Class: AP Biology
Curriculum/Content Area: Science
Course Length: 2 Terms
Course Title: AP Biology
Date last reviewed:
Prerequisites: Biology and Chemistry
Board approval date:
AP Biology is a semester long course which is designed to be taken by students after the
successful completion of both high school biology (honors: B or regular: A) and chemistry (B).
AP Biology includes those topics regularly covered in a college introductory biology course and
differs significantly from the other biology courses offered, with respect to the kind of textbook
used, the range and depth of topics covered, the kind of laboratory work performed by students,
and the time and effort required of the students. The textbook used by AP Biology is also used
by college biology majors and the kinds of labs done by AP students are equivalent to those
done by college students. AP Biology is a course that aims to provide students with the
conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to manage the rapidly
changing field of biology. This course is designed to prepare students for the Biology College
Board Advanced Placement Exam.
Enduring Understandings (EUs):
Essential Questions (EQs):
1. The process of evolution drives the
diversity and unity of life.
1. How does structure relate to function in
living systems from the organismal to the
molecular level?
2. Biological systems utilize free energy and
molecular building blocks to grow, to
reproduce and to maintain dynamic
homeostasis.
3. Living systems store, retrieve, transmit
and respond to information essential to
life processes.
4. Biological systems interact, and these
systems and their interactions possess
complex properties.
5. Science involves a particular way of
knowing that includes relying on
evidence, logical arguments, skepticism,
peer review, and mathematics. Scientific
ideas are revised over time to incorporate
new evidence as it becomes available.
6. Scientific inquiry involves asking
scientifically-oriented questions, collecting
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How is the cell the basic unit of life?
How do materials enter and leave
cell?
What are the relationships between
structure and function of cell
organelles?
How are external signals converted
into cellular responses?
2. How are matter and energy
transferred/transformed in living and nonliving
systems?
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How is free energy used in biological
systems to facilitate growth,
reproduction, and homeostasis
sustainability?
How do living things use energy and
matter to survive in an ecosystem?
3. How are organisms dependent on the living
evidence, forming explanations,
connecting explanations to scientific
knowledge and theory, and
communicating and justifying
explanations.
7. Benefits and costs of scientific research
and technological innovation include
consequences that are long-term as well
as short-term, and indirect as well as
direct.
8. Scientifically literate citizens are able to
collect, analyze and communicate
information via multiple pathways,
including use of meaningful presentations
and technologies
and nonliving aspects of their environment?
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How is energy stored in biological
systems?
How does interactions between and
within populations influence patterns
of species distribution and
abundance?
How do humans impact the
biodiversity of ecosystems?
4. How does genetic information pass
through generations, and what tools are
available to track genetic patterns?
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How do eukaryotic cells store,
retrieve, and transmit genetic
information?
How does genotype affect phenotype
5. How does natural selection encourage inter
and intra-species diversity over time?
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How does life evolve in changing
environments?
6. How does scientific knowledge benefit
deepen and broaden from scientists sharing
and debating ideas and information with
peers?
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What are the current trends in genetic
engineering techniques that guide
manipulation of genetic information
What social and ethical issues are
raised by advances in genetic
engineering?
7. How are organisms grouped, and how is
grouping this determined?
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What role does evolution play in the
organization of living things?
What evidence supports our current
model of the origin of life
8. How is the data represented in models,
labs, graphs/charts, or formulas used to
create an evaluation of occurring
phenomenon?