1. Select a seat - that will be your seat for the year 
Welcome to AP Biology
Select a seat - that will be your seat for the year 

2. New Curriculum Focus on 4 Big Ideas in Biology
The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life
Biological Systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis
Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes
Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties

3. New Curriculum Focus on 7 science practices
The student can use representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems
The student can use mathematics appropriately
The student can engage in scientific questioning to extend thinking or to guide investigations within the context of the AP course
The student can plan and implement data collection strategies appropriate to a particular scientific question

4. New Curriculum
Science practices continued….
5. The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence
6. The student can work with scientific explanations and theories
7. The student is able to connect and relate knowledge across various scales, concepts, and representations in and across domains

5. New Curriculum Focus on Inquiry Laboratory Experiences
25% of the class is required to be spent in lab
Many labs have multiple components, one of which will be inquiry
Required to do a minimum of two AP bio labs per Big Idea

6. Laboratory Experience
Work in small groups of 2 to 4 people
Each person is required to have a Lab Log book (can be purchased at Staples for $1)
Information reported via log book, lab report, and/or mini poster

7. Break
Getting to know you…

8. “The Test” Last year my class average was 3.818!
The year before it was 4.25!!!
For two years in a row everyone who took the test passed – yeah!

9. Changes to the Test Section 1 – 90 minutes
Part A: 63 Multiple Choice (reading intensive but only 4 choices)
Part B: 6 Grid-In (math – formula sheet provided, can use 4 function calculator)
Section 2 – 80 minutes + 10 minute reading period
2 Long Free Response 10pts each (same as old test)
6 Short Free Response 3-4pt and 3-3pt questions (new)

10. New Multiple Choice Style
Section 1 Example:
By discharging electric sparks into a laboratory chamber atmosphere that consisted of water vapor, hydrogen gas, methane, and ammonia, Stanley Miller obtained data that showed that a number of organic molecules, including many amino acids, could be synthesized. Miller was attempting to model early Earth conditions as understood in the 1950s. The results of Miller’s experiments best support which of the following hypotheses?
(A) The molecules essential to life today did not exist at the time Earth was first formed.
(B) The molecules essential to life today could not have been carried to the primordial Earth by a comet or meteorite.
(C) The molecules essential to life today could have formed under early Earth conditions.
(D) The molecules essential to life today were initially self- replicating proteins that were synthesized approximately four billion years ago

11. Section 2 Example: New Math Questions
In a certain species of flowering plant, the purple allele P is dominant to the yellow allele p.
A student performed a cross between a purple-flowered plant and a yellow-flowered plant. When planted, the 146 seeds that were produced from the cross matured into 87 plants with purple flowers and 59 plants with yellow flowers.
Calculate the chi-squared value for the null hypothesis that the purple-flowered parent was heterozygous for the flower-color gene. Give your answer to the nearest tenth.

12. 10 point Free Response
Plants lose water from their aboveground surfaces in the process of transpiration. Most of this water is lost from stomata, microscopic openings in the leaves. Excess water loss can have a negative effect on the growth, development, and reproduction of a plant. Severe water loss can be fatal. Environmental factors have a major impact on the rate of plant transpiration.
TRANSPIRATION RATE VERSUS TEMPERATURE
Temperature (°C)
Transpiration rate (mmol/m2• sec)
Using the data above and the axes provided, draw a graph showing the effect of temperature change on the rate of transpiration. Explain the shape of the curve from 23 degrees to 28 degrees.
Humidity is an environmental factor that affects transpiration rate. Using the axes provided, draw a curve that illustrates what you predict would be the rate of transpiration with increasing humidity and constant temperature. Justify the shape of the curve based on your prediction.
The curve below illustrates the rate of transpiration related to the percent of open stomata on the leaf of a particular plant. Explain why the curve levels off with increasing percentage of open stomata per area of the leaf. (Graph would be present on actual test)
The data below show the density of stomata on the leaf surfaces of three different species of plants. Describe the environments in which each plant most likely evolved. Justify your Descriptions.
Stomata Density (# of stomata/mm2)
Plant In Upper Epidermis In Lower Epidermis
Anacharis
Water lily
Black walnut

13. 3 to 4 point Free Response
Populations of a plant species have been found growing in the mountains at altitudes above 2,500 meters. Populations of a plant that appears similar, with slight differences, have been found in the same mountains at altitudes below 2,300 meters. (a) Describe TWO kinds of data that could be collected to provide a direct answer to the question, do the populations growing above 2,500 meters and the populations growing below 2,300 meters represent a single species? (b) Explain how the data you suggested in part (a) would provide a direct answer to the question.

14. Break
Getting to know you…

15. Expectations for this Class
Desire to learn biology
Complete assignments
Participate in class
1 Research Paper – DNA DAY essay contest
Read “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

16. Grading
Tests and Quizzes 50%
Lab 25%
Projects 15%
Homework 10%

17. Units Intro/Nature of Science & Chemistry/Biochemistry
Cells, Cell Membranes & Cell Transport
Energy, ATP & Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis & Plants
Cellular Reproduction
Genetics
Molecular Genetics / Biotechnology
Evolution
Cell Signaling & Animal Systems
Ecology

18. Textbook
Campbell, Reece, et al., AP Edition Campbell Biology, 9th edition, Benjamin Cummings, 2011.
Pick up book & record book number
On-line access code

19. 1st Homework Assignment
Read Chapter 1 sections 1.1 to 1.4
Complete section summary sheets (minimum of one block per section)
Read & Sign Lab Safety Contract
Get parent/guardian signature on Lab Safety Contract
Due Thursday 8/29/13 – start of class