Course Description

The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester college introductory biology course usually taken by biology majors during their first year. After showing themselves qualified on the AP examination, some students, as college freshmen, are permitted to undertake upper level courses in biology or to register for courses for which biology is a prerequisite. Other students may have fulfilled a basic requirement for a laboratory science course and will be able to undertake other courses or pursue their majors.

AP Biology includes those topics regularly covered in a college biology course for majors. The college course in biology differs significantly from the usual first high school course in biology with respect to the kind of textbook used, the range and depth of topics covered, the kind of laboratory work done by students, and the time and effort required of students. The textbooks used by AP Biology should be those also used by college biology majors. The kinds of labs done by AP students must be the equivalent of those done by college students.

Rationale

The AP Biology course is designed to be taken by students after the successful completion of a first course in high school biology and one in high school chemistry as well. It aims to provide students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology.

Course Goals

• To obtain a basic understanding of the complex process of respiration and photosynthesis
• To obtain additional background and laboratory skills which will be useful in future studies of biology
• To obtain a successful score on the A.P. test

These are the major themes identified by the AP Biology Development Committee. Students are encouraged to refer to these as we cover each topic and attempt to relate each theme to the topic being covered.
1. Science as a process
2. Evolution
3. Energy transfer
4. Continuity and change
5. Relationship of structure to function
6. Regulation
7. Interdependence in nature
8. Science, technology and society

• Chemistry of Life--chapters 2, 3, and 6
• Cells--chapters 4, 5, 9 and 10
• Cellular Energetics--chapters 7 and 8

• Evolutionary Biology--chapters 19-21

• Molecular Genetics--chapters 14-17 and 29
• Heredity--chapters 10-12

• Diversity of organisms--chapter 28
• Ecology--chapter 23, 24, and 25
• Structure and Function of plants and animals--chapter 22, 32, 36-40, 50 and 51