LABORATORY REQUIREMENT: Students who take this course spend a minimum of 30% of their time engaged in laboratory exercises. All DoDEA science courses have this minimum 30% time period for laboratory exercises.

Major Concepts/Content: Biology is designed to provide students with an integrated approach to the study of living organisms, in addition to science as inquiry, science & technology, science & social perspectives, and the history & nature of science.  The course integrates unifying science concepts and processes of systems, order & organization, evidence, models & explanation, change, consistency & equilibrium; and form & function. 

Scientific inquiry and understanding about inquiry are emphasized through practical implications and meaningful applications. 

Major Instructional Activities: Based on the philosophy that scientific knowledge is best acquired through inquiry, the course uses a variety of techniques to introduce, stimulate, explore, and reinforce major scientific concepts, theories, principles, and skills.

Instructional activities are staged in appropriate settings.  They include laboratories, classrooms, forms of technology, and field studies.  Teaching strategies include investigations, demonstrations, discussions, and hands-on/minds-on experiences.

Major Evaluation Techniques: All aspects (e.g., ability to inquire, scientific understanding of the natural world, and understanding of the nature and utility of science) of progress in science are measured using multiple methods such as individual and group performances, projects, interviews, reports, student-generated works, and/or conventional testing.

Essential Objectives: Upon completion of Biology, students should be able to:

• Engage in full and partial scientific inquiries to design, conduct, and communicate scientific investigations to explore ideas about the natural world.
• Use scientific inquiry to design and conduct scientific investigations to meet a human need, make a decision, solve a human problem, or develop a product.
• Recognize and describe the interrelationship between science and technology.
• Apply the tools of technology (e.g., computers) in scientific endeavors.
• Identify qualities inherent in scientific behavior (e.g., reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity).
• Discuss contributions of men and women of various social and ethnic backgrounds to science and technology.
• Apply science concepts to make decisions (weighing risks and benefits) about students' personal health and well-being.
• Understand that the cell is the basic unit of structure and function in living organisms.
• Know that characteristics of organisms are specified in DNA, and changes in DNA lead to variation.
• Explain that species evolve over time through the process of natural selection.
• Describe how ecosystems are interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic factors in the environment.
• Identify that living organisms are complex and highly organized, requiring energy and matter to maintain this organization.

Last Revised: April 17, 2007