Honors Biology
Course Overview:
Holston Academy’s Honors Biology online course is designed for motivated students who are ready to go beyond foundational biology concepts and engage in deeper analysis, critical thinking, and scientific application. Honors students complete additional, advanced assignments that extend learning through research, creativity, and real-world connections.
Throughout the online honors course, students participate in self-check activities, reflective learning, quizzes, and unit exams, while receiving ongoing teacher feedback to support mastery and growth. Through interactive content, simulations, and investigations, students are challenged to see biology not just as a subject, but as a lens for understanding the living world.
Semester 1:
Semester 1 focuses on the science of life at the cellular and molecular level, beginning with cell theory and the structure, function, and chemistry of cells. Students explore how cellular processes drive growth, energy use, reproduction, and inheritance across living organisms. Key topics include genetics, DNA structure and function, protein synthesis, cellular transport, and energy production.
Honors students go deeper through advanced investigations and applied projects that connect microscopic processes to observable traits and biological patterns. Using text-based learning, simulations, and hands-on exploration, students build a strong conceptual framework that prepares them to analyze modern biological research and emerging scientific challenges.
Major Concepts Include:
The Principles of Life, The Principles of Inheritance, Plants, Classification, Animal Invertebrates, Animal Vertebrates
Semester 2:
Semester 2 expands students’ understanding from individual organisms to populations, ecosystems, and global biological systems. Students examine population dynamics through mutualism, predation, parasitism, and competition, while developing a comprehensive understanding of evolution as the foundation of modern biology.
Honors coursework emphasizes evidence-based reasoning, scientific debate, and real-world application as students explore human biology, disease, ecological systems, biomes, and the impact of humans on the environment. Through advanced assignments and analysis, students deepen their ability to evaluate biological data and understand life’s interconnected systems at local and global levels.
Major Concepts Include:
Human Body, Humans & Disease, Principles of Evolution, Populations & Communities, Biomes, Human Impact on the Environment
Required Materials: See list here
Materials listed should be acquired by the student prior to beginning the work in the course.