This school year, AP Environmental Science (APES) was offered for the first time to Pleasant Valley students. Currently taught by Zachary Marotta and with 25 students enrolled, the addition of APES hopes to respond to the growing demand for AP level courses as well as to teach students about the growing issue of climate change.

In 2021, over 160,771 students took the AP Environmental Science exam and 53 percent of those students passed the exam with a score of three or higher. Additionally, over 7,000 schools across the country now offer AP Environmental Science, and that number grows every year. 

APES consists of nine major units over ecosystems, biodiversity, population, Earth’s systems, land use, energy consumption, atmospheric pollution, aquatic pollution and global change. Students across the nation are looking to educate themselves and become well-versed in climate change and other environmental factors— AP Environmental Science may be the answer.

Looking to the rest of the year in APES, teacher Zachary Marotta is ready to learn alongside his students. “I’m most excited about learning more about how the Earth works and learning more about the different topics in APES as well as working with a new level of students…I’ve never had the opportunity to teach upperclassmen as well as an AP class so I’m excited for the opportunity,” he said. “You can have different conversations with upperclassmen and they are going through different things in their lives so it’s fun to see the new things that they experience,” he added.

Senior Jaydon Kachappily, a current APES student, also looks to the future with enthusiasm. “Because of the increasing attention on the topic of climate change, I think a class like AP Environmental Science offers an insight into that topic that wasn’t offered to me and students like me who took an honors science track,” he said.

The ‘honors science track’ that Kachappily mentions is what many students undergo during their time at PVHS. As freshmen, students are able to skip Earth Science and take Honors Biology instead. This allows students to take Honors Chemistry and AP Physics 1 in their sophomore and junior years, respectively. Students who opt to take the ‘honors science track’ are locked in for the rest of their high school careers as the earth science standards required for graduation are split up between those three classes. 

In the past, if students decided to drop out of the ‘honors science track,’ they were forced to take Earth Science, a freshman-level class, to fulfill their graduation requirements. Now, those students have the option of taking APES instead.

Senior Skykar Tewesbury expressed gratitude for APES being offered this year. “After taking honors biology and honors chemistry, I decided to opt out of AP Physics 1 and take general physics instead. I was saved because APES was offered this year. Otherwise I would’ve had to take Earth Science with freshman,” she shared.

Marotta plans to work through any challenges the inaugural year of APES presents. “It being a new class and a new curriculum that we have to work with … it takes time to do a good job” he continued. “Also, not having another teacher to bounce ideas off is also something I’m missing… but it’s a part of the road.” he said.

“I hope that students learn more about the environment and Earth…when they walk away they can have a new perspective on how the Earth works and hopefully an added value of how wonderful our planet is,” Marotta said.

Amidst the increased attention on climate change and the growing student body of PVHS, AP Environmental Science allows students to educate themselves and take the first steps to making real change.