My DS16 took both AP Physics and AP chem senior year after having a full year of an honors prerequisite class for each. He has talked many times about how prepared he was for freshmen engineering. Count me as another vote for Physics if he must choose but if the summer math option is available, having both APs will be of great help to him in college.
If his camp job is only three weeks, he could probably get a self-paced class done if the school’s version isn’t flexible enough. BYU Online offers two versions - the “UC Approved” versions of their math courses were added when the U of CA system disallowed their basic versions for being too multiple-choice heavy and not having enough teacher interaction. https://is.byu.edu/catalog?school=11&subject=35&search=III&type=All&credits=All&special=All
In my d’s experience, the UC Approved versions are a little cumbersome. If this were my kid, I think I’d propose a compromise and ask if he could take the basic version of Part 1 over the summer, to satisfy the prereq, but still take the block class next year, so that he wouldn’t need the BYU class on his transcript to satisfy colleges’ requirements. That course only costs $156 - cheaper than hiring a tutor - and topic-wise I’m nearly certain it covers everything that’s important for physics prep. He’d then be prepared for physics and overprepared for math, but he wouldn’t be going out on any limbs in terms of substituting an online class for the in-school version. JMHO but that seems like the best plan to me, unless he’s highly motivated to free up a period by taking just precalc rather than the block-system MathIII/precalc.
@aquapt – this is a great suggestion and we will check it out! Thanks so much!
Have him take Physics. You don’t want his first exposure to physics to be in college.
He can then take Chem and Physics in college. All engineering curriculums assume you will be taking chemistry and physics in college…he is not behind.
I did earth science, Honors Bio, Honors Chem, Honors Physics and went to engineering school and had no problem. No need to get ahead in AP chem if you don’t have physics.