PRE-AP BIOLOGY

This course is designed to spark students’ motivation and critical thinking about their living world as they engage in real-world data analysis and problem solving. Course instruction emphasizes the integration of content with science practices—powerful reasoning tools that support students in analyzing the natural world around them. Course content includes emphasis on analytical reading and writing in order to gain, retain, and apply scientific knowledge and to carry out scientific argumentation, the strategic use of mathematics in order to understand and express the quantitative aspects of biology, to record and interpret experimental data, and to solve problems as they arise, and attention to modeling as students are required to go beyond labeling diagrams to creating, revising, and using models to explain key patterns, interactions, and relationships in biological systems. As a result of the increased rigor of this AP course, students arerequired to demonstrate advanced skills in thinking logicallyand intuitively while exhibiting evidence of divergent and creative thinking in science. Topics are covered morein depth in comparison to the regular course and instruction is delivered at the fastest pace.