In July, the LabXchange team traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the College Board Advanced Placement (AP)® Annual Conference (APAC) 2026. Over four days, AP teachers, administrators, curriculum specialists, and College Board staff from every AP subject area gathered to talk curriculum, assessment, and what's working in classrooms.

AI in the classroom was the dominant conversation this year, alongside a steady focus on data literacy and statistical reasoning in AP science and math. Both themes sit at the heart of LabXchange's work, which made APAC a natural place for us to be. In attendance were LabXchange's Dr. Paul Schwein, Project Lead, and Teachers in Residence Mary Liu and Angela Campbell, who together led a session for AP Biology educators and connected with teachers throughout the week.

Our Workshop: Virtual Lab Investigations to Deepen Inquiry

On Thursday morning, 41 educators joined us for "AP® Biology: Virtual Lab Investigations to Deepen Inquiry," a 75-minute interactive workshop. Our goal was to show how free, LabXchange virtual labs can strengthen inquiry in any AP Biology classroom, whether as pre-lab preparation, a make-up option for absent students, or an alternative when hands-on labs aren't possible.

The team toured LabXchange's 15 biology lab investigations, which span all three AP Biology–aligned clusters:

• Biochemistry, Cells, and Energetics
• Cell Communication, Heredity, and Gene Expression
• Evolution and Ecology

We gave live demonstrations of the protocol and hotspot features in our simulations, using the mitosis and BLAST simulations as examples. We also introduced our Data Science-Driven Science Education resources and CareerXplorer.

The session was hands-on by design. Between segments, attendees explored the platform on their own devices and worked together on ways to pair virtual investigations with their existing labs. In addition, we shared with everyone a free handout that mapped LabXchange resources to each AP Biology unit and featured a side-by-side table matching our AP Biology lab investigations to their respective LabXchange simulations, worksheets, and teaching guides.

What We Heard from You

As is typical with in-person events, the casual conversations during and after our session were some of the most valuable parts of the week. A few of the themes that came up again and again include:

• Data literacy matters at every level. Teachers stressed that onboarding students into data science is just as important in regular and honors sections as it is in AP, and asked for more focused data literacy coverage across science courses.
• Virtual labs fill real gaps. Educators in places where shipping biological reagents isn't feasible, and those supporting under-resourced schools launching new AP programs, saw free virtual labs as a way to give students lab experiences they'd otherwise miss.
• Teachers want help fitting resources into their courses. Attendees asked how to bring these resources into specific courses, especially AP Biology and AP Environmental Science, and many pointed to our worksheets as what turns a simulation into a structured learning experience.

Takeaways from the Conference

Beyond our own workshop, the team attended sessions on AI in disciplinary instruction, the new AP Statistics framework, 2026 AP Biology exam results, and Pre-AP implementation. Here are a handful of the ideas that stood out to us most.

1. AI integration has to be discipline-specific

General AI literacy is necessary, but it isn't enough. In a College Board session on disciplinary AI integration, presenters argued that each discipline must decide AI's role based on how it builds knowledge. In other words, a lab report and a literary argument are not the same task.

The session offered five principles for designing AI-integrated tasks: protect productive struggle, connect AI to core disciplinary practices, build on evidence-based teaching, ensure independent mastery, and address equitable access.

2. Students need support interpreting data

More than 316,000 students took the AP Biology exam this year, continuing a 31% five-year growth trend, with 71% scoring 3 or higher. But free-response scores dipped, and common weak spots included explaining concepts, interpreting graphs and visuals, and supporting claims with evidence.

We heard the same thing in the AP Statistics session and in conversations with teachers. Educators want students to understand how to interpret p-values, error bars, and confidence intervals without spending days on the underlying calculations. LabXchange's data science resources are built to provide that sort of focused learning.

3. Educator resources are critical

Just as we heard at CSSS, NSELA, and NSTA this spring, teachers want more than great simulations. Naturally, they want to know how a resource fits their course, their schedule, and their students. Including teaching guides and worksheets alongside each simulation makes virtual labs more usable for every teacher.

4. Virtual labs expand access

Conversations with educators in U.S. territories and with those launching AP programs in under-resourced schools highlighted an important audience. For schools with limited lab supplies or difficult shipping logistics, free virtual labs can be the difference between offering a lab experience and skipping it.

What's Next

Like all educators, AP teachers are increasingly juggling more and more, including new frameworks and fast-moving questions about AI. We're grateful to everyone who joined our workshop, shared feedback, or stopped to talk. As always, your insights shape what we build next!

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