Honors Biology

Honors Biology is an inquiry-based course designed to provide students with well-designed opportunities to explore their natural world. Using an active ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ approach to learning, and a variety of inquiry-based investigations, the course promotes the development of science literacy and student proficiency in the process of science. During the course, students will develop the understanding that life science principles are powerful conceptual tools for making sense of the complexity, diversity, and interconnectedness of life on Earth and that science is both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based, model-building enterprise that continually extends, refines, and revises knowledge. 

Units of Study:

Unit 1: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

Part 0: Nature of Science & Scientific Variables

Part 1: Matter and Energy Cycling through Ecosystems

Part 2: Biodiversity, Communities, and Succession

Part 3: Populations, Biomes, and Climate Change

Unit 2: Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

Part 1: Biological Molecules

Part 2: Photosynthesis

Part 3: Cellular Respiration

Unit 3: Cell Specialization and Homeostasis

Part 1: Homeostasis, Cell Structure, Function and Transport

Part 2: Cell Cycle & Cancer

Unit 4: DNA and Inheritance

Part 1: The Central Dogma and Technology

Part 2: Heredity

Unit 5: Natural Selection and Evolution