AP U.S. Government and Politics Course Overview

Below you'll find how the College Board has divided up content for AP U.S. Government and Politics. Your course will include many of these elements.

Units

The course content is organized into commonly taught units. The five units have been arranged in a logical sequence frequently found in many college courses and textbooks. Below you will find the GAVS course modules and the College Board AP US Government and Politics units.

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy
- Module: (FAD) Foundations of American Democracy
Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government
- Module: (CON) Congress
- Module: (PBU) Presidency and the Bureaucracy
- Module: (JUD) Judiciary
- Module: (PPO) Public Policy
Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
- Module: (CRCL) Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs
- Module: (APIB) American Political Ideologies and Beliefs
Unit 5: Political Participation
- Module: (PPA) Political Participation

Topics

Each unit is broken down into teachable segments called topics. The topic pages in your course contain the required content for each topic. You will also find videos discussing each topic.

Big Ideas

The course focuses on five big ideas which allow students to create meaningful connections among concepts across the units. Connecting these big ideas across the different course units will help students develop a deeper conceptual understanding of the course content. Big ideas are spiraled throughout the curriculum through the topics. Below are the big ideas of the course and a brief description of each.

BIG IDEA 1: CONSTITUTIONALISM: The U.S. Constitution establishes a system of checks and balances among branches of government and allocates power between federal and state governments. This system is based on the rule of law and the balance between majority rule and minority rights.
BIG IDEA 2: LIBERTY AND ORDER: Governmental laws and policies balancing order and liberty are based on the U.S. Constitution and have been interpreted differently over time.
BIG IDEA 3: CIVIC PARTICIPATION IN A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: Popular sovereignty, individualism, and republicanism are important considerations of U.S. laws and policymaking and assume citizens will engage and participate
BIG IDEA 4: COMPETING POLICY MAKING INTERESTS: Multiple actors and institutions interact to produce and implement possible policies
BIG IDEA 5: METHODS OF POLITICAL ANALYSIS: Using various types of analyses, political scientists measure how U.S. political behavior, attitudes, ideologies, and institutions are shaped by a number of factors over time.

Developing the Course Skills

Throughout the course, students will develop skills that are fundamental to the discipline of political science. The skills articulated in the course framework equip students to understand, analyze, and apply political information in a process similar to that followed by political scientists. This process begins with a close analysis of quantitative and qualitative sources and reaches its conclusion when evidence is used effectively to support an argument about political principles, institutions, processes, policies, or behaviors.

Course Skills
Skill Category	Description
1. Concept Application	Apply political concepts and processes to scenarios in context.
2. SCOTUS Application	Apply Supreme Court decisions.
3. Data Analysis	Analyze and interpret quantitative data represented in tables, charts, graphs, maps, and infographics.
4. Source Analysis	Read, analyze, and interpret foundational documents and other text-based and visual sources.
5. Argumentation	Develop an argument in essay format.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS

INFORMATION COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE BOARD CED FOR AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS