Course Overview:

The Advanced Placement (AP®) Biology online course is an intensive two-semester college-level course that helps students gain a comprehensive understanding of life and the molecules, systems, and processes that support life. Through interactive media, labs, inquiry projects and assignments, this course investigates the process of evolution and how it drives the diversity and unity of life; how biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis; how living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes; and how biological systems interact. In this course, Cell Theory and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection guide our understanding of living systems and the complexities of their interactions with one another.

Semester 1 Concepts:

In the first semester, students will learn about the chemistry of life, including defining what biology is and a focus on ancient Earth, protein and nucleic acid, and fats and carbohydrates. The next unit explores cell structure and function, followed by cellular energetics, which examines metabolism, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. Students will move on to cell communication and cell cycle, which includes lessons on the endocrine and nervous systems before finishing the semester with a unit on heredity, which focuses on meiosis and sexual reproduction, mendel and genes, and chromosomal inheritance.

Semester 2 Concepts: 

In the second semester, students will dive into gene expression and regulation, which analyzes molecular inheritance, gene to protein, viruses and bacteria, eukaryotic genomes, genetics of development, and DNA technology and genomics. The next unit focuses on Natural Selection, which includes Darwin’s Theory, population evolution, speciation, and phylogeny. Finally, the semester wraps up with a unit on ecology, which covers response to environment, population ecology, community ecology, and biodiversity and conservation.