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Contemplanda course syllabus

AP® Biology

A Contemplanda online course.

This course follows the College Board's published AP Biology framework.

AP® Biology is an introductory college-level biology course. The College Board's framework covers evolution, cellular processes, energy and communication, genetic information transfer, ecology, and interactions, and it focuses on essential concepts and the content that supports them more than on factual recall. It encourages students to develop inquiry and reasoning skills, such as designing a plan for collecting data, analyzing data, applying mathematical routines, and justifying arguments using evidence.

The College Board describes AP Biology as the equivalent of a two-semester introductory college biology course for biology majors.

The College Board's AP Biology framework has eight units, arranged in a sequence frequently found in college courses and textbooks, and the AP Exam assesses all eight. The framework sets out what colleges and universities expect students to know and be able to do to qualify for college credit or placement.

Course at a glance

Course title
AP Biology
Publisher
Contemplanda
Framework
Follows the College Board's published AP Biology framework
Structure
10 units over two semesters: 8 content units (1, 2, 3, and 4 in semester 1; 5, 6, 7, and 8 in semester 2) and 2 practice AP exams
Lessons
78 lessons
Credit
Not awarded by Contemplanda
Enrollment
Purchasing is not open yet
Course page
www.contemplanda.com/courses/ap-biology

Credit and enrollment

Contemplanda does not award high school credit. A student who wants credit for the course should ask their own school whether it will accept it.

Under College Board rules, a course may carry the AP designation on a student's transcript only if it is authorized through the College Board's AP Course Audit.

Purchasing is not open yet. Questions about enrolling can go to info@contemplanda.com.

Students who are already enrolled sign in at direct.contemplanda.com.

How the course works

  • Each topic lesson combines written explanations, practice, and graded checks.
  • Practice comes one question at a time and continues until the student answers four in a row correctly. After a wrong answer, the practice keeps drawing questions.
  • Many questions have hints that open one step at a time. When a question has one, the next hint is offered after a wrong answer. An answer given after opening a hint counts in full toward the practice streak and the mastery levels, but the top level, mastered, also requires at least one graded question answered correctly without opening a hint.
  • Answers take many forms: items sorted into categories; items matched in pairs; steps and stages put in order; parts of a diagram labeled or identified by number; points and intervals marked on a graph; Punnett squares filled in and pedigree charts read; chi-square tests worked from observed and expected counts; the means of two groups compared from repeated measurements; models of biological processes built, run, or read; checks on written free-response answers, made from given choices; and multiple-choice and numeric answers.
  • Every topic lesson has a graded check whose questions are drawn for each student from a pool.
  • Every figure has a written text description.

Recommended preparation

The College Board expects students to have successfully completed high school courses in biology and chemistry before AP Biology.

Units and lessons

Every published lesson, by semester and unit.

Topic numbers are the College Board's: topic 6.3 is unit 6, topic 3.

Semester 1

College Board unit 1: Chemistry of Life

Assessed on the AP Exam

The properties of water that come from its polarity and hydrogen bonding, and how they affect its biological function; the elements that make up the macromolecules living organisms need; how dehydration synthesis and hydrolysis build and break biological polymers; and the structure and function of carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins.

1
Chemistry of life
Topics 1.1 to 1.7
  1. 11.1 Structure of water and hydrogen bonding
  2. 21.2 Elements of life
  3. 31.3 Introduction to macromolecules
  4. 41.4 Carbohydrates
  5. 51.5 Lipids
  6. 61.6 Nucleic acids
  7. 71.7 Proteins
  8. 8Designing a biological experiment

College Board unit 2: Cells

Assessed on the AP Exam

How subcellular components and organelles contribute to the function of cells; how surface area-to-volume ratios affect the exchange of materials with the environment; the fluid mosaic model of the plasma membrane, selective permeability, and the cell wall; membrane transport, facilitated diffusion, tonicity, and osmoregulation; and compartmentalization in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, with the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts by endosymbiosis.

2
Cells
Topics 2.1 to 2.10
  1. 12.1 Cell structure and function
  2. 22.2 Cell size
  3. 32.3 Plasma membrane
  4. 42.4 Membrane permeability
  5. 52.5 Membrane transport
  6. 62.6 Facilitated diffusion
  7. 72.7 Tonicity and osmoregulation
  8. 82.8 Mechanisms of transport
  9. 92.9 Cell compartmentalization
  10. 102.10 Origins of cell compartmentalization

College Board unit 3: Cellular Energetics

Assessed on the AP Exam

How enzymes affect the rate of biological reactions, and how changes to an enzyme's structure and to the cellular environment affect its activity; the role of energy in living organisms; and how cells capture energy from light in photosynthesis and obtain energy from biological macromolecules in cellular respiration, with the structural features of the chloroplast and the mitochondrion that make each possible.

3
Cellular energetics
Topics 3.1 to 3.5
  1. 13.1 Enzymes
  2. 23.2 Environmental impacts on enzyme function
  3. 33.3 Cellular energy
  4. 43.4 Photosynthesis
  5. 53.5a Cellular respiration: harvesting energy from glucose
  6. 63.5b Cellular respiration: fermentation

College Board unit 4: Cell Communication and Cell Cycle

Assessed on the AP Exam

The ways cells communicate with one another, near and at a distance; the components of signal transduction pathways and the cellular responses they produce; how positive and negative feedback help maintain homeostasis; and the events of the cell cycle and mitosis, the checkpoints that regulate the cycle, and the effects of disruptions to it.

4
Cell communication and cell cycle
Topics 4.1 to 4.6
  1. 14.1 Cell communication
  2. 24.2 Introduction to signal transduction
  3. 34.3 Signal transduction pathways
  4. 44.4 Feedback
  5. 54.5 Cell cycle
  6. 6Free-response workshop: experiments, data and graphs
  7. 74.6 Regulation of cell cycle

Semester 2

College Board unit 5: Heredity

Assessed on the AP Exam

How meiosis transmits chromosomes from one generation to the next and generates genetic diversity, and how its phases and outcomes compare with those of mitosis; the inheritance of genes and traits under Mendel's laws, and patterns of inheritance that deviate from Mendel's model; and how the same genotype can result in different phenotypes under different environmental conditions.

5
Heredity
Topics 5.1 to 5.5
  1. 15.1 Meiosis
  2. 25.2 Meiosis and genetic diversity
  3. 35.3a Mendelian genetics: Punnett squares and pedigrees
  4. 45.3b Mendelian genetics: probability and dihybrid crosses
  5. 55.4a Non-Mendelian genetics: dominance, multiple alleles, and polygenic traits
  6. 65.4b Non-Mendelian genetics: chi-square, sex linkage, and linked genes
  7. 75.5 Environmental effects on phenotype

College Board unit 6: Gene Expression and Regulation

Assessed on the AP Exam

The structures of DNA and RNA and the characteristics that let DNA serve as hereditary material; DNA replication; how genetic information flows from DNA to RNA to protein, including RNA processing; how gene expression is regulated and how its regulation produces differences between cells and organisms; the types of mutation and how changes in genotype can change phenotype; and genetic engineering techniques for analyzing and manipulating DNA.

6
Gene expression and regulation
Topics 6.1 to 6.8
  1. 16.1 DNA and RNA structure
  2. 26.2 DNA replication
  3. 36.3 Transcription and RNA processing
  4. 46.4 Translation
  5. 56.5 Regulation of gene expression
  6. 66.6 Gene expression and cell specialization
  7. 76.7 Mutations
  8. 86.8 Biotechnology

College Board unit 7: Natural Selection

Assessed on the AP Exam

The causes of natural selection and its effects on populations; how humans affect diversity through artificial selection; how random processes such as mutation and genetic drift change the genetic makeup of a population, and the conditions under which allele and genotype frequencies change; the morphological, biochemical, and geological evidence for evolution, and the structural and functional evidence for the common ancestry of all eukaryotes; evolution as an ongoing process; phylogenetic trees and cladograms; speciation; how genetic diversity affects a population's ability to withstand environmental pressures; and models of the origin of life on Earth.

7
Natural selection
Topics 7.1 to 7.12
  1. 17.1 Introduction to natural selection
  2. 27.2 Natural selection
  3. 37.3 Artificial selection
  4. 47.4 Population genetics
  5. 57.5 Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
  6. 67.6 Evidence of evolution
  7. 77.7 Common ancestry
  8. 87.8 Continuing evolution
  9. 97.9 Phylogeny
  10. 107.10 Speciation
  11. 117.11 Variations in populations
  12. 12Free-response workshop: scientific investigations and conceptual analysis
  13. 137.12 Origins of life on Earth

College Board unit 8: Ecology

Assessed on the AP Exam

How organisms respond to changes in their environment and how their behavior affects fitness; the strategies organisms use to acquire energy, and how energy flows and matter cycles through trophic levels; the growth of populations and the effects of density and resource availability; the structure of communities and the interactions within and among populations; biodiversity and the resilience of ecosystems; and how invasive species, human activities, and geological and meteorological events change ecosystems.

8
Ecology
Topics 8.1 to 8.7
  1. 18.1 Responses to the environment
  2. 28.2 Energy flow through ecosystems
  3. 38.3 Population ecology
  4. 48.4 Effect of density on populations
  5. 58.5 Community ecology
  6. 68.6 Biodiversity
  7. 7Free-response workshop: analyzing models and data
  8. 8Free-response practice set: all six question types
  9. 98.7 Disruptions in ecosystems
Exam

AP practice exam 1

  1. Practice exam 1, part 1: multiple choice
  2. Practice exam 1, part 2: multiple choice
  3. Practice exam 1, part 3: free response
  4. Practice exam 1, part 4: free response
  5. Practice exam 1, part 5: scoring and corrections12 questions

Covers units 1 to 8.

Exam

AP practice exam 2

  1. Practice exam 2, part 1: multiple choice
  2. Practice exam 2, part 2: multiple choice
  3. Practice exam 2, part 3: free response
  4. Practice exam 2, part 4: free response
  5. Practice exam 2, part 5: scoring and corrections12 questions

Covers units 1 to 8.

Science practices

The College Board names six science practices for AP Biology, which students develop during the course and which form the basis of the tasks on the AP Exam. All six are assessed in both the multiple-choice and the free-response sections.

1Concept Explanation

Explaining biological concepts and processes presented in written format.

1.A
Describe biological concepts and processes.
1.B
Explain biological concepts and processes.
1.C
Explain biological concepts and processes in applied contexts.

2Visual Representations

Analyzing visual representations of biological concepts and processes.

2.A
Describe characteristics of visual representations of biological concepts and processes.
2.B
Explain relationships between characteristics of biological models in both theoretical and applied contexts.
2.C
Explain how biological models relate to larger principles, concepts, processes, systems, or theories.
2.D
Represent relationships within biological models, including mathematical models, diagrams, flowcharts, and systems.

3Questions and Methods

Determining scientific questions and methods.

3.A
Identify or pose a testable question based on an observation, data, or a model.
3.B
State the null hypothesis or predict the results of an experiment.
3.C
Identify experimental procedures that align with the question.
3.D
Propose a new investigation based on an evaluation of the experimental design or evidence.

4Representing and Describing Data

Representing and describing data.

4.A
Construct a graph to represent the data, including: x-y graphs (bar, histogram, line, log scale, dual y), scatter plot, box and whisker plot, and pie chart.
4.B
Describe data from a table or graph.

5Statistical Tests and Data Analysis

Performing statistical tests and mathematical calculations to analyze and interpret data.

5.A
Perform mathematical calculations.
5.B
Use confidence intervals and error bars to estimate whether sample means are statistically different.
5.C
Perform chi-square hypothesis testing.
5.D
Use data to evaluate a hypothesis or prediction, including rejecting or failing to reject the null hypothesis.

6Argumentation

Developing and justifying scientific arguments using evidence.

6.A
Make a scientific claim.
6.B
Support a claim with evidence from biological principles, concepts, processes, and data.
6.C
Provide reasoning to justify a claim by connecting evidence to biological theories.
6.D
Explain the relationship between experimental results and larger biological concepts, processes, or theories.
6.E
Predict the causes or effects of a change in, or disruption to, one or more components in a biological system.

Four big ideas run through the College Board's framework as crosscutting concepts: evolution, energetics, information storage and transmission, and systems interactions. Evolution drives the diversity and unity of life; living systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis; they store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes; and biological systems and their interactions exhibit complex properties.

Assessment

Each topic lesson includes graded checks.

Graded questions are scored automatically, and all graded work counts toward the student's mastery record, which shows each skill as attempted, familiar, proficient, or mastered.

Contemplanda publishes no grade weighting for this course. A school that decides to grant credit for it also decides how the work counts toward a grade.

Academic integrity

Work in the course must be the student's own.

Answer keys for graded questions are never sent to the student's device.

Calculator

The College Board's framework asks students to perform statistical tests and mathematical calculations to analyze and interpret data, and a calculator is allowed on both sections of the AP Biology Exam. The course and exam description includes the AP Biology equations and formulas, which students also have on the exam.

During the school year, the College Board allows students to use computers or graphing calculators to analyze data and present their findings, but it does not require them to. On the AP Exam, graphing calculators are not allowed.

A student preparing for the AP Exam should practice with a calculator of a kind allowed on it, such as the Desmos scientific calculator built into the exam's testing app.

The AP Exam

The AP Biology Exam assesses all eight units and all six science practices. It lasts 3 hours and has two sections.

Section I: Multiple-choice questions

Questions
60
Time
90 minutes
Share of score
50%
Calculator
Four-function or scientific calculator allowed

Section II: Free-response questions

Questions
6
Time
90 minutes
Share of score
50%
Calculator
Four-function or scientific calculator allowed

Under the College Board's calculator policy for 2027, a Desmos scientific calculator is built into the testing app, and students may also bring up to two handheld calculators, each a four-function calculator with a square root function or a scientific calculator. Handheld calculators with storage capabilities, such as graphing calculators, are not allowed.

The first two of the six free-response questions are worth 9 points each and ask students to interpret and evaluate experimental results, the second with graphing. The other four are worth 4 points each: a scientific investigation, a conceptual analysis, an analysis of a model or visual representation of a biological concept or process, and an analysis of data. Each of the four focuses on a different big idea and a different unit.

Students answer the multiple-choice questions and read the free-response questions in the College Board's digital testing app, and they handwrite their free-response answers in a paper booklet.

Scores are reported on a scale of 1 to 5.

This is the exam format in effect from the May 2027 exam, as set out in the College Board's course and exam description for fall 2025 and its clarifications and corrections.

The AP Exam is given in schools in May.

A student who takes the AP Exam at a school other than the one where they take the course, or who takes the exam without taking the course, gets a join code from the AP coordinator at the school where they will test and joins an exam-only section there.

Materials and technology

Where the course runs
In a web browser, through Contemplanda Direct
AP Exam calculator
Four-function or scientific calculator allowed
Textbook
None required. The course's own lessons are the text.
Course framework
apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-biology

Published at www.contemplanda.com/courses/ap-biology/syllabus

Units, lessons, and counts in this syllabus are generated from the published course.

Questions: info@contemplanda.com

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