1 5 Writing Advanced Placement Essays The Advanced

1. 5 Writing Advanced Placement Essays The Advanced Placement © program of the College Board offers a three hour exam in Environmental Science which consists of two parts: 100 multiple choice questions in 90 minutes and 4 Free Response or Essays in 90 minutes. All multiple choice questions have five answer choices or “distracters, ” and are weighted as 60% of the total exam grade. Students lose. 25 points for each incorrect answer, and the raw score is multiplied by. 75 to achieve the correct weighting for the composite score. 1

The four essays are each worth 10 points, and count as 40% of the total composite score, which means they are weighted by 1. 5 x in the calculation matrix. This means that for every point you earn on the essays, it translates into 1. 5 points towards your score. Students should expect to have one essay that is a Document Based Question or DBQ. In this essay you will have to read a short article with questions directly derived from the content of the article. Another essay will contain data sets and calculations. This may even occur on more than one essay. 2

The other two essays are usually referred to as “synthesis and evaluation” questions, and may cover a broad range of environmental science topics. You should always be prepared to know a U. S. Law or an International treaty that may be appropriate for part of one of the essays. A list of important laws is found in the AP appendix. Although you are not graded on grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax, it is important to answer the question in sentence format. Essays are scored on a strict rubric. 3

These are suggestions to help you prepare your essays: • Read the question and determine what is being asked. • Look for action verbs in the question that tell you what to do; describe, compare, calculate, explain, graph, give evidence, or site examples. • Answer all parts of the question. You can never earn a 10 without answering all the parts. • Quickly get to the point and do not simply restate the question. • Answer the questions in order and label each section using the same sections (a) (b) etc. as the question. • Write neatly. Use a dark colored pen. . . black pen is best. Try not to scratch out. 4

• State the obvious points. • If you don’t know the exact term, give a good description. • Go into detail. Every point counts, but be sure to stick to the subject. • If you make a drawing or diagram, be sure to label each part and refer to this in your essay. • Use the essay sentence structure - outlines don’t count. • Be specific: When you give an example make sure you relate the example to the question. For example: If the question asks for a law, give one you know by name like “Endangered Species Act. ” 5

• If the question asks for two examples, give only two. The first two answers will be the only ones that are graded. • Pace yourself. Try not to spend more than 22 minutes per essay. • Relax. You probably know more than you think and partial credit is given. • Look over your writing to make sure you have answered the question and not just rambled about something related to the topic. • Remember there are four (4) essays. 6

If you are doing calculations: • Show all of your work and include all units. You get no points just for putting down a number without any work. • Factor-label method helps with energy problems. • Use exponents for large numbers. • No calculators are permitted, so remember the numbers will probably be pretty easy like the square root of 16. • Once you finish your calculation, look it over to make sure it makes sense----if you find that a family of four is paying $850, 000 per k. Wh for electricity; you have made an error. 7

If you make a graph, be sure to include the following: • Title the graph • Set up the independent variable along the X axis, along the Y dependent • Label each axis and give the appropriate units. • Make proportional increments along each axis so the graph isn’t too small. • Plot points and sketch a curve if needed. • Label each curve if more than one is plotted. 8

If you design an experiment, be sure to: • Describe expected outcomes. • Make sure your design is possible and consistent with what is required. • Remember to include controls, when designing the experiment. • Describe how you will collect, graph and analyze data. • State how you will make conclusions. • Indicate how you will repeat the experiment. You must verify the results. 9

Sample Essay-DBQ-Document Based Question The NASA Earth Observatory recently published the following article. “Tropical forests of all varieties are disappearing rapidly as humans clear the natural landscape to make room for farms and pastures, to harvest timber for construction and fuel, and to build roads and urban areas. Although deforestation meets some human needs, it also has profound, sometimes devastating, consequences, including social conflict, extinction of plants and animals, and climate change—challenges that aren’t just local, but global. ” 10

a. Identify and describe two unique characteristics of tropical rainforest biomes. b. Discuss two specific effects of deforestation on the local rainforest environments. c. Discuss two effects of tropical rainforest deforestation that would have world wide impacts and explain how this might occur. d. Explain one environmental and one economic consequence of clear cutting tropical rainforest biomes. e. Identify one U. S. Law or International treaty that could help reduce the rate of deforestation. 11