Pre-AP Biology

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Week 1: April 6-10

Learning Goals: Evolution and Natural Selection

  1. Explain, based on evidence, that individuals who are better fit to an environment can survive and reproduce at a higher rate.
  2. Analyze data to support explanations that show patterns of similarities and differences in genetics.

Estimated Time for The Week: 150 min

Learn & Practice:

(Optional: Read the textbook: Chapters 15 and 17 are a helpful resource)

Part 1:

  • Watch and interact with the website: Who Wants to Live a Million Years
    • In your notebook, take notes on Charles Darwin by going to the “Intro” of Who Wants to Live A Million Years and by clicking on “More About Darwin” at the bottom.
    • Using the glossary, find these words and define them in your notebook:
      1. Survival of the fittest
      2. Natural selection
      3. Evolution
      4. Trait
      5. Species
      6. Variation
    • Play the survival game and try to beat a friend. Email your teacher your result.
    • Take the quiz and record your grade - take a screenshot and send it to your teacher!

Part 2:

Part 3:

  • Create phylogenetic trees on the NOVA Evolution Lab
    1. Log in with your school Google account so it will save your progress.
    2. Complete the first 3 missions (all leaves on each mission). You may do more if you choose.
  • Be curious: conduct a 2-minute search online to learn something new about an organism that has oddly evolved characteristics. (For real- set a timer!) What is the classification of your organism?
    1. Find & document it’s Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.
    2. Write its scientific name correctly in the proper format.
  • Connect with a classmate or your teacher about an organism you found with some oddly evolved characteristics. How do these characteristics benefit this organism?

Week 2: April 13-17

Learning Goals:

  • Identify the levels of organization that ecologists study.
  • Compare and contrast the types of symbiosis.

Estimated Time for The Week: 2.5 Hours (30 min per day)

Learn & Practice:

For this lesson, use the google slides HERE. (Make a copy of the google slides to use for this lesson!)

Define these terms in your notebook! Use your textbook: Chap 2 (pages 32-40)

  • Characteristics of Life - Quizlet link - play the challenge games!
  • Abiotic
  • Biotic
  • Symbiosis
  • Mutualism
  • Parasitism
  • Commensalism
  • Competition (Interspecies & Intraspecies)
  • Cooperation (Interspecies & Intraspecies)
  • Levels of Organization of Life (video)

Explore Mozambique Mounds - Follow the instructions on slides 4 & 5.

Go Outside for a Scavenger Hunt - Follow the instructions on slide 6 - 15.

Review your Knowledge

  • Click on this link to go to a worksheet & review what you should know up to this point.
  • Share your results with your teacher to make sure you have a solid understanding.

Practice Free-Response AP Biology Question

  • Follow the instructions on slide 17.

Challenge Activity: This challenge activity is an extension of the termite mounds in Mozambique from the beginning of the lesson. The video below goes into more detail exploring the mathematics and analysis of why the termites build their mounds in such unique patterns.

Week 3: April 20-24

Learning Goal: Energy in Ecosystems & Biogeochemical Cycles

I can:

  • Describe how energy flows through food chains and through food web systems.
  • Identify the amount of energy available at a given component of the biosphere, including abiotic components and trophic levels.
  • Identify and describe the processes involved in the movement of matter between the living and the nonliving components of the biosphere.

Estimated Time for The Week: 150 min

Learn & Practice:

Part 1: Food Chains and Food Webs

  1. Choose one of the following ecosystems to learn how energy is transferred within living things:
  2. Now that you have learned about food chains, link multiple food chains together into a food web by completing the following activity:
  3. Challenge activity: Go out in your outdoor area and find at least 10 organisms (make sure you include producers) and create a food web from them. You can choose whatever media you would like to create it. Share with your instructor.

Part 2: Ecological Pyramids - There are three types of ecological pyramids (pyramid of numbers, pyramid of biomass, and energy pyramid) that demonstrate the relationships between organisms in an ecosystem.

  1. Draw and label an example of each of the pyramids in your notebook. Use page 44 in your textbook or do a google search.
  2. Complete two of the ecosystems in Glencoe Ecological Pyramids
    • When you first go to the virtual lab site, you may have to allow Flash Player to begin.
    • HINT: Write down or take a pic of ALL of your numbers as you go through this virtual activity. It may not save your progress and you will need the numbers twice during this activity.
  3. Challenge Activity!
    • Interact with HHMI Biomass Pyramids - Do field study 1 only. Field study 2 is for next week.
    • Read the instructions carefully, this is a challenge for a reason, it’s not easy!
    • Use the hints to answer the calculations
    • When you finish Field Study 1, use the icon at the top of the screen to download a PDF of your responses and submit that to your instructor.

Part 3: Biogeochemical Cycles - Matter cycles within and between biotic and abiotic components in an ecosystem. Specifically water, nitrogen, and carbon.

1. Read your textbook pages 45-49 about the different biogeochemical cycles.

2. Nitrogen Cycle BrainPop game - do the tutorial first or you’ll be lost!

  • Find friends to play the game with, it’ll be more fun!
  • Screenshot your scores at the end and send them to your instructor

3. Carbon Cycle BrainPop game - do the tutorial first

  • Find friends to play the game with, it’ll be more fun!
  • Screenshot your scores at the end and send them to your instructor

4. Choose one of the following activities to review the water cycle:

Part 4: Review activities

  1. Feeding relationships activity
  2. Biogeochemical cycles

Week 4: April 27 - May 1

Learning Goals:

  • Interpret the population dynamics resulting in J-shaped and S-shaped growth curves.
  • Describe how populations are limited (e.g., predation, food supply, and habitat).
  • Identify the impact of the following terms on population size: carrying capacity, natality, mortality, immigration, emigration, colonization, and population density.
  • Identify and analyze factors related to ecological succession that would have an effect upon population size, and/or an ecosystems carrying capacity.
  • Predict possible changes in populations.

Estimated Time for The Week: 150 min


Learn & Practice

Part 1: Ecological Succession

  • Learn about Ecological Succession through this WebQuest.
  • Review Succession through this Game.


Part 2: Population Dynamics

1) Read this Khan Academy article and the case studies included and/or watch this Crash Course Ecology video about Texas Mosquitoes.

Be sure you can define the following terms:

  • Population
  • *Population Density
  • *Immigration
  • *Emigration
  • Limiting Factors
  • Density Dependent Limiting Factor (give an example)
  • Density Independent Limiting Factor (give an example)
  • Carrying Capacity
  • Exponential Growth
  • Logistic Growth
  • *Natality
  • *Mortality
  • *Colonization

The terms that have an *asterisk - what impact do each of them have on population size? Put a + beside the vocab terms for an increase in population and a - beside the vocab terms for a decrease in population.

2) Explore the Wolves and Moose of Royale Isle in this activity and answer the questions.

  • Using the data given in this worksheet, practice interpreting population growth.
  • Do this virtual lab about paramecium growth and competition. Either do the questions on the embedded journal in the lab or on the PDF. Your choice!


Part 3: Challenge and Assess

Challenge Activity!

    1. Interact with HHMI Biomass Pyramids - Do field study 2 (you should have done field study 1 last week!)
    2. Read the instructions carefully, it’s not easy!
    3. Use the hints to answer the calculations
    4. When you finish Field Study 2, use the icon at the top of the screen to download a PDF of your responses and submit that to your instructor.
    5. Quizlet for Ecology! Play the game and review the terms!

Week 5: May 4-8

Learning Goals:

  • Predict possible changes to population based on environmental factors, immigration, emigration and colonization.
  • Calculate population density and make connections with population density and limiting factors.

Estimated Time for The Week: 150 min

Learn & Practice:

Part 1

      1. Watch this Crash Course video and read to learn about population demographics.
      2. Make sure you understand the following concepts:
        • R vs K Selection Theory
        • Carrying capacity
        • Demography
        • Species distribution
            1. Random
            2. Clumped
            3. Uniform
        • Survivorship Curves
      • Age-Structure diagram

3. Complete this worksheet to practice the concepts in this video.

4. Watch this 5 minute Ted Talk on the importance of studying populations and how to use population pyramids to analyze data

5. Practice age structure diagrams with this activity.

6. Use this Population Density Worksheet to learn how to calculate population density.


Part 2: Challenge and Fun Activities

  1. Complete this Free Response Question and turn it into your teacher.
  2. Just for fun, figure out how many earths we would need if everyone lived like you! Use your school email to log in.

Week 6: May 11-13

Learning Goal: 3, 2, 1, get ready for summer break!

Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Estimated Time for The Week: 90 minutes

Learn & Practice

Task 1:

  • Google Maps Timelapse
  • Description: The Google Maps Timelapse engine allows you to evaluate the impacts of humans on local environments over the last three decades. Use the search box to find local human impacts. Explore one human impact on the local environment and design a solution for reducing the impact.

Task 2:

Task 3:

  • Write a reflection of your year in PreAP Biology using this prompt: “Write a letter that you wish you could have sent to yourself on the first day of this class. Explain the expectation of the class, the best parts to look forward to, and the hardest portion. How would you recommend preparing yourself for the year?”
  • Send this as an email to your teacher so he/she can use your feedback in the future. Thanks for being amazing students and have a great summer! We miss you!!