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Advanced Placement BiologyEmily Felker, efelker@ Room 3636 Office Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 6:50-7:15HOT Lunch Tutorials: Mon A/B, Wed A/B, Thurs ACourse Goals:Welcome to AP Biology! The world around us is a dynamic, wonderful experience and I am excited to explore it with you. Science is a process and a way of knowing, and not just a collection of terms and facts. This course will provide you with not just factual knowledge but also the conceptual understanding and analytical skills that are needed to understand why and how scientists use the processes of observation and experimentation to gather evidence about natural phenomena. Biology is a rapidly expanding field, but with an understanding of the unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology, you will be able to connect new concepts with what you already know into a larger framework of knowledge and know-how. Developing critical thinking skills is an important part of this course, and throughout this semester you will learn how to pose questions about your own experiences and design systems to test your hypotheses while gaining personal experience in scientific inquiry. By the end of the course, you will be able to apply your biological knowledge and your critical thinking skills to social, environmental, and ethical concerns. The overarching goal of this course is to help you build a scientific framework and conceptual understanding of modern biology that will prepare you to enter your future as a responsible, scientifically literate citizen that is prepared for whatever lies ahead.Prerequisites: In order to be successful in AP Biology you are required to have passed Biology or Honors Biology in addition to Chemistry or Honors Chemistry. Instructional Resources:Class Website: HYPERLINK "" mrsfelkerscience.Textbook: Starr, Cecie, and Ralph Taggart. Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life, 10th ed. Independence, KY: Brooks/Cole Thomson Learning, 2004.Lab Manual: AP Biology Investigative Labs: An Inquiry-Based Approach (2012)The AP ExamMonday, May 9th at 8:00 amThe AP Biology exam consists of 2 sections:Part I – Multiple Choice: 63 Multiple-Choice and 6 Grid-Ins (90 minutes)Part II – Free Response: 2 Long and 6 Short (10 minute reading period + 80 minutes)Course Overview:This AP course is structured around the four big ideas, enduring understandings, and learning objectives as described by the AP Biology Curriculum Framework. The big ideas encompass the core scientific principles, theories, and processes governing living organisms and biological systems, while the enduring understandings incorporate the core concepts that you should retain from the learning experience.Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of everyday life.Enduring Understandings:Change in the genetic makeup of a population over time is evolutionOrganisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.Life continues to evolve within a changing environment.The origin of living systems is explained by natural processes. Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.Enduring Understandings:Growth, reproduction, and maintenance of the organization of living systems require free energy and matter.Growth, reproduction, and dynamic homeostasis require that cells create and maintain internal environments that are different from their external anisms use feedback mechanisms to regulate growth and reproduction and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.Growth and dynamic homeostasis of a biological system are influenced by changes in the system’s environment.Many biological processes involved in growth, reproduction, and dynamic homeostasis include temporal regulation and coordination.Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.Enduring Understandings:Heritable information provides for the continuity of life.Expression of genetic information involves cellular and molecular mechanisms.The processing of genetic information is imperfect and is a source of genetic variation.Cells communicate by generating, transmitting, and receiving chemical signals.Transmission of information results in changes within and between biological systems.Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties. Enduring Understandings:Interactions within biological systems lead to complex petition and cooperation are important aspects of biological systems.Naturally occurring diversity among and between components within biological systems affects the interactions with the environment.Making ConnectionsThese four big ideas are highly related, and throughout the course we will weave back and forth between the big ideas in order to connect their individual enduring understandings and learning objectives.Course Design and Grading Scale (in accordance with HSHS School Policy):All absent/late work must be made up according to school policies, with 8% off for each day an assignment is late. The cut-off for late work is by each benchmark date. It is your responsibility to see me about work you will miss when you will be absent and/or missed while you were unexpectedly absent. Missed labs may require an alternate lab assignment to complete during tutorials or before/after school. Missed exams must be made up within two tutorial days after you return to school. Make-up exams may have a different format with less multiple-choice questions and more essay questions. Exams and Quizzes: 40%There will be many short quizzes throughout the semester. These quizzes may include material from the readings, from pre-lab assignments, or from material learned through class activities. However, they will not be cumulative and they will be related to the current unit of study.Exams will be given at the conclusion of each unit of study in addition to the (2) cumulative benchmarks and midterm exam.Unit tests will be modeled after the AP exam, with AP style multiple-choice questions, grid-ins, and long or short essay questions. Each exam will generally take an entire period (85 minutes). It will be your responsibility to prepare and study for these exams on your own time. This is a college-level course that requires dedication, and it is not a class where cramming the day before the test will work! I would recommend that you spend at least 5-10 hours of study time out of class every week. You are welcome to ask questions and receive help during class and during tutorials, but we will not set aside instructional time to for the purpose of reviewing for the exams.Homework Assignments: 10%Homework may include anything from outlining a chapter from the textbook to reading and analyzing a scientific abstract, watching a podcast that covers a concept to completing a virtual lab, or from working on practice problems to writing an essay.Homework will be given weekly and it will be discussed in class, but not every assignment will be collected for a grade. You may also be given a homework quiz in place of a completion check. Homework helps you practice new material and apply your knowledge to new situations, and you will see your work at home pay off in class. Homework is done for independent reasons at the college level, and we will apply this same philosophy to the AP class.It is also highly recommended that you spent time each night reviewing material and preparing for class the next day. Labs and Classwork: 50%The Laboratory Component:You will be engaged in student-directed investigative laboratory work for at least 25% of instructional time. You can expect to be involved in lab work for one day out of every four. We will conduct a MINIMUM of two inquiry-based, student-directed labs per big idea from the AP Biology Lab Manual (described below) as well as many supplementary labs. Big Idea 1: EvolutionInvestigation #1Artificial Selection Students will grow organisms (such as Fast Plants) and select for specific traits over several generations.Investigation #2Mathematical Modeling: Hardy-WeinbergStudents will develop and use a spreadsheet to investigate factors affecting Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.Investigation #3Comparing DNA Sequences to Understand Evolutionary Relationships with BLASTStudents will use NCBI BLAST to compare DNA and protein sequences of organisms to test student-generated hypotheses on their relatedness.Big Idea 2: Cellular Processes; Energy and MatterInvestigation #4Diffusion and OsmosisStudents will study diffusion and osmosis in model systems and in plant tissue.Investigation #5PhotosynthesisStudents will investigate photosynthetic rates under a variety of student-selected conditions.Investigation #6Cellular RespirationStudents will investigate a selected aspect of cellular respiration in organisms. Big Idea 3: Genetics and Information TransferInvestigation #7Cell Division: Mitosis and MeiosisStudents will compare the mitotic rate after exposure to lectin or other substances presumed to affect mitotic rate.Investigation #8Biotechnology: Bacterial TransformationStudents will investigate bacterial transformation and transformation rates in E. coli.Investigation #9Biotechnology: Restriction Enzyme AnalysisStudents will investigate restriction enzyme analysis.Big Idea 4: InteractionsInvestigation #10Energy DynamicsStudents will develop and analyze a model system to describe energy flow.Investigation #11TranspirationStudents will design a model system to investigate the movement of water through plants. Investigation #12Fruit Fly BehaviorStudents will investigate chemotaxis in fruit flies and/or in other model organisms. Investigation #13Enzyme ActivityStudents will design an open-inquiry lab to investigate factors that affect enzyme action.Each laboratory investigation will strengthen and deepen your conceptual understanding of each big idea, and each supplementary lab or activity will help connect the enduring understandings back to the main ideas. Within this hands-on environment, you will learn to apply seven valuable science practices (described below). You will become comfortable with implementing these practices as you develop, record, and communicate the results of your laboratory investigations. Seven Science Practices:By the end of the this course, you will be able to……use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems.…use mathematics appropriately.…engage in scientific questioning to extend your thinking and to guide your investigations. …plan and implement data collection strategies appropriate to a particular scientific question. …perform data analysis and evaluate evidence. …work with scientific explanations and theories. …connect and relate knowledge across various scales, concepts and representations in and across domains. Lab Notebooks and Presentations:Throughout the course you will maintain a laboratory notebook and portfolio. Unless informed otherwise, each lab will require a write-up in a specific format that will include your hypothesis, experimental design, your collected and organized data, and your analysis/discussion of results. In addition, most labs will require ‘pre-lab’ and ‘post-lab’ assignments that will be completed at home. In some cases, you will also be asked to communicate your results and/or experimental design via oral group presentations, a poster session, or multimedia presentations. Learning to share your results, collaborate, and give/receive feedback are valuable parts of the scientific method, and reflecting upon your own science practices will benefit you as you prepare for college-level coursework and experiences. Social and Ethical ConcernsThroughout the course, we will connect our classroom knowledge to social and ethical issues in the outside world. These issues are timely and are constantly evolving, but being aware of the social issues and ethical conflicts of this field of study will help you become a scientifically literate citizen in a changing world. Some of these issues include: Man-Made Global Warming and Climate Change (BI #4)Stem Cell Research and Cloning (BI #3)Genetically Modified Foods/Artificial Selection (BI #3)Antibiotic Resistance (BI #1)Genetic Research and the Use of Genetic Information (BI #3)While we will learn about and discuss these issues in class, you will also research one or more of these topics at home and present your findings in a college-level research paper and presentation. In most cases this will include researching a pre-approved bioethics topic of your choice, but it may also include reading and discussing the social or ethical issues in a fiction or non-fiction novel (such as Silent Spring, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Jurassic Park, The Coming Plague, Brave New World), curating and leading a discussion about the scientific merits of a film or documentary (Gattaca, An Inconvenient Truth, Gorillas in the Mist), or interviewing and reporting on or interning with a local researcher. ................
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