AP Biology Course Syllabus



AP Biology Course Syllabus

Teacher Contact Information

|Instructor |Mrs. Brown |

|Class meets |Pd 11 in room 116 |

|Email address |sbrown@ |

| |sarahbrown1202@ |

|Office hours (Students are encouraged to come to these to |Period 4/5 in room 116 |

|receive extra help when they experience even the slightest |Period 12 in room 116 |

|amount of difficulty with the material) |Before & after school by appointment |

| |***It is a student’s responsibility to contact me about receiving extra |

| |help.*** |

|Class Website |brownringgold. |

|Remind 101 (to receive text message reminders for tests, |Text @brownapbio to (240) 348-6261 |

|homework, etc.) |OR if you would rather receive messages via email: |

| |Send an email to brownapbio@mail. |

Course Overview

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 to be qualified on the AP Exam, some students, in their first year of college, are permitted to take upper-level courses in biology or register for courses for which biology is a prerequisite. My main goals are for my students to have a good understanding of the concepts in biology and a grasp of its relevance to themselves and society. AP Biology includes 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 type of laboratory work done by students, and the time and effort required of students. The AP course is structured around the four big ideas, the enduring understandings within the big ideas and the essential knowledge within the enduring understanding.

Philosophy

“Too often, we give our students answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” Roger Lewin

Biology is a fantastic topic that provides our students an opportunity to search for understanding of all the life that surrounds us every day. This course is meant to be a wonderful vehicle for increasing skills in some fundamental areas: curiosity, questioning the world around us, finding answers to questions in scientific and deliberate ways, and thinking critically. I am excited to teach a course that challenges and activates student’s minds in such important and fundamental ways!

Text Book:

Biology, 7th Edition by Neil A. Campbell, Jane B. Reece, Lisa A. Urry and Michael L. Cain (Sep 4, 2008)

Timeline of topics:

Unit 1: The chemistry of Life (Chapters 1-5) SUMMER

Unit 2: The Cell (Chapters 6, 7 12, 13) AUG-SEP

Unit 3: Cellular Energetics (Chapters 8-10) OCT

Unit 4: Genetics (Chapters 14-15) NOV

Unit 5: Central Dogma, Genetics, and Biotechnology (Chapters 16-20) DEC-JAN

Unit 6: Evolution (Chapters 22-25) FEB

Unit 7: Ecology (Chapters 50-55) MAR-APR

Unit 8: Chapter Projects (Selected Chapters 26-55) MAY

The 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

Teaching Strategies:

Most of class time will be spent doing one of the following: Lecture, Review, Presentations, or Lab Activities. Lectures are supported with great visuals and videos and an expectation that students have REVIEWED and engaged with the text PRIOR to the lecture/ lab date. Because we will be covering so much information quickly, it is essential that students have looked through the text prior to me lecturing on selected materials so that they can understand in more detail and contribute to class discussions.

Review activities will include a variety of things: I will use journals and exit slips that allow me to check for student understanding every day. These questions will be taken from a variety of sources including release questions from College Board, released AP Biology exams and questions from our text book manufacturer.

Approximately 30 percent of class time will be devoted to Lab Activities. We will conduct 10 of the 13 suggested Inquiry-based labs from the College Board, 3 inquiry-adjusted labs from the old AP Lab materials, as well as 3-4 labs that I have written. Each lab will include questions to be answered or small write-ups of the lab. Occasionally, we will do a complete lab write-up to better understand that science is a process of understanding rather than an accumulation of facts.

Student Evaluation:

Grades in this course are determined by how many course points a student earns divided by the maximum number of course points available. Graded assignments include journals, exit slips, daily activities, homework, labs, lab reports, projects, quizzes, presentations, and unit exams.

|92-100 |A |

|83-91 |B |

|70-82 |C |

|60-69 |D |

|0-59 |F |

|Incomplete |I |

What to Expect from AP Biology:

Because this class is essentially covering two semesters of college in one high school year, you can expect a large amount of information to be given to you daily. One 44 minute class will typically be broken down into either a lecture day or a lab day.

Lecture days will look something like this:

• Journal

• Lecture

• Activity based on the lecture

• Close & exit slip

Lab Days will look like this:

• Preparation and discussion of expectations

• Lab and clean-up

• Any remaining time will be spent working on lab analysis and questions

Homework:

You can expect to spend time at home working on problem sets, concept worksheets, as well as projects. Additionally, you can expect to have text review just about every night. This may take you between 30 and 60 minutes every evening. In addition, it is absolutely essential that you review your lecture notes EVERY NIGHT for about 5 to 15 minutes. This review has a huge impact on your broader understanding of the vast information we will cover, as well as strengthening your comprehension of the info. Lastly, you will have lab questions and discussions that you will be working on at home.

Unit Tests:

Unit Tests make up a huge portion of a students grade in class. These tests include multiple choice with questions being derived from our textbook, our lab experiences, and any released AP Biology test questions. The unit tests will also include open ended questions, including appropriate use of mathematical skills, short free response, and at least one long free-response question so students are practicing the skill of writing out their thoughts on major biological topics related to our 7 science practices, 4 big ideas and the enduring understandings associated with each big idea in AP Biology. Please understand that the tests given will be as rigorous as a test given at the college level.

Oral Presentations:

Frequently, students will be expected to take a topic and express it to the class, essentially becoming an expert in one area and teaching their peers. For example, students will be split in pairs and assigned one biome to research. They will then provide a ½ page to 1 page handout for each class-mate on their specific biome as well as provide a 5 minute presentation of their specific biome. Another example, over the last 6-8 weeks of the year students will be responsible for choosing a chapter from the end of the text book and teaching it to the class.

Unit Maps

***For each unit, students are required to create a concept map covering ALL concepts in the unit. A rubric will be given out so students understand the grading procedures for the concept map.***

Please refer to the summer assignment for a concept map on making concept maps

Unit Projects

Additionally, students will be required to do several big projects (poster, song, poem, website… etc.) throughout the course. ~4 unit projects (~one per 9 weeks)

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