AP Biology

Instructor:

Dr. John Goudie

Description:

KAMSC Advanced Placement Biology is a full year course covering the topics in the required Advanced Placement Curriculum but at a deeper level and with a more intense experimental approach. The major 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. The ongoing information explosion in biology makes these goals even more challenging. Primary emphasis in this course will be on developing an understanding of 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; application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns. Course activities include individual research projects, and laboratory investigations in the following areas: Diffusion and Osmosis, Colony Transformation, Enzyme Catalysis, Genetics of Drosophila, Mitosis and Meiosis, Population Genetics and Evolution, Plant Pigments, Transpiration, Cell Respiration, Physiology of the Circulation System, Behavior: Habitat Selection, Dissolved Oxygen and Primary, Productivity.

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