Honors Biology is an accelerated comprehensive laboratory course designed to give students a more conceptual and in-depth understanding of life processes. Students will apply science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to explain how organisms adapt to meet the challenges of living in their environment, and to demonstrate the relationships between structure and function and change over time. Scientific discussions, and phenomena based instruction will be the hallmark of this course. Students will engage in the practices of science and engineering to construct their understanding of the process of evolution and its relationship to the diversity and unity of life; the use of free energy by biological systems to grow, reproduce, and maintain homeostasis; the storage retrieval, transmission, and response of living systems to information essential to life processes; and the interaction of biological systems. Active and extensive engagement in independent research, quarterly engineering projects, and laboratory work including the design of experiments are fundamental to the course. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be prepared for enrollment in Advanced Placement Chemistry and/or Advanced Placement Biology. Note: Animals will be dissected in this course. Alternatives to dissection are available.
