The purpose of this Advanced Placement Biology class is to prepare you for the College Board AP® Biology exam. The course will be rigorous and fast-paced and will consist of lectures, laboratory investigations, and various other activities.
The class will meet every day (72 minute period) and for zero hour once a week. Zero hour session will begin at 6:30 a.m. and is mandatory for class credit. The zero hour days will be used primarily for laboratory investigations, which comprise about 25% of instructional time. There will be a Thursday zero hour for absence makeup, for answering lab questions that arise in reports, and for test/quiz make-up and correction.
The class can be described by the three overarching topics that it covers: Molecules & Cells, Heredity & Evolution, and Organisms & Populations. The course stresses the significance of eight major themes, all of which are consistently tied to the central foundation of biology, which is evolution.
Major themes from the AP® Biology Course Description:
1. Science as a process
2. Evolution
3. Energy transfer
4. Continuity and change
5. Structure and function
6. Regulation
7. Interdependence
8. Science, technology and nature