COURSE TITLE AP BIOLOGY

COMPUTER TITLE AP*BIOLOGY

COMPUTER CODE SCB612

GRADE LEVEL 11-12

LENGTH OF COURSE 36 weeks

The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a college introductory biology course usually taken by biology majors during their first year. After showing themselves to be qualified on the AP Examination, some students, as college freshmen, are permitted to undertake upper-level course in biology or to register for courses for which biology is a prerequisite. Other students may have fulfilled a basic requirement for a laboratory-science course and be able to undertake other courses to pursue their majors.

AP Biology should include those topics regularly covered in a college biology course for majors. The college course in biology differs significantly from the usual first high school course in biology with respect to the kind of textbook used, the range and depth of topics covered, the kind of laboratory work done by students, and the time and effort required of students. The textbooks for AP Biology should be those also used by college biology majors. The kinds of labs done by AP students must be the equivalent of those done by college students.

The AP Biology Course is designed to be taken by students after the successful completion of a first course in high school biology and one in high school chemistry as well. It aims to provide students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology.

Two main goals of AP Biology are to help students develop a conceptual framework for modern biology and to help students gain an appreciation of science as a process. Primary emphasis in an Advanced Placement Biology course should be on developing and understanding concepts rather than on memorizing terms and technical details. Essential to this conceptual understanding are the following: a grasp of science as a process rather than as an accumulation of facts; personal experience in scientific inquiry; recognition of unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology; and application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns.