Course Overview

The AP biology course I teach has been designed to offer students the opportunities and experiences of an introductory level college biology course. The course has been structured around the four big ideas, enduring understandings, and science as a process. Students are given opportunities to integrate and apply the knowledge they have gained through selected reading, lectures, and group projects, by designing and completing inquiry-based activities and laboratory investigations which apply to each of the four big ideas and essential learnings.

Textbook/Resources
Campbell,Neil et.al., AP Edition Biology, Eighth Edition, San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings. Holtzclaw, Fred W and Holtzclaw Theresa K., Student AP Biology Test Prep Series. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

Course Organization
The course has been structured around the four big ideas and the enduring understandings as set forth in the AP Biology Curriculum Framework. During the first week of school students will be made aware of the four big ideas and each enduring understanding by being given a copy of each with a class discussion to of each. At the beginning of each class period we will discuss the objectives for the day and what big idea and enduring understanding/understandings will be covered that day in class. Students will be required to develop a concept map/graphic organizer of which essential understandings connect to which big idea/ideas. In this way students will develop a deeper understanding of how each essential understanding is connected to at least one, if not more, of the four big ideas. In this way students will develop the understanding and skills needed to make connections between seemingly unrelated topics and concepts; to come away from the class with a much broader understanding of modern biology, and the interactions between living and no-living systems.

Four Big Ideas

Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis. Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes. Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties.

Investigative Laboratory Component

The laboratory portion of the class will take up a minimum of 25% of instructional time. Students will be given the opportunity to conduct at least eight inquiry-based laboratory investigations (two per Big Idea) throughout the school year. Additional labs and activities will also be used to help students gain deeper understanding of key biological concepts and to reinforce the application of the seven science practices. Student will be required to maintain a lab notebook detailing the development of the question/problem they wish to investigate, their hypothesis, experimental procedures, observations and data collected during the investigation, and further questions that the investigation may generate. They will then use their lab notebooks to write formal lab reports which will then be presented to the class.