Explore AP Courses with Projects

Learn which AP courses allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of course content and skills through projects and performance tasks.

Broaden Access to AP

AP Courses with Project Components

The fastest growing AP courses feature a project component as part of a students’ AP Exam score. The AP courses below are designed for a wide range of students and allow them to demonstrate their knowledge of course content and skills through projects and performance tasks.

  • English 10: AP Seminar
  • AP Computer Science Principles
  • AP African American Studies
  • AP Art and Design Courses 

The Benefits of AP Courses with Projects

Relevant Now and Later

The knowledge and skills students learn in AP courses with project components can be applied in their lives now and in the future.   

Get More Students Interested in AP

Offering AP courses that incorporate projects as part of the final AP Exam score can get a wider range of students excited about trying AP for the first time.  

English 10: AP Seminar

Taking AP Seminar in grade 10 sets students up for success in future high school courses, college, and beyond. This interdisciplinary course helps students develop critical thinking, collaboration, and academic research skills on topics of their choosing. Many schools are offering AP Seminar as English 10 because it aligns with their state standards and can be integrated into the framework of their existing curricula. This approach offers a wide range of students an early introduction to AP through access to relevant coursework and project based assessments.

AP Seminar has created a broader context for reading informational texts, but more importantly, the performance tasks have pushed students to explore the world around them for a deeper understanding of how it all works. Doing real-world investigations and offering research-based solutions has produced some critical thinkers.

James Wszolek, English Teacher (AP Seminar) and Department Co-Chair, La Porte High School

AP African American Studies

College Board is also offering AP African American Studies, an interdisciplinary course that helps students develop critical source analysis skills, especially historical, literary, visual, and data analysis skills. It’s an ideal way for students to try AP for the first time while examining topics of their interest. It’s designed for every student to gain a strong foundation in facts and evidence about African American history and culture. 

The class is so unlike any other AP course in the way that it’s inclusive, educational, and welcoming to students of any educational level.

AP Student

AP Computer Science Principles

AP Computer Science Principles introduces students to foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world. Students learn to design and evaluate solutions and apply computer science to solve problems through the development of algorithms and programs. 

AP Computer Science Principles ignites critical thinking and allows for collaboration through projects and group exploration. Students also develop problem-solving skills that will be useful in any job in the future.

Marcy Boyd, AP CSP teacher

AP Art and Design Courses

In AP Art and Design courses, students develop the skills artists and designers use and create a portfolio of work assessed to produce their AP score. 

Professional Learning Opportunities

The AP Project Based Learning Series helps teachers adopt and implement a project based instructional approach that anchors their AP course in projects that encompass the content and skills in the AP course framework. Workshops in the AP Project Based Learning Series are designed and delivered by PBLWorks, the premier organization in Project Based Learning (PBL) teaching methodology. 

Prepare Students for Success in AP with Pre-AP

Pre-AP courses help students build the foundational skills and content knowledge they’ll need to thrive in AP. College Board aims to ensure all students are ready with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to take their first AP course. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, all Pre-AP courses will be available at no cost to schools that enroll 12th-grade students in AP Precalculus or 10th-grade students in AP African American Studies, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Seminar, or English 10: AP Seminar.

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