AP
Biology
Standards
and
Benchmarks
by
Standard
Scientific Inquiry: Standards 1-5
Standard 1. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openmindedness, and skepticism in their own efforts to understand how and why universal phenomena exist and
occur.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Exhibit traits that show an understanding of how honesty, curiosity, transparency, and skepticism affect the
progress of scientific inquiry.
2. Offer different explanations for the same scientific evidence, and explain why it is not always possible to tell
which explanation is best supported.
3. Know that scientists do not have models that explain all phenomena, and that current models range from the
proven - the Earth is round - to the speculative - cancers are viral.
4. Critically analyze and evaluate experimental designs for accuracy, including variables, controls, adequate data
sampling, and logical conclusions and suggest design improvements when appropriate.
Standard 2. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Choose appropriate summary statistics to describe group differences, always indicating the spread of the data as
well as the scientific data's central tendencies.
2. Make and use tables, charts, graphs, and scale drawings to make scientific arguments and claims in oral and
written presentations.
Standard 3. Students will be familiar with the character of scientific knowledge and inquiry and how it is
achieved.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Use hypotheses to guide choices of what data to pay attention to, what additional data to seek, and how to
interpret both new and previously available data.
2. Explain why scientists often control conditions in experiments, and what they do when controlled conditions are
not possible.
3. Explain how and why ethical considerations can limit scientific research.
Standard 4. Students will be able to select and use tools and instruments to conduct scientific activities.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Develop and use systematic procedures for recording and organizing information.
2. Understand the applications and basic functioning of complex pieces of scientific equipment (for example, PCR,
cathode ray tube) and be capable of basic troubleshooting.
3. Select the most appropriate tool for a specific, direct measurement and choose appropriate units for reporting
various magnitudes.
Standard 5. Students will understand and demonstrate the ideas of system, model, change, and scale in
exploring scientific and technological matters.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Apply the concept of a system to the analysis of how things work and the design of solutions to problems,
specifying the system's boundaries and subsystems, its relation to other systems, and its input and output.
2. Explain how systems in equilibrium may return to the same state of equilibrium when the disturbances are small
and how large disturbances may destroy a system's equilibrium and eventually result in a different state of
equilibrium.
3. Understand how large changes in scale typically change the way things work in physical, biological, or social
systems (that is, microcosm versus macrocosm) because the changes in scale affect various properties of those
systems in different degrees.
4. Describe and explain ways that systems' properties that depend on volume, such as capacity and weight, change
out of proportion to properties that depend on area, such as strength or surface processes.
Physical Setting: Standards 6-14
Standard 6. Students will be familiar with current scientific theories about the universe and how those theories
evolved.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 7. Students will understand how key features of the earth influence climate, weather, and the water
cycle.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 8. Students will understand scientific theories of how the earth's surface is formed and how those
theories developed.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 9. Students will know and understand scientific theories of the nature of matter and how those
theories developed.
By the end of AP Biology
1.
2.
3.
4.
Describe the particles and forces that make up electrons, neutrons, and protons.
Understand that ions are formed by the gain or loss of electrons.
Explain how molecular and ionic structures determine the properties of substances.
Describe the structure of an atom, and explain why its electron configuration determines how the atom can
interact with other atoms, and how atoms form ionic or covalent bonds.
Standard 10. Students will be familiar with the forms and transformations of energy and the significance of
energy in understanding the structure of matter and the universe.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Explain the law of conservation of matter and energy.
2. Describe the concept of entropy and the principles related to it.
3. Understand that transformations of energy usually produce some energy in the form of heat.
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Standard 11. Students will understand how society uses and conserves various sources of energy.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 12. Students will understand the relationship between force, mass, and the motion of objects.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 13. Students will recognize gravitational, electrical, and magnetic forces as major kinds of forces
acting in nature.
By the end of AP Biology
None
Standard 14. Students will be familiar with the wave nature of sound and electromagnetic radiation.
By the end of AP Biology
None
The Living Environment: Standards 15-20
Standard 15. Students will be aware of the diversity of living organisms and how they can be compared
scientifically.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Explain how variation within a species increases the chances of survival of the species under changing
environmental conditions.
2. Explain how the great diversity of species increases the chance that at least some living organisms will survive in
the event of major global changes.
Standard 16. Students will understand the structure, functions, and reproduction of living cells and organisms.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Identify and discuss the characteristics of the basic elements of living organisms, including carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, and nitrogen.
2. Describe the structures and functions of the basic molecules of living organisms, including water, carbohydrates,
fats, and proteins.
3. Describe the structures and functions of the cell membrane and its involvement in the cell's interaction with its
surrounding environment, such as the processes of diffusion, osmosis, active transport, pinocytosis, and
phagocytosis.
4. Explain the chemical reactions necessary for life, such as photosynthesis, respiration, digestion, and excretion,
including where these reactions occur.
5. Define metabolism and discuss the role of the ATP molecule in the storage and release of energy.
6. Explain the structure, function, and replication process for DNA.
7. Know that the genetic code used in DNA molecules is almost the same for all life forms and that the degree of
similarity in the DNA sequence can be used to compare how closely organisms are related to each other.
8. Describe the process of protein synthesis.
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9. Describe the stages of the cell cycle.
10. Distinguish between cell growth and cell differentiation.
11. Define cancer and list causes that increase the risk of cancer.
Standard 17. Students will understand how and why organisms are dependent on one another and their
environments.
By the end of AP Biology
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Define the impact of immigration, emigration, birth rate, and death rate on population size.
Identify the factors that control population fluctuations in a given ecosystem leading to dynamic equilibrium.
Explain how the carrying capacity of an ecosystem may change as availability of resources changes.
Describe stages of succession leading to a climax community.
Identify behavioral, morphological, and physical responses to changes in an organism's environment.
Give examples of natural and human-initiated environmental changes that may influences levels of harmful
substances.
7. Understand how monitoring environmental factors assists scientists in determining the health of the environment
(such as soil, air, or water conditions).
Standard 18. Students will understand the cycling of matter and the flow and transformation of energy through
systems of living things.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Discuss sources and sinks in matter and energy cycles.
2. Diagram and explain trophic levels in an ecosystem.
3. Describe the laws of thermodynamics and apply the principles to an ecosystem.
Standard 19. Students will understand how biological traits are passed on to successive generations.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Explain how the sorting and recombination of genes in sexual reproduction result in a great variety of possible
gene combinations in the offspring of any two parents.
2. Describe how an inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and how a single
gene can influence more than one trait.
3. Describe how inserting, deleting, or substituting DNA segments can alter (mutate) genes.
4. Know that gene mutations can be caused by many factors (such as radiation and chemicals).
5. Know that a mutated gene may be passed on to every cell that develops from it, but can only be passed on to
offspring when the mutation occurs in a sex cell.
6. Provide examples to show that mutations and new gene combinations may have positive, negative, or no effect on
an organism.
7. Explain how although each cell in an individual has identical genetic information, cells within an individual vary
because different portions of the DNA code are activated in different cells.
8. Identify and discuss inherited genetic disorders in humans.
9. Discuss the ethics and implications of genetic engineering.
Standard 20. Students will understand the arguments for natural selection as scientific explanation of biological
evolution.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Describe various scientific theories explaining the origin of life on Earth.
2. Explain Darwin's theory of natural selection.
3. Understand how the work of other scientists (for example, Mendel, et al) supports Darwin's theory.
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4. Evaluate evidence supporting biological evolution, including morphological, anatomical, and molecular features
of fossils and living organisms.
5. Describe patterns of evolution (i.e., divergent, convergent, and coevolution).
6. Explain biological and morphological characteristics used to define a species.
7. Define gene pool and discuss the implications of varying allele frequencies within a gene pool.
8. Discuss conditions defined in the Hardy-Weinberg Principle that result in genetic equilibrium.
9. Know that disruption of genetic equilibrium may result in evolution.
Human Organisms and Society: Standards 21-24
Standard 21. Students will know and understand the biological, cultural, and social explanations for why
human beings have important traits in common yet differ from one another.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Describe similarities in human DNA sequences and how they result in similar cell chemistry and anatomy that
identify human beings as a single species.
Standard 22. Students will be familiar with important aspects of human development from fertilization to
death.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Describe how successive generations of an embryo's cells form by division, with small differences in their
immediate environments causing them to develop slightly differently, by activating or inactivating different parts
of the DNA information.
2. Explain the necessity of a longer developmental period in humans as compared to other species in terms of the
evolution of the human brain.
Standard 23. Students will understand the basic processes of the human body.
By the end of AP Biology
1. Describe the function and structure of the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems and understand how these
systems function to coordinate cellular activities and facilitate cellular communication.
2. Explain the mechanism of allergic reactions and describe the body's response to them.
3. Explain how faulty genes can cause body parts or systems to work poorly.
4. Describe how various parts of the brain control various body functions, such as thinking, speech, sight, smell,
motor coordination, memory, and emotions.
Standard 24. Students will understand that a variety of factors influence learning in human beings.
By the end of AP Biology
None
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