BIOLOGY

Course Description:
Biology is a junior-level (11th grade) laboratory science course at Loyola High School. Biology builds on and applies the concepts students have learned in Chemistry and Physics courses, taken during the ninth and tenth grades. Four major conceptual areas of life science are investigated: 1. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2. Genetics, 3. Evolution, and 4. Ecology. The Molecular/Cellular Biology unit involves students in an investigation of how the individual and collective actions of molecules organize and accomplish the activities of cells. In the Genetics unit, students uncover the role of genes in living organisms. The Evolution unit challenges students to examine Earth’s rich biodiversity and inquire into how life has changed and continues to change on Earth. In the Ecology unit, students investigate the complex interactions between living things and their physical environment. Students also examine the role of humans as stewards of nature. Through a Jesuit Education process these four areas of Biology are used to explore real, relevant and engaging issues. This curriculum allows students to more fully understand the nature of science, the role of humans in the natural world, and to effectively pursue higher levels of science.

TEXT: //Insights in Biology.// Education Development Center Inc. (EDC) 2nd ed. 2007. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company Dubuque, Iowa.
Chosen for it's embedded inquiry, learning experiences, great labs and accessible reading level for all students.

Instructional Methodology:
This course is taught in an inquiry format. All instructional activities are student centered, that is, they are aimed at students applying the scientific practices to scientific questions posed in each unit. Students will begin by drawing on their understanding, skills, and knowledge from their previous experience. They identify and challenge their misconceptions through peer discussions and evaluation of empirical data. Students engage in activities, using the science and engineering practices, then reflect on how their observations can address an explanation of the questions posed for the unit. These understandings are stated and further evaluated and modified after each activity. Students conduct long-term projects, some of which are laboratory investigations, to test their own understanding of the explanations and concepts they learn. Each unit culminates in a performance task where students demonstrate their understandings of content learned in the course.

What Scientists Do
 * Science and Engineering Practices**
 * 1) Ask questions (for science) and define problems (for engineering)
 * 2) Develop and use models
 * 3) Plan and carrying out investigations
 * 4) Analyze and interpret data
 * 5) Use mathematics and computational thinking
 * 6) Construct explanations (for science) and design solutions (for engineering)
 * 7) Engage in argument from evidence
 * 8) Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information

Methods of Evaluation:
Students answer questions, complete weekly quizzes, unit tests, laboratory reports, and critiques of written articles, classroom and laboratory notebooks, and performance tasks. All of these are used as formative assessment during a unit of study as a student builds a body of work so that mastery of the concepts and skills can be demonstrated on the summative mid-term and semester final exams, laboratory papers, and performance tasks.

Laboratory Experience:
Students will develop their conceptual understanding of the living world by laboratory investigation. Several of the units will employ long-term laboratory study. Ecology is explored while maintaining and monitoring an eco-column laboratory self-contained ecosystem. Evolution is examined while students are carrying out comparative dissection of animal specimens and comparing them to fossils. Genetics is investigated while following several generations of fruit flies and examining their traits to gain clues to their genes and gene functions. Cells are studied by gathering and observing them from a living plant that students grow and observe. Students will gain skill in gathering, organizing, and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data about living things. They identify patterns and trends, test their ideas, and compare their results with those of others. Students will evaluate all of their understandings of the living word in light of their own data and that of practicing scientists.

Course Development: 2007-2008.
===Course development was guided by Wiggins and McTighe in "Understanding by Design, 2nd edition." We employed the Three Stages of "Backwards Design": Stage One - Identifying Desired Results; Stage Two - Determine Acceptable Evidence; Stage Three - Plan Learning Experiences.===

__Important definitions (according to Wiggins and McTighe)__

 * 1) **Established Goals** = formal, long-term goals, such as state content standards. Typically they refer to a complex mixture of academic aims: factual, conceptual, procedural, dispositional, and habits-of-mind. Here's where we make clear which national or state standards we are addressing.
 * 2) **Essential Questions** = highlight Big Ideas that are central to the design, ideas that the work will require students to address. Good questions have no final resolution. //Seriously pursuing the questions will be what the inquiry in this unit is all about,// it will not be coming up with final, complete answers (biologists are still working on these questions!). This will mark our focus on //genuine inquiry - discussion, reflection, problem solving, research, and debate//. An example might be How did the diversity of life develop on Earth? What has and does cause the kinds of living things on earth to change?
 * 3) **Understandings** = the desired results of any inquiries and reflection on activity we seek to engineer for our learners. They are the constructivist result of attempts by students to make sense of the work and lessons, inquiry and performance. An example might be "The significance of phenotypic and genotypic variation to evolution"
 * 4) **Knowledge** = summarize the relatively straight forward facts and concepts that are to be gained from the learning activities. An example might be: "Describe and illustrate Independent assortment and crossing over of chromosomes and chromatids during meiosis"
 * 5) **Skill** = not only discrete techniques, but also complex procedures and methods. Such as ability to set up, view, and describe plant tissue on a wet mount slide.