Course Title:  Honors Biology

2 semesters – 10 credits – 5 class periods per week

 
Course Description
Honors Biology is constructed to move at an accelerated pace so that not only are college preparatory biology subjects (including the cell, DNA and RNA, protein synthesis, genetics, evolution, ecology, microorganisms, botany, and zoology) covered at a greater depth, but additional topics of study are added.  These topics include chemical bonding theories, molecular biology, protein synthesis, the lac operon, genetic probability, vertebrate dissections, comparative anatomy, and human anatomy.  Students cover an additional eight chapters in the standard text.  All of these content areas are taught with an emphasis on helping the student to think critically, express ideas clearly, and find patterns and relationships within the field of biology.  Students are required to complete numerous laboratory exercises and reports, show competency on the microscope and various other pieces of laboratory equipment.  Utilizing current biological, ecological or medical issues, students in Honors Biology are required to submit a five to seven page research paper, written in MLA format, including an outline,  illustrations, and works cited.  This research is then presented to the class.  Evaluative tools administered in Honors Biology are challenging and include comprehensive question strategies encompassing experiment design, critical thinking and analysis type questions. 
 
Students in Honors Biology spend on average one day per week in the laboratory.  In addition to the standard biology labs, Honors Biology students conduct additional dissections, microscope work and DNA extractions.  Students are required to type full lab reports including title, purpose, materials, procedure, data and conclusions.  All illustrations must follow strict guidelines for scientific drawings. 
 
Both semesters conclude with comprehensive written final exams.  Additionally, second semester includes a comprehensive lab practical covering all major kingdoms and phyla of living organisms.
 
Course Objectives
That the students would be able to:

1. Recognize that God calls us to be consistent discoverers of His eternal truths which are revealed through the laws of chemistry which helps to understand and explain biological processes.1 Cor. 4:1
2. God, through Jesus Christ, is the creator and sustainer of all things for His glory and purpose. This is shown in his perfect creation of the cell and its organelles.   Heb. 1:3; Jn 1; 1Col. 1:15; Gen. 1
3. Identify that God operates consistent to his character through homeostasis which maintains a stable internal bodily environment. Isa. 55:9
4. Understand and demonstrate the skills necessary to do scientific inquiry.
5. Students demonstrate scientific skills in a lab setting.
6. Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium and the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.
7.  Students know usable energy is captured from sunlight by chloroplasts and is stored through the synthesis of sugar from carbon dioxide.
8. Explains how equilibrium is established as a result of passive transport.
9. Explain how substances cross the cell membrane through passive and active transport.
10. Students know the role of the mitochondria in making stored chemical-bond energy available to cells by completing the breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide.
11. Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides, nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.
12. Students know cells are enclosed within semi permeable membranes that regulate their interaction with their surroundings.
13. Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells and viruses differ in complexity and general structure.
14. Students know the role of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in the secretion of proteins.
15. Students know how eukaryotic cells are given shape and internal organization by a cytoskeleton or cell wall or both.
16.  God, through Jesus Christ, is the creator and sustainer of all things for His glory and purpose. Colossians 1:16 & 17. Students know meiosis is an early step in sexual reproduction in which the pairs of chromosomes separate and segregate randomly during cell division to produce gametes containing one chromosome of each type.  Students know only certain cells in a multicellular organism undergo meiosis.
17.  Students know how random chromosome segregation explains the probability that a particular allele will be in a gamete.
18.  Students know new combinations of alleles may be generated in a zygote through the fusion of male and female gametes (fertilization).
19. Recognize that God calls us to be consistent discoverers of His eternal truths which are revealed through knowing why approximately half of an individual’s DNA sequence comes from each parent. 1Cor. 4:1
20. Students know the role of chromosomes in determining an individual’s sex.
21. Students know how to predict possible combinations of alleles in a zygote from the genetic makeup of the parents.
22. Students know how to predict the probable outcome of phenotypes in a genetic cross from the genotypes of the parents and mode of inheritance (autosomal or X-linked, dominant or recessive).
23. Students know the genetic basis for Mendel’s laws of segregation and independent assortment.
24. Students know how to predict the probable mode of inheritance from a pedigree diagram showing phenotypes.
25. Students know the general pathway by which ribosomes synthesize proteins, using tRNAs to translate genetic information in mRNA.
26. Students know how to apply the genetic coding rules to predict the sequence of amino acids from a sequence of codons in RNA.
27. Students recognize that mankind is totally depraved and his sinful nature is seen throughout history. Romans 3:23. This is evidence in process of cloning genetic engineering practices.
28. Students know how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may or may not affect the expression of the gene or the sequence of amino acids in an encoded protein.
29. Students know specialization of cells in multicellular organisms is usually due to different patterns of gene expression rather than to differences of the genes themselves.
30. Students know proteins can differ from one another in the number and sequence of amino acids.
31. Students know why proteins having different amino acid sequences typically have different shapes and chemical properties.
32. Students know the general structures and functions of DNA, RNA, and protein.
33. Students know how to apply base-pairing rules to explain precise copying of DNA during replication and transcription of information from DNA into mRNA.
34. Students recognize that Mankind is totally depraved and his sinful nature is seen through defining and understanding Evolution. Psalm 51:5
35. God operates consistent to his character and God called us to be consistent discoverers of His truths which are revealed through his creation, his word, and Son. Psalm 1:3,  Job 38:1-7
36. God called us to be faithful stewards of his mysteries. God called us to learn, be able to articulate and understand Darwin’s two major theories and be faithful to spread the message by using bible verses to support creation. Job 38:28-30
37. Explain the short-day, long-day, and gap theories.
38. God, through Jesus Christ, is the creator and sustainer of all things for His glory and purpose. Refer to scripture in order to provide support for their beliefs. Genesis chapter 1-6
39. Students know the theory of natural selection.
40. Students know variation within a species increases the likelihood that at least some members of a species will survive under changed environmental conditions.
41. Define spontaneous generation. Describe how Pasteur’s experiment disproved the hypothesis of spontaneous generation.
42. Students know creation and are able to Refer to scripture in order to provide support for their beliefs. Proverbs 2:6-10, Leviticus 25:3-5
43. Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of habitats.
44. God called us to be faithful stewards of his mysteries. 1 Chronicles 29:11.Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.
45. Students know how fluctuations in population size in an ecosystem are determined by the relative rates of birth, immigration, emigration,and death.
46. God operate consistent to his character through knowing how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.
47. Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the stability of its producers and decomposers.
48. Students know at each link in a food web some energy is stored in newly made structures but much energy is dissipated into the environment as heat. This dissipation may be represented in an energy pyramid.
49. Students know how to distinguish between the accommodation of an individual organism to its environment and the gradual adaptation of a lineage of organisms through genetic change.
50. Describe ways that people use plants.
51. List three plants that are widely used as medicines.
52. Describe the three kinds of plant cells.
53. Differentiate between primary and secondary growth.
54. List the three major functions of roots.
55. Describe the differences between monocot stems and dicot stems.
56. List five differences and five similarities between the structure of roots and the structure of stems.
57. Describe the tissues that make up the internal structure of a leaf.
58. Describe the different types of plant responses.
59. Define bacteria, eubacteria, and archaebacteria, and note the relationships between them.
60. Describe the structure of a bacterial cells and bacteriophage.
61. God operate consistent to his character. Discuss a classification scheme used to identify protozoa.
62. Explain how algae differ from plants.
63. List the characteristics that distinguish the three phyla of fungi.
64. Define the terms invertebrate and vertebrate.
65. Describe the basic body plan of a sponge, and its process of filter feeding.
66. God called us to be consistent discoverers of his truths which are revealed through his creation.  Describe the anatomy of an earthworm.
67. Name the characteristics of four major classes of mollusks. Identify the major organs in a squid.
68.  God through Christ is the creator of all things for his glory and purpose. Describe the distinguishing characteristics of arthropods. Identify the major organs in a crayfish.
69. List the characteristics that distinguish echinoderms from other phyla. Identify the major structures in a sea star.
70. Know how to classify vertebrates
71. Successfully take the Lab Practical test.
72. Distinguish between the three types of muscle tissues.
73. Trace the flow of blood through the heart and body.
74. Distinguish between arteries, veins, and capillaries in terms of their structure and function.
75. Trace the passage of air from the environment to the bloodstream.
76. List and identify the major organs of the digestive system.
77. Identify the two main organs of the central nervous system.

 
 
Textbooks:
Modern Biology(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2002). ISBN # 0-03-056541-3
 
 
Required Materials:
                Textbook            
                Pen and pencil
                Ruler
                Calculator
                3 ring notebook with tabs
                Colored pencils or markers
 
Prerequisites:
 

• Open to students in grade ten and above, however , freshmen in Honors Algebra II are encouraged to take this class.
• By selection: Students interested in taking Honors Biology attend a mandatory informational meeting, take an entrance exam, and the instructor obtains teacher recommendations from two additional faculty members.   A faculty committee then selects those who will be admitted to the class.