Morris, Castignetti, Lepri, and Relyea Biology for the AP® Course, 1^st edition

©2022 W.H. Freeman and Company/BFW

Learning Goals

• LG 0.1

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• LG 0.2

Four Big Ideas form a fundamental basis for understanding biology.

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Scientific inquiry is a deliberate way of asking and answering questions about nature.

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LG 0.1 Four Big Ideas form a fundamental basis for understanding biology.

Big Idea 1: Evolution: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

LG 0.1 Four Big Ideas form a fundamental basis for understanding biology.

Big Idea 2: Energetics: Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis.

LG 0.1 Four Big Ideas form a fundamental basis for understanding biology.

Big Idea 3: Information storage and transmission: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes

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LG 0.1 Four Big Ideas form a fundamental basis for understanding biology.

Big Idea 4: Systems Interactions : Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions exhibit complex properties

How can we relate these 4 ideas to an oak tree in the forest?

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LG 0.2 Scientific inquiry is a deliberate way of asking and answering questions about nature.

• Scientific inquiry involves making observations, asking questions, doing experiments or making further observations, and drawing and sharing conclusions.
• Observations are used to generate a hypothesis, a tentative explanation that makes predictions that can be tested.

LG 0.2 Scientific inquiry is a deliberate way of asking and answering questions about nature.

• A controlled experiment involves different groups in which all the conditions are the same except for a single variable. In the test group, a variable is deliberately introduced to determine whether that variable has an effect. In the control group, the variable is not introduced.
• The independent variable in a controlled experiment is the factor that is changed by the researcher; the dependent variable is the effect or result that is being observed or measured.

James Kirkham Ramsbottom used the process of scientific inquiry to figure out what was causing the death of daffodils. Organize the description of his experiment by identifying the following:

1. The scientific (testable) question

2. The hypothesis

3. The independent variable

4. The dependent variable

5. The experimental group

6. The control group

Your Turn

The emerald ash borer is an invasive species that has destroyed ash tree populations in North America. Before the insect arrived, one forest contained 300 ash trees. A number of years after the ash borer was introduced to the area, only 60 ash trees remained. By what percent did the ash tree population decrease?

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Formula for % change:

LG 0.2 Scientific inquiry is a deliberate way of asking and answering questions about nature.

• The null hypothesis predicts that an intervention or treatment in an experiment will have no effect.

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• The alternative hypothesis predicts that the intervention or treatment will have an effect.

LG 0.2 Scientific inquiry is a deliberate way of asking and answering questions about nature.

• Hypotheses cannot be proven, but they can be modified or rejected based on observation or experiments.
• If a hypothesis is supported by continued observation and experiments over time, it is elevated to a theory, a sound and broad explanation of some aspect of the world.

Normal Distribution

• Distribution: The spread of all the numbers in an experimental result.
• Normal Distribution: Graph with a smooth, bell-shaped curve.
• In a normal distribution, the mean, median, and mode are all the same value.