AP/College Biology

Check your scores on our tutorials | Useful Course level materials (study questions and weekly agendas)

AP/College Bio Interactive Tutorials

Topics in blue link to an interactive tutorial. The others are under development.

Biology: Core Concepts

• • Biology’s 4 Big Ideas
  • Properties of Living Things 
  • Structure Determines Function
  • Levels of Biological Organization
  • Understanding Controlled Experiments
  • Thinking like Darwin: Understanding Natural Selection

Unit 1: Chemistry of Life

• • Basic Chemistry (atoms, molecules, chemical bonding)
  • Topic 1.1: The Structure of Water and Hydrogen Bonding
  • Carbon and Functional Groups (more useful background)
  • Topic 1.3: Introduction to Biological Molecules (Monomers and Polymers, Overview of Biomolecules)
  • Topics 1.4 -1.6: Biological Macromolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids)

Unit 2: Cells and Cell Membranes

• • Topics 2.1 – 2.3, 2.10: Cell Structure and Function (includes cell size and the endomembrane system).
  • Topic 2.11: Origins of compartmentalization
  • Topics 2.4-2.9: Cell Membrane Structure and Function/Osmosis 

First Quarter review quizzes (Units 1 and 2)

Unit 3: Cellular Energetics

• • Topics 3.1 to 3.3: Enzymes and Enzyme Regulation
  • Topic 3.4: Cellular Energy (a reading about free energy and entropy)
  • Topic 3.6: Cellular Respiration  
  • Topic 3.5: Photosynthesis 

Unit 4: Cell Communication and the Cell Cycle

• • Topics 4.1 – 4.4: Cell Communication/Signal Transduction
  • Topic 4.5: Feedback: (Thermoregulation, Blood Glucose, Osmoregulation)
  • Topics 4.6 and 4.7: Mitosis, the Cell Cycle, and Cell Cycle Regulation  

First Semester review quizzes

• • Units 1 – 4, with a separate quiz on some topics from unit 6.

Unit 5: Heredity

• • Topics 5.1, 5.2, 5.10:  Meiosis, Sex Determination, Nondisjunction and Chromosomal Variations
  • Topics 5.3 and 5.4: Mendelian and Post Mendelian Genetics (includes Blood type and Sex linkage)
  • Topics 5.4 and 5.6: Dihybrid crosses, Linkage and Recombination, χ² (Chi squared) Test

Unit 6: Gene Expression and Regulation

• • Topic 6.1 – 6.2: DNA Structure and Replication   
  • Topic 6.3 and 6.4: From Gene to Protein (transcription and translation)
  • Topic 6.5: Bacterial Gene Regulation/Operons 
  • Topic 6.6:
    • Part 1: Eukaryotic Gene Regulation and Expression 
    • Part 2: Animal Development and Cell Specialization 
  • Topic 6.7:
    • Part 1: Mutations
    • Part 2:  Viruses 
  • Topic 6.8: Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering

Unit 7: Natural Selection/Evolution

• • Topic 7.1 – 7.5: Adaptation, Artificial and Natural Selection; Population Genetics and Hardy Weinberg 
  • Topics 7.6 – 7.8: Evidence for Evolution, Common Ancestry and Continuing Evolution 
  • Topic 7.9: Phylogeny  
  •  Topic 7.10 – 7.12: Species, Speciation, and Extinction
  • Topic 7:13: Origin and Early History of Life, The RNA World 

Unit 8: Ecology

• • Topic 8.1: Responses to the Environment (Animal Behavior) 
  • Topic 8.2: Energy Flow through Ecosystems
  • Topics 8.3 and 8.4: Population Ecology
  • Topics 8.5 and 8.6: Community Ecology and Biodiversity
  • Topic 8.7: Ecosystem Disruption 

Units to use as illustrative examples

1. • The Immune System
   • Neurons and the Nervous System
   • Transpiration and Water Transport in Plants

Course Level Materials

1. AP Biology Agendas (weekly lesson plans with student assignments)
   1. 2019-2020 Weekly Agendas (starting August, 2019)
   2. 2018-19 weekly agendas (2018-2019)
2. Study Questions (guided questions for reading)
   1. Campbell, Biology in Focus, 2^nd Edition, mapped to new (2019) framework
   2. Campbell, Biology, 9th Edition
3. The College Board’s 2019 Course Outline (from the course and exam description)
4. AP Bio Course Review Headquarters (cumulative multiple choice and FRQ quizzes, vocabulary builders, etc.)
5. If you’re a teacher, follow this link for yearly planning materials.