Syllabus

AP Biology Syllabus
Mrs. Erin Strong
estrong@phoenixunion.org

mmestrong@gmail.com

602-764-8008 ext 69202

Teaching Philosophy
All students need an opportunity to experience science as a process and not just learn biology as a collection of unrelated facts. This means that the course should emphasize how scientists use their observations and readings to ask questions that can lead to new experiments. These experiments build on the work of others and eventually lead to additional evidence on different topics. This investigative process will be used throughout this AP Biology course. It is important for students to become excited with discovery as they ask and answer their own questions about natural/biological phenomena that they see, read about, or experience in the laboratory and field. In addition, it is critical that students connect new concepts with what they know, with each connection they help themselves build a solid framework of biological knowledge and scientific know-how. This framework will help students to enter their future, prepared for whatever may lie ahead of them.
Materials Required
Laboratory notebook, paper, pen or pencil, scientific calculator, and the text: Biology: Concepts & Connections, 5th ed., Campbell, Reece, Taylor & Simon (2006).
Course Organization
This course is structured around the four big ideas and the enduring understandings identified in the Curriculum Framework. All essential knowledge will be taught and all learning objectives will be addressed through this curriculum. The course will focus on inquiry-based laboratory work and the use of the seven science practices in both lab and non-lab activities.
The four Big ideas are:

• Big idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.
• Big idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
• Big idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes.
• Big idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties.

Students will be given a copy of the big ideas and enduring understandings to self-monitor mastery of these major organizing tools. The big ideas and enduring understandings will also be posted in the room. As connections are made across big ideas, a line will join the related enduring understandings, visually building a web of relatedness as the course progresses. The learning objectives will be used as a guide to build the rest of the class discussions, not as a checklist to be marked off through the year, but as a way to help students learn a focused amount of biological content with the use of specific scientific process skills. Skills will be practiced every day, not necessarily all skills every day, but each day at least one skill will be used to introduce the biological content students study.

The Laboratory Program
The students will be engaged in investigative laboratory work for a minimum of 25% of instructional time. These labs will be inquiry based, student-directed investigations. There will be at least two laboratory experiences per big idea selected from the list below from the AP Biology Investigative Lab Manual: An inquiry-based approach (2012). These labs will be spread throughout the school year and will be conducted during at least one out of every four class meetings during the year. The descriptions below summarize the student inquiry portion of the investigation. Additional prescribed activities supplement the student inquiry.
Big idea 1: Evolution

• BLAST Activity: Students use NCBI to compare DNA and protein sequences for organisms to test student-generated hypotheses on their relatedness.
• Hardy-Weinberg: Spreadsheet development to investigate factors affecting Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.
• Artificial Selection: Students will grow organisms such as Fast Plants and select for specific traits over several generations.

Big idea 2: Cellular Processes; Energy and Matter

• Cellular Respiration: Students investigate some aspect of cellular respiration in organisms.
• Photosynthesis Students investigate photosynthetic rate under a variety of student selected conditions.
• Diffusion/Osmosis: Students investigate diffusion and osmosis in model systems and in plant tissue.

Big idea 3: Genetics and Information Transfer

• Cell Division: Mitosis and Meiosis. Students compare mitotic rate after exposure to lectin or other substances presumed to affect mitotic rate.
• Bacterial Transformation: Students investigate bacterial transformation.
• Restriction Enzyme Analysis: Students investigate restriction enzyme analysis.

Big idea 4: Interactions

• Energy Dynamics: Students develop and analyze model systems that describe energy flow.
• Fruit Fly Behavior: Students investigate chemotaxis in fruit flies.
• Transpiration: Students investigate the movement of water through plants in a model system.
• Enzyme Investigation: In an open inquiry lab, students will investigate and quantify factors that affect enzyme action.

Communication
Students will maintain a laboratory notebook and a portfolio throughout the course. In addition to the laboratory notebook, students will communicate to others in formats such as group presentations, PowerPoint presentations, poster sessions, and written reports. Communication tools are not only for the laboratory experiences, but represent examples of the collaboration, reflection, and articulation seen in the course as a whole. Students will use this collection of their work over time and reflect on the changes they can see in the quality or substance of their work through the year as they prepare to move into college courses and research experiences in the future. A key feature in the portfolio will be the requirement for student self-reflection in terms of the science practice skills that they have developed throughout the year.

Grading Policy
Your semester grade will be calculated as follows:
Semester Work 90%

• 40% Tests- chapter and unit tests will be given throughout the semester and will mimic the AP Biology test format
• 30% Lab Work- this will include completion of the lab, “lab etiquette”, pre-labs, pre-lab quizzes, and lab reports
• 30% Assignments- study guides, reading assignments, quizzes, etc.

Cummulative Final Exam 10% (each semester)
A= 90-100 B= 80- 89 C= 70-79 D= 60-69 F= 59 and below
You will be given specific instructions as to how an assignment will be counted and due dates when it is assigned. Late work will not be accepted unless you have an excused absence or there are extenuating circumstances that we have discussed.
Class expectations
All MTHS Rules and Classroom Expectations will be upheld in this class!

• Advanced Placement classes represent college level courses and hence require classroom behavior that is consistent with that expected of the mature student. Time is valuable; therefore class will start as soon as the bell rings.
• The key word in this class will be RESPECT. As long as you respect each other and me, I will do the same and we will have no problems.
• Cheating will not be tolerated! Anyone found cheating will receive a zero on the assignment and will not be allowed to make it up. Anyone enabling another person to cheat will receive the same penalty.
• This is a lab class, and as such regular attendance is expected and also you must BE ON TIME to be able to receive full credit for assignments.

Attendance/Make-up policies
Your attendance is vital to your success in this class. We will often be doing an activity or lab during class time that cannot be completed at home. If you are absent it is your responsibility to see me about missed assignment or making up labs or tests. If you know that you will absent in advance please see me so that we can arrange for you to complete assignment while you will be out. You will not be able to make-up any assignments missed due to an unexcused absence. Students will lose credit for the semester in any course when reaching a total of 10 (excused/unexcused) absences.
Dropped Scores: Because absences are sometimes unavoidable, the score that affects your grade the most negatively will be dropped at the end of each semester. This policy is intended to account for students who are unavoidably sick, brown-slipped or otherwise unable to attend school or complete an assignment or assessment. However, the Final Exam may not be dropped.
Lab class-work can only be made up if the lab is still set up in the room. Lab reports may still be submitted for credit if you miss the lab class-work. Students are responsible for getting data from their lab partners and completing the assignment by the due date. All laboratories will be followed by a presentation and discussion of results to the class by individual lab groups. Students must demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the biology concept pertinent to the lab experience to receive credit for this presentation. Laboratory experiences will comprise 30% to 40% of this course.
Coursework is due when checked or collected during class time on the assigned day. If you are absent, see me after class to pick up your assignments. Work turned in within a week of the due date may still earn half credit. Students who complete all assignments may petition for extra work to replace points lost to absences. The maximum a student can earn on late work with makeup work is 70%.
Quizzes may not be made up
Exams (except the district final) may be made up on the scheduled make-up day in the event you are absent, or you receive a grade of “D” or lower (retake). The make-up exam will happen one day ONLY and will be after school. The highest grade any student may receive on a makeup exam is a “B” (80%); the highest a student may receive on a retake is a “C” (70%). Students who miss a scheduled exam and the make-up exam will receive a zero grade for that test.
Extra Help: If you are having difficulty or you fail a quiz or an exam, come in for help ASAP! It is much easier to catch up if you don’t wait. Please feel free to contact me any time by e-mail estrong@phoenixunion.org or through the student portal.