The Advanced Placement Biology course is structured around the four big ideas and the enduring understandings identified in the College Board Curriculum Framework. All essential knowledge will be taught and all learning objectives will be addressed through this curriculum. The class will focus on hands-on activities and laboratories. This will allow you to develop skills in biological observation and experimentation. The activities will aim to build on your curiosities and intuitions, and will be designed in a way that you can apply biology to experiences outside the classroom. Study skills will be suggested to better prepare you for the years to come.
There are four Big Ideas in the AP Biology Curriculum Frameworks:
Big Idea 1: Evolution (EVO) - The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.
Big Idea 2: Energetics (ENE) - Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis.
Big Idea 3: Information Storage and Transmission (IST) - Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.
Big Idea 4: Systems Interactions (SYI) - Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties.
Science Practices
The AP Biology Curriculum Framework contains seven science practices that were designed to ensure that AP Biology students engage in the practice of science. The science practices enable students to develop questions and hypotheses, and then design experiments that provide evidence and explanations.
The seven six practices are below.
Science Practice 1: Concept Explanation. Explain biological concepts, processes, and models presented in written formate
Science Practice 2: Visual Representations. Analyze visual representations of biological concepts and processes.
Science Practice 3: Questions and Methods. Determine scientific questions and methods.
Science Practice 4: Representing and Describing Data. Represent and describe data.
Science Practice 5: Statistical Tests and Data Analysis. Perform statistical tests and mathematical calculations to analyze and interpret data.
Science Practice 6: Argumentation. Develop and justify scientific arguments using evidence.