Biology Objectives

Objective 1:

a. Safety rules and symbols, microscope structure and function measurements, and lab equipment

b. Formulate questions that can be answered through research design

c. Apply scientific method in labs

d. Construct and analyze graphs

e. Analyze procedures, data, and conclusions to determine scientific validity of research

f. Recognize and analyze alternative explanations for experimental results and make predictions based on observations and prior knowledge.

g. Communicate and defend a scientific argument in oral, written, and graphic form.

Objective 2:

  1. Atoms and types of chemical bonds
  2. Properties of water as a central component of living systems
  3. pH scale and classify acids and bases
  4. Compare and contrast organic compounds
  5. Enzymes structure and function
  6. ATP structure and function
  7. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration

Objective 3:

  1. Biomes
  2. Examples of interdependence among environmental elements
  3. Examine and evaluate the significance of natural events and human activities on major ecosystems.

Objective 4:

  1. Differentiate among plant and animal cells and eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells (cell structure and function)
  2. Differentiate between types of cellular reproduction (the cell cycle and mitosis, meiosis, significance of crossing over, binary fission)
  3. Levels of organization
  4. Explain and describe how plant structures (vascular and nonvascular) and cellular functions are related to the survival of plants.

Objective 5:

  1. DNA and RNA structure, replication, transcription, and translation
  2. Genetics (Mendel’s Laws, Punnett squares, Incomplete and Codominance, sex-linked, and multiple alleles)
  3. Genetic engineering technology
  4. Mutations and genetic diseases

Objective 6:

  1. Classification of organisms, major levels of hierarchy of taxa, body plans, methods of sexual and asexual reproduction
  2. Critique data used by scientist to develop evolutionary patterns (Redi, Spallanzani, Pasteur)
  3. Contributions of scientists that developed the theory of evolution (Darwin, Malthus, Wallace, Lamarck, and Lyell)
  4. Analyze and explain the roles of natural selection mutations, adaptations, geographic isolation) and mechanisms of speciation (pesticide and antibiotic resistance)
  5. Differentiate among chemical evolution and organic evolution, and the evolutionary steps along the way to aerobic and heterotrophs and photosynthetic autotrophs.