NNHS AP Biology 2016-17
General Syllabus – Course Scope and Sequence
Note that this plan is a best-case scenario for the completion of the AP Biology curriculum prior to the AP exam in May. Some adjustments to the prescribed time frame may be necessitated due to holidays, snow days, and special school schedules.
INTRODUCTORY NUTS AND BOLTS (First three class days 9/6-9/9)
Intro Day Activity
Norms, Expectations, Grading, IRP, etc.
Summer Scavenger Hunt –Jig Saw Presentation
Lab Notebook Set-up
Academic Honesty
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR (5 classes 9/12-9/20)
Chapter 51 jigsaw
Planning for Drosophlia Labs
Drosophila Lab parts I and II (presentation lab report)
Firefly case study
Prisoner’s Dilemma or Game Theory case study
ECOLOGY – 2.5 weeks (9/21- 10/7)
Chapters 56, 53, 54, 55
Case Study (deadzone, eutrophication, POGIL?)
Cabot Woods Population Sampling (Plants or Salamendars)
Capture-Mark-Recapture Activity
Capture-Mark-Recapture Quiz (Chapter 53)
Quiz Chapter 54
Winogradsky columns (set-up At Home!! Term Experiment)
Current Environmental Issue Brochure Project??
Lesson on graph generation and interpretation
Human population video and discussion (Discover Biology Curriculum?)
The Human Population Grows Up by Joel Cohen
Belly Button Microbes article
Microbial Biodiversity (Discover Biology Curriculum)
Unit Test (review day after)
CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY – 2 weeks (10/11 -10/26)
Chapters 3, 4, 5
Water Properties Lab
Enzyme lab (formal data and conclusion lab write-up)
Molecular models
Polymerization simulation
Unit Test
PHOTOSYNTHESIS/CELLULAR RESPIRATION - 4 weeks 10/27 – 11/23)
Chapters 9,10
Photosythesis lab (abstract and data)
Photosyntheskits
Exercise and CO2 titration lab
Cellular Respiration lab (presentation lab report)
Case study about Tylenol contamination and other case studies
Unit Test
CELL STRUCTURE – 2.5 weeks (11/28-12/14)
Chapters 6,7,8
Games Activities for Cells
Uprooting the Tree of Life by W. Ford Doolittle
The Birth of Complex Cells by Christian de Duve
Osmosis
Diffusion Rate Investigation
Water Potential Investigation
Cancer readings and activities (Great Disease Curriculum)
Unit test
MOLECULAR GENETICS and BIOTECHNOLOGY– 4 weeks (12/15 – 1/19)
Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (limited 11, limited 27)
Restriction Enzyme Cleavage paper lab
DNA Fingerprinting (gel electrophoresis) (post-lab questions)
Transformation lab (complete formal lab report)
Current Events assignment or CRISPR bioethics discussion
Bonnie Bassler Bacterial Quorum-sensing TED talk
The Human Microbiome: Me, Myself, and Us (The Economist)
Biotech techniques Presentations
Virus Comic Strip
Unit Test
MEIOSIS & Mendelian GENETICS – 2.5 weeks (1/20 – 2/17)
Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15
Sordaria lab (Abstract and data)
Xhi-square practice
“You are Not the Mother of Your Children” or “Two Peas in a Pod” case study
Fast Plant Lab
Unit Test
EVOLUTION – 4 weeks (2/27–3/22)
Chapters 21 (briefly) 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
Population genetics dry lab
BLAST Activity
Human Evolution Skulls and bones (pilot activity)
Human Evolution article jigsaw
Hardy-Weinberg problems
Unit Test
ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY – 3 weeks (3/23 – 4/13)
Chapters 40, 43, 48
Immune System
Neurons and Action Potentials
Brain and Nervous System
Jig-Saw for the rest of the body systems
Quiz
PLANT PHYSIOLOGY – 2 weeks (4/24 – 5/2)
Chapters 29, 30, 3
Transpiration Lab
Food Project
Tropism Investigation
AP EXAM REVIEW week of May 2-6
AP BIOLOGY EXAM Monday, May 9, 2016
After the exam: Year-Long Project Presentation