REGENTS BIOLOGY
Dear Parent/Student,
Sep. 9, 4 2015
Welcome to Regents Living Environment (Biology)! We will study the topics: scientific method,
biochemistry, cell parts, human body systems, genetics, evolution, and ecology.
This is a high school course that the New York State Education department requires students
pass to graduate from High School. A minimum of 1200 minutes in lab (30 labs) is required to
take the state exam called the Living Environment Regents Exam. This is a three hour exam and
your child’s final exam.
A crucial quality your child must possess to be successful in this class is an excellent work ethic.
Your child must be fully attentive in class and review class activities daily (study daily). If
students do not complete written assignments by deadlines, they will receive zeros for those
assignments. Extra credit is not an option for students who do not do the required work.
Another crucial quality your child must possess is excellent attendance. If your child has no
choice but to miss class, he/she must read and study what was missed in addition to completing
any written activity or lab that occurred in his/her absence. Students will be given an amount of
time to make up assignments that is equal to the number of days missed from a legal absence.
Other tools your child will need are:
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A large three ring binder for notes and activities
A manila folder for graded labs
Loose leaf paper
Pencils each day (pens optional)
Erasers
Colored pencils
A three hole soft pencil case that can be inserted into the three ring binder for holding
colored and regular pencils
Grading works as follows:
25% Quizzes
 Quizzes are on concepts and vocabulary. The vocabulary is not limited to science. Nonscience vocabulary words are necessary because students will need to know non-science
words in order to understand the questions on the Living environment (Biology) Regents
Exam. Students will receive a non-science vocabulary list at the beginning of the school
year that includes the most important non-science words to know.
25% Labs
 As already stated, students need a minimum of 1200 minutes in lab (30 labs) to be
eligible for the Living Environment Regents Exam in June. Four of the labs are state
required; each student must successfully complete these 4 labs. Good attendance is
crucial for meeting lab requirement.
25% Home/In-class work.
 There will be homework due each Friday, and sometimes, other days as well.
 Students need to spend a minimum of fifteen minutes each night reviewing whatever we
did in class that day. This is necessary for retaining the information they will need for
tests and ultimately the Living Environment Regents Exam.
 No late homework is accepted, unless legally absent.
25% Exams
 There will be one exam toward the end of each marking period; these exams will be made
of questions taken from old Living Environment Regents Exams.
Please detach this second page with your signature so I know you have read the letter. When
your child returns the signed portion of this letter by Mon Sep 14, it will count as your child’s
first homework assignment. Failure to return it by this time results in a zero. Please keep the first
page of the letter for a reference during the school year.
Sincerely,
Ms. Heather Joyce
I have read and understood the Regents Biology student/parent letter.
Student Signature ______________________________________
Parent Signature _______________________________________