Advanced Placement Biology
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Heidi Lindstrom
Advanced Placement Biology Edmodo: http://ecsd.edmodo.com/
The majority of homework assignments and due dates will be posted on Edmodo. Students are required to post and link to different sites on Edmodo.
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Heidi Lindstrom
Overview: AP Biology will offer students an opportunity to explore a global view of how living organisms have a relationship with each other and their place on this planet. The AP Biology curriculum is equivalent to a college lecture course and lab most often taken by biology majors during their first year of college. The College Board has designed AP Biology around
4 BIG IDEAS. These BIG IDEAS will help students understand biology as a process, experience personal scientific inquiry, recognize unifying themes in biology, and apply their biological knowledge and critical thinking to social and environmental issues. Students will also be responsible for a laboratory component that reinforces each unit. Students will also participate in an individual research project surrounding one of the 4 BIG IDEAS.
Textbook: Campbell and Reece; BIOLOGY 8th edition.
Lab Manual: AP Biology Lab Manual
Supplemental Reading: Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity;
Sharon Moalem, Jonathan Prince
AP Biology Syllabus
Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life (approximately 10 weeks)
Enduring understanding 1.A: Change in the genetic makeup of a population over time is evolution.
Enduring understanding 1.B: Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.
Enduring understanding 1.C: Life continues to evolve within a changing environment.
Enduring understanding 1.D: The origin of living systems is explained by natural processes.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings
22 – Descent with Modification: A Darwinian View of Life
23 – The Evolution of Populations
24 – The Origin of Species
25 – Phylogeny and Systematics
26 – Evolutionary History of Biological Diversity
38 – Angiosperm Reproduction
39 – Plant Responses to Internal and External Signals
40 – Basics of Animal Form and Function
45 - Hormones and the Endocrine System
48 - Nervous System
Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis (approximately 9 weeks)
Enduring understanding 2.A: Growth, reproduction and maintenance of the organization of living systems require free energy and matter.
Enduring understanding 2.B: Growth, reproduction and dynamic homeostasis require that cells create and maintain internal environment that’s different from their external environments.
Enduring understanding 2.C: Organisms use feedback mechanisms to regulate growth and reproduction, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
Enduring understanding 2.D: Growth and dynamic homeostasis of a biological system are influenced by changes in the system’s environment.
Enduring understanding 2.E: Many biological processes involved in growth, reproduction and dynamic homeostasis include temporal regulation and coordination.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
3 – Water and the Fitness of Environment
4 – Carbon and the Molecular Diversity of Life
5 – The Structure and Function of Macromolecules
6 – A Tour of the Cell
7 – Membrane Structure and Function
8 – Introduction to Metabolism
9 – Cellular Respiration and Fermentation
10 – Photosynthesis
11 – Cell Communication
Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes (approximately
9 weeks)
Enduring understanding 3.A: Heritable information provides for continuity of life.
Enduring understanding 3.B: Expression of genetic information involves cellular and molecular mechanisms.
Enduring understanding 3.C: The processing of genetic information is imperfect and is a source of genetic variation.
Enduring understanding 3.D: Cells communicate by generating, transmitting and receiving chemical signals.
Enduring understanding 3.E: Transmission of information results in changes within and between biological systems.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
12 – The Cell Cycle
13 – Meiosis and Sexual Life Cycles
14 – Mendel and the Gene Idea
15 – The Chromosomal Basis of Inheritance
16 – The Molecular Basis of Inheritance
17 – From Gene to Protein
19 – Regulation of Gene Expression
20 – DNA Technology and Genomics
21 – The Genetic Basis of Development
Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties (approximately 6 weeks)
Enduring understanding 4.A: Interactions within biological systems lead to complex properties.
Enduring understanding 4.B: Competition and cooperation are important aspects of biological systems.
Enduring understanding 4.C: Naturally occurring diversity among and between components within biological systems affects interactions with the environment.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
50 – Introduction to Ecology and the Biosphere
51 – Behavioral Ecology
54 – Ecosystems
55 – Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology
52 – Population Ecology
53 – Community Ecology
Laboratory Component
The laboratory component of this class is guided by the 12 required AP labs from AP Biology Investigative lab manual: An inquiry-based approach 2012. Students will perform all required labs with pre-lab readings and assignments. Students will engage in problem solving, data analysis, open ended lab formats, oral and written communication of laboratory ideas. Students will be responsible for several formal laboratory reports with background information provided along with detailed procedures and analysis of data. Labs will comprise a minimum of 25% of the class time.
Research Project: Students will be engaged in a semester long research project that they will research a topic, conduct experiments, and analyzing data. The majority of the work on this project will be done autonomously. A week by week rubric will be followed and all investigations will be reviewed and confirmed before starting. Students will share data with other science classes and present their findings according to the rubric.
Labs Performed for each of the 4 BIG IDEAS.
Big IDEA 1: Evolution
Lab #1: Artificial Selection: Investigating fruit flies
Lab #2: Hardy-Weinberg: Fruit fly data and allele card game
Lab #3: Comparing DNA sequences: BLAST used to compare
BIG IDEA 2: Cellular Processes; Energy and Matter
Lab #6: Cellular Respiration of peas and crickets/goldfish
Lab #4: Diffusion/Osmosis: Dialysis bag investigation
Lab #5: Photosynthesis
Lab #13: Enzyme Activity
Besides the required labs listed below, students will be involved in a research project, demos, on-line labs, simulations, and current readings of laboratory investigations.
BIG IDEA 3: Genetics and Biotechnology
Lab #4: Mitosis and Meiosis: Model Building/Rate Investigation
Lab #8: Bacterial Transformation: Bacterial transformation and
control of gene expression using pGLO plasmid.
Lab #9: Restriction Enzyme Activity
BIG IDEA 4: Interactions
Lab #10: Energy Dynamics
Lab #11: Transpiration: Rates under different environmental
conditions of plants.
Lab #12: Pill bug and Fruit Fly Behavior: explores chemotaxis
and animal behavior.
Class Meetings and Requirements
Our AP Biology classes are 55 minutes long and meet five days a week. A normal class period will consist of warm-ups, note taking, demonstrations, laboratory activities, model building, and question and answer sessions.
Students were given a summer project of completing a series of review sheets of their Introductory Biology class. Students completed an at home investigation of growing pea plants under different conditions. Due to the pacing of the AP Biology class, students are expected to come to class knowing the content that was taught in their Introductory Biology class.
Teaching Strategies
Materials used in class
Students will be drawing information from the AP Biology text book, workbook, prior AP Biology free response and multiple choice questions, Biology coloring book, virtual labs, posted power points, and web pages. Students are required to use EDMODO as a daily source of homework, recorded lectures, due dates, and blogging.
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Heidi Lindstrom
Advanced Placement Biology Edmodo: http://ecsd.edmodo.com/
The majority of homework assignments and due dates will be posted on Edmodo. Students are required to post and link to different sites on Edmodo.
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Heidi Lindstrom
Overview: AP Biology will offer students an opportunity to explore a global view of how living organisms have a relationship with each other and their place on this planet. The AP Biology curriculum is equivalent to a college lecture course and lab most often taken by biology majors during their first year of college. The College Board has designed AP Biology around
4 BIG IDEAS. These BIG IDEAS will help students understand biology as a process, experience personal scientific inquiry, recognize unifying themes in biology, and apply their biological knowledge and critical thinking to social and environmental issues. Students will also be responsible for a laboratory component that reinforces each unit. Students will also participate in an individual research project surrounding one of the 4 BIG IDEAS.
Textbook: Campbell and Reece; BIOLOGY 8th edition.
Lab Manual: AP Biology Lab Manual
Supplemental Reading: Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity;
Sharon Moalem, Jonathan Prince
AP Biology Syllabus
Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life (approximately 10 weeks)
Enduring understanding 1.A: Change in the genetic makeup of a population over time is evolution.
Enduring understanding 1.B: Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.
Enduring understanding 1.C: Life continues to evolve within a changing environment.
Enduring understanding 1.D: The origin of living systems is explained by natural processes.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings
22 – Descent with Modification: A Darwinian View of Life
23 – The Evolution of Populations
24 – The Origin of Species
25 – Phylogeny and Systematics
26 – Evolutionary History of Biological Diversity
38 – Angiosperm Reproduction
39 – Plant Responses to Internal and External Signals
40 – Basics of Animal Form and Function
45 - Hormones and the Endocrine System
48 - Nervous System
Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis (approximately 9 weeks)
Enduring understanding 2.A: Growth, reproduction and maintenance of the organization of living systems require free energy and matter.
Enduring understanding 2.B: Growth, reproduction and dynamic homeostasis require that cells create and maintain internal environment that’s different from their external environments.
Enduring understanding 2.C: Organisms use feedback mechanisms to regulate growth and reproduction, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
Enduring understanding 2.D: Growth and dynamic homeostasis of a biological system are influenced by changes in the system’s environment.
Enduring understanding 2.E: Many biological processes involved in growth, reproduction and dynamic homeostasis include temporal regulation and coordination.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
3 – Water and the Fitness of Environment
4 – Carbon and the Molecular Diversity of Life
5 – The Structure and Function of Macromolecules
6 – A Tour of the Cell
7 – Membrane Structure and Function
8 – Introduction to Metabolism
9 – Cellular Respiration and Fermentation
10 – Photosynthesis
11 – Cell Communication
Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes (approximately
9 weeks)
Enduring understanding 3.A: Heritable information provides for continuity of life.
Enduring understanding 3.B: Expression of genetic information involves cellular and molecular mechanisms.
Enduring understanding 3.C: The processing of genetic information is imperfect and is a source of genetic variation.
Enduring understanding 3.D: Cells communicate by generating, transmitting and receiving chemical signals.
Enduring understanding 3.E: Transmission of information results in changes within and between biological systems.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
12 – The Cell Cycle
13 – Meiosis and Sexual Life Cycles
14 – Mendel and the Gene Idea
15 – The Chromosomal Basis of Inheritance
16 – The Molecular Basis of Inheritance
17 – From Gene to Protein
19 – Regulation of Gene Expression
20 – DNA Technology and Genomics
21 – The Genetic Basis of Development
Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties (approximately 6 weeks)
Enduring understanding 4.A: Interactions within biological systems lead to complex properties.
Enduring understanding 4.B: Competition and cooperation are important aspects of biological systems.
Enduring understanding 4.C: Naturally occurring diversity among and between components within biological systems affects interactions with the environment.
Chapters in Campbell’s Biology 8th edition to support the above Enduring Understandings:
50 – Introduction to Ecology and the Biosphere
51 – Behavioral Ecology
54 – Ecosystems
55 – Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology
52 – Population Ecology
53 – Community Ecology
Laboratory Component
The laboratory component of this class is guided by the 12 required AP labs from AP Biology Investigative lab manual: An inquiry-based approach 2012. Students will perform all required labs with pre-lab readings and assignments. Students will engage in problem solving, data analysis, open ended lab formats, oral and written communication of laboratory ideas. Students will be responsible for several formal laboratory reports with background information provided along with detailed procedures and analysis of data. Labs will comprise a minimum of 25% of the class time.
Research Project: Students will be engaged in a semester long research project that they will research a topic, conduct experiments, and analyzing data. The majority of the work on this project will be done autonomously. A week by week rubric will be followed and all investigations will be reviewed and confirmed before starting. Students will share data with other science classes and present their findings according to the rubric.
Labs Performed for each of the 4 BIG IDEAS.
Big IDEA 1: Evolution
Lab #1: Artificial Selection: Investigating fruit flies
Lab #2: Hardy-Weinberg: Fruit fly data and allele card game
Lab #3: Comparing DNA sequences: BLAST used to compare
BIG IDEA 2: Cellular Processes; Energy and Matter
Lab #6: Cellular Respiration of peas and crickets/goldfish
Lab #4: Diffusion/Osmosis: Dialysis bag investigation
Lab #5: Photosynthesis
Lab #13: Enzyme Activity
Besides the required labs listed below, students will be involved in a research project, demos, on-line labs, simulations, and current readings of laboratory investigations.
BIG IDEA 3: Genetics and Biotechnology
Lab #4: Mitosis and Meiosis: Model Building/Rate Investigation
Lab #8: Bacterial Transformation: Bacterial transformation and
control of gene expression using pGLO plasmid.
Lab #9: Restriction Enzyme Activity
BIG IDEA 4: Interactions
Lab #10: Energy Dynamics
Lab #11: Transpiration: Rates under different environmental
conditions of plants.
Lab #12: Pill bug and Fruit Fly Behavior: explores chemotaxis
and animal behavior.
Class Meetings and Requirements
Our AP Biology classes are 55 minutes long and meet five days a week. A normal class period will consist of warm-ups, note taking, demonstrations, laboratory activities, model building, and question and answer sessions.
Students were given a summer project of completing a series of review sheets of their Introductory Biology class. Students completed an at home investigation of growing pea plants under different conditions. Due to the pacing of the AP Biology class, students are expected to come to class knowing the content that was taught in their Introductory Biology class.
Teaching Strategies
- Students will use scientific reasoning to problem solve experiments and situations in society dealing with biology.
- Students will use reading strategies to identify the main concepts within each chapter.
- Students will use a variety of note taking skills and picture labeling to help identify the main concepts in each chapter.
- Students will use manipulative to build models to demonstrate visuals or concepts within each chapter.
- Students will use interactive computer simulations to help understand abstract concepts.
- Students will perform outside text book reading assignments to understand how biology is performed as a technology throughout society.
Materials used in class
Students will be drawing information from the AP Biology text book, workbook, prior AP Biology free response and multiple choice questions, Biology coloring book, virtual labs, posted power points, and web pages. Students are required to use EDMODO as a daily source of homework, recorded lectures, due dates, and blogging.