AP Biology (Period 2)

AP Biology is designed to be equivalent to a college-level freshman introductory biology course. This course is usually taken as part of the “Honors Track” curriculum, for students who have taken Honors Biology and Honors Chemistry; however, the class is open to any student willing to take on a challenging academic course. It is highly recommended that the student have taken either general or honors biology and chemistry and have passed with at least a grade of “C”. 

The class meets five days per week for approximately fifty-five minutes each day. Throughout the school year approximately 55% of total time is spent on content lecture/discussion, 30% of total time spent on labs as outlined in the AP Biology Lab Manual for Students (except where noted in coursework), with approximately 15% total time spent on class projects/research. Students are given reading assignments prior to class. They are expected to come to class prepared and ready to participate in lecture and discussion of biology content and labs. Students outline assigned chapters and define selected vocabulary terms. For practice and assessment they are assigned selected problems from the accompanying Student Study Guide for Biology 7th Edition. Student evaluation usually consists of, but is not limited to labs, projects, multiple choice and essay exams.   

The main objective of the course is to provide the student with an opportunity to gain understanding of the four Big Ideas through the exploration of the six topic areas: the chemistry of life, cells, cell processes (energy and cell communication), genetics, evolution and biodiversity and ecology.  Integrated into the six topic areas are 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. These Big Ideas are integrated throughout the course.  All students are expected to sit for the AP Biology exam.