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AP
Biology Labs |
 Advanced Placement Biology |
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About Advanced Placement Biology at Profile |
The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a college introductory biology course usually taken by biology majors during their first year. After showing themselves to be qualified on the AP Examination, some students, as college freshmen, are permitted to undertake upper-level courses in biology or to register for courses for which biology is a prerequisite. Other students may have fulfilled a basic requirement for a laboratory-science course and will be able to undertake other courses to pursue their majors. The AP Biology course is designed to be taken by students after the successful completion of a first course in high school biology and one in high school chemistry as well. It aims to provide students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology. The AP Biology Examination seeks to be representative of the topics covered. Accordingly, goals have been set for percentage coverage of three general areas: I. Molecules and Cells, 25 percent; These three areas have been subdivided into major categories with percentage goals for each major category specified. The percentage goals serve as a guide for designing an AP examination which is constructed using the percentage goals as guidelines for question distribution. The two main 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 an AP Biology course is to develop an understanding
of the 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; and
application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental
and social concerns. |