ap biology homework help

ap biology homework help

Exploring the Key Concepts in Advanced Placement Biology

1. Introduction to AP Biology

The structure of AP Biology allows students to take the AP Exam at what would be the college equivalent of an introductory biology course that is usually taken by freshman biology majors. By taking the exam, students have the opportunity to earn real college credits before even finishing high school. The typical biology major is required to take two introductory biology courses (lecture and laboratory) in college, making the AP Biology Exam a useful option for students who are interested in graduating a year early.

In high schools all over the United States, students often hear about the “Advanced Placement” options available to them upon entering 9th or 10th grade. Somewhat daunted by the prospect of enrolling in college-level courses while still in high school, many students never give it a second thought. That is, until they are given the opportunity to earn college credit for undertaking these advanced courses. Advanced Placement courses include many such options, ranging from physics and calculus to English literature and history. Advanced Placement (AP) Biology is a college freshman-level introductory course for biology majors that covers the foundations of modern biology in a way that is both informative and exciting.

2. Cell Structure and Function

Hooke viewed thin slices of cork, and from them, he derived the term “cells.” In biology, cells are, for the most part, the building blocks of life that are named such due to their resemblance to the cells of a honeycomb. As cells are found in all living things, and they are the smallest unit of life, scientists require a starting concept to use in describing the cell. Hooke’s name, cells, is perfectly appropriate and extremely descriptive. Many cells do indeed look like a honeycomb cut away in such a way as to expose the middle portions of the hexagonal units, which represent the sites of cell-to-cell junctures. Makeup ads promote lip gloss or lipsticks by saying these cosmetics provide healing elements that rebuild and/or refurbish chapped, or wind-burned, lips by acting on their cells.

In the mid-1600s, Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used the newly formulating microscopes to examine things that were not visible to the naked eye. Each of their discoveries led to naming certain structures in nature. Most of these off-the-cuff names were intended to help the scientists describe the object to others, and they were not meant to serve for longer than it would have taken to submit the findings to the scientific community. However, the names are with us still. The reason for that is that today we know these objects by different names, or no name at all.

3. Genetics and Heredity

Some alleles mask the presence of some other alleles. In these cases, one allele is said to be dominant, and the allele that is masked is said to be recessive. A monohybrid cross is a cross in which parents differ in just one characteristic. Since transmission of alleles from the parents is governed by the process of independent assortment, there are common rules for the ratio of genotypes and the ratio of phenotypes expected in a given generation of offspring. In a familial pedigree, the patient is usually the individual who seeks advice from a physician. When a gene is needed for development, but a working copy is missing, a family’s pedigree can exhibit a variety of distinct patterns, depending on whether the gene’s alleles are dominant or recessive. The rules for determining the probability of family patterns can be used to assist you in determining the probability of a given family pedigree.

Inheritance is the process by which an offspring receives its genetic information from its parents. Because of error introduction during meiosis, each individual in a population is unique and carries a unique combination of traits. The structure of DNA makes it the information unit in cells, and alleles (multiple forms of a gene) represent the unit of information that codes for a trait. Alleles at a single locus (location) can interact in different ways to produce genotypes (the genetic makeup of an individual) and phenotypes (the observable traits of an individual). Genotypes are written to represent syngamea = true breeding or heterozygous (not true-breeding) conditions based on the alleles present.

4. Evolution and Natural Selection

According to Ernst Mayr, the fundamental homeostatic mechanism of living beings is reproduction. The chemistry of ancient and present-day enzymes, which catalyze the chemical reactions in life, have common enzymatic cycles. Pre-biotic Earth had its stage in the universe and had geological (and cosmological) processes and forces that could drive these processes. Indeed, life that we know of used the same biochemical processes, rather than novel or other processes. If we came across a species that used drastically different types of processes, we would find it difficult to describe and understand. Biochemical preparedness is here explored considering protocols and pathways present in present-day lineages of living beings.

The idea of biological evolution hinges on the cosmic concept of a universally valid physical process. The fact that every living being uses the same biochemical processes (e.g. the genetic code) is evidence that life — though not necessarily the same species of living beings — used common processes and enzymes to grow and perpetuate itself. The light, chemical energy, and organic compounds used by cells to grow and perpetuate life used the same elemental constituents and forces disseminated in the universe. All evidence observed to date is consistent with a universe that had a fixed birth and is evolving. It had a beginning with the Planck time ago and has been evolving.

5. Ecology and Environmental Science

Reflection on Practices and Themes: A. Science thrives on openness and transparency, and this course has been designed to reflect this central scientific tenet. B. Through qualification, quantification, and probability, uncertainty in scientific conclusions can be determined, which in turn can be communicated to permit decisions regarding the context in which the science is applied. C. The impact of human activity on the Earth’s environment is a major focus of study in the course. Data are available that provide information about this impact and associated societal implications.

Ecology and environmental science are the areas of biology that focus on the interactions of organisms and their environment. This chapter will cover ecological concepts and the influence that humans are having on the environment at local, regional, and global levels. It is recommended that students working toward success in AP Biology use the top 10 concepts at the end of the chapter to assess their understanding. The seven big ideas described in the AP Biology Curriculum Framework will be covered in this chapter.