AP Summer Institute 2024
The University of Texas at Arlington
The AP® Psychology Summer Institute offers a comprehensive four-day workshop tailored for both novice and seasoned AP Psychology instructors. The program encompasses course content, curriculum planning, and a rich array of teaching resources applicable to diverse learning environments, including traditional, block, online, blended, and flipped classrooms. Emphasizing the overarching themes that connect various course units, the workshop dedicates special attention to effective teaching strategies for enhancing student performance on the AP exam, encompassing both multiple-choice and free response sections. Participants will gain insights into the grading process for free-response questions and acquire practical techniques to effectively prepare their students for this crucial exam component. Each course unit will be supplemented with fresh materials, featuring demonstrations, hands-on activities, labs, review materials, critical thinking exercises, formative and summative assessments, and strategies for addressing challenging topics. The program also explores projects and activities that foster content mastery and the development of scientific attitudes and skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and literacy. This interactive conference encourages educators to exchange ideas, share activities, pose questions, and promote best practices. The virtual APSI incorporates both synchronous and asynchronous learning components daily.
Important Update:
Please note that with the announcement of the College Board's release of the new Curriculum and Exam Description (CED) for the 2024–2025 academic year, this APSI will focus on the changes and provide guidance on how to prepare for the future. Additionally, course updates and highlights include the framework featuring five content units instead of nine, with key terms incorporated into each unit and the inclusion of argumentation skills and research methods in the Science Practices. In addition, we will focus on the revised, digitally administered exam in May 2025 revealing fewer multiple-choice questions, each with four answer choices instead of five, and the introduction of two new free-response questions aimed at authentically assessing a diverse set of skills. Lastly, there will be a focus on teacher resources that will be made available on AP Classroom on a rolling basis starting in July. This will encompass hundreds of topic questions and progress checks, updated AP Daily videos, and a comprehensive question bank to support teacher planning and student learning.
No Items to Bring were specified.
Nick Fernandez is a teacher of AP Psychology at Livingston High School in Livingston, NJ. He has been teaching in Northern New Jersey for the past 18 years, and the past 14 of which have been exclusively AP Psychology. Early in his teaching career, he worked closely with the Bergenfield School District in creating an open-enrollment AP Psychology course from the ground up. This course was met with great excitement and enthusiasm as each year his schedule consisted of five sections with 30 students in each. For the past five years, Nick has continued to exclusively teach AP Psychology at Livingston High School. In addition to teaching AP Psychology, Nick has served as a Reader for the AP Psychology exam since 2014 and as a Table Leader since 2017. Early in 2020, he was hired by the College Board to serve as a consultant for their AP Summer Institutes (APSI) as well as their one-day regional workshops. Additionally, he was a member of the online faculty for the Virtual High School (VHS Learning) out of Maynard, MA. Nick was with VHS Learning from 2014-2022 teaching AP Psychology during the school year and Criminology during the summer months. He earned his BAs in Criminal Justice, History and Secondary Education at Caldwell University and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction, also from Caldwell University. When he is not immersed in the world of AP Psychology, Nick enjoys spending time with his family, coaching softball/baseball, and traveling.