes and use the data to analyze the properties of the underlying redox reactions. Students will learn how to describe corrosion as a redox reaction and how to describe methods of preventing corrosion and their importance. Students will gain an understanding of electrolytic cells and how to make qualitative and quantitative predictions about galvanic or electrolytic cells on the basis of the reactions involved.

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM

This practice exam is the final task of the course. This activity will provide students with the opportunity to challenge their knowledge of concepts learned throughout this course.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT BIOLOGY PREPARATION COURSE

advanced biology

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

Advanced Placement Biology online is an introductory college-level biology course. Students cultivate their understanding of biology through inquiry-based investigations as they explore the following topics: evolution, cellular processes — energy and communication, genetics, information transfer, ecology, and interactions.

UNIT ONE

Biochemistry

Essential Question: How will a basic knowledge of chemistry help you understand and explain biological processes?

In this unit, students will learn the basics of chemistry as it relates to biology. Students will then look at cells and cell structure and then some more complex molecules and reactions that are specifically associated with living things.

UNIT TWO

Metabolic Processes

Essential Question: What energy drives cellular life and where does this energy come from and go to?

In this unit, students will investigate the metabolic processes that relate to energy production in plant and animal cells and how those processes are related to one another. The basic ideas that were examined prior will be investigated in much greater detail. Human manipulation of these natural processes, both positive and negative, will augment students understanding of cellular metabolism and its implications in daily life.

UNIT THREE

Molecular Genetics

Essential Question: How does DNA and RNA control the structure and function of cells and of entire organisms?

In this unit, students will learn about DNA from the history of its discovery to the methods of its manipulation in the field of biotechnology. We have come a long way since the early 1950’s when the DNA structure was first determined. In only 60 years we have moved forward at an exponential pace. We are now using this accumulated knowledge to discover the origin of disease, solve crimes and heal the sick. But, as our ability to understand and manipulate this molecule of life increases, it creates its own set of legal, moral and ethical issues that must be dealt with now and in the future.

UNIT FOUR

Homeostasis

Essential Question: How do processes that happen at a cellular level influence the structure, functions, and behaviours at the level of tissues, organs, organ systems or entire organisms?

In this unit, students will focus on the systems that allow the body to maintain itself in proper working order. To work appropriately, conditions within the body must be maintained at certain levels. As the outside environment changes constantly, the body must be able to counteract these changes to maintain the internal environment. This is homeostasis. Some of these systems allow for almost instant change while others ebb and flow as required. When these systems work in concert, the organism operates at peak efficiency, but, if something goes wrong, it can have far-reaching consequences.

UNIT FIVE

Population Dynamics

Essential Question: How does evolution pertain to: genetics, organ systems, ecosystems, cells, etc?

In this unit, students will learn about the characteristics of populations and ways in which populations interact with one another. Students will also learn ways to estimate populations and calculate population growth. Students will examine the factors affecting human population growth, paying particular attention to the impact of exponential human growth on the environment and how it contributes to our overall ecological footprint.

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM

Multiple Choice Section

This exam is one of the final tasks of Advanced Placement Biology online. This exam will provide students with the opportunity to practice the multiple choice section of the Advanced Placement Biology Exam.

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM

Short & Long Answer Section

This exam is one of the final tasks of Advanced Placement Biology online. This exam will provide students with the opportunity to practice the short & long answer section of the Advanced Placement Biology Exam.

SAT PREPARATION COURSE

SAT PREP

PREREQUISITE: None

AVAILABILITY: WISS Online

Please Note: This is a preparation course only. A credit will not be issued by Waterloo Independent Secondary School.

In this SAT Preparation course, students gain practice and confidence toward taking the official SAT exam. All homework, assignments and practice tests will be finished online. This SAT Prep Course covers SAT’s critical reading, writing, and mathematics sections. Students gain valuable experience by taking practice tests, answering hundreds of practice questions, and responding to practice essay questions. Students increase confidence by practicing with questions just like the ones they’ll see on test day.

UNIT ONE

Reading & Grammar

Essential Question: How is reading and grammar tested on the SAT?

In this unit, students will be provided with a general overview of the new SAT reading section, and with general strategies to keep in mind as they begin to prepare for the test. Students will review grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and context clues. Students will practice passage based readings and answer questions about them.

UNIT TWO

Algebra and Advanced Math

Essential Question: How can you interpret and create linear relationships? How do you create, manipulate and solve quadratic equations? How do you work with exponents and radicals?

In this unit, students will go over linear functions, equations, inequalities and systems. Students will review quadratic, exponential, polynomial and rational functions as well as radicals and imaginary numbers.

UNIT THREE

Writing And Language

Essential Question: How can you write effectively for the SAT?

In this unit, students will review precision, Concision, Style & Tone. Students will go over proper syntax and punctuation. Students will also review subordination, coordination, parallel structure and pronouns. Students will analyze frequently confused words, as well as subject verbs/noun agreement. Students will also do a writing passage practice.

UNIT FOUR

Problem Solving and Data Management

Essential Question: How do you solve problems involving proportional reasoning: rates, ratios and percent? How are standard deviation and confidence intervals related to measurement errors?

In this unit, students will review rates, ratios, measurement, scatter plots, curves of best fit and probability. Students will also review measures of centre and measures of spread.

UNIT FIVE

The Essay

Essential Question: How do we write an essay for the SAT?

In this unit, students will prepare for the essay portion of the SAT. The purpose of the new SAT Essay is to assess students’ ability to analyze an author’s argument. To write a strong essay, students will need to focus on how the author uses evidence, reasoning, and other rhetorical techniques to build his or her argument and make it convincing.

UNIT SIX

Strategies To Get The Best Score

In this Unit, students will review some of what they have already talked about in terms of strategies to get through the SAT test on the actual day. Students will also look at ways to cope with the stress and anxiety of test day – and how to stay calm, relaxed prior and what to do during the test if they feel overwhelmed or start to panic.

PRACTICE FINAL EXAM

This practice final exam is the final task of the course. This activity will provide students with the opportunity to challenge their knowledge of concepts learned throughout this course in preparation for the SAT exam.