AP Biology

AP Biology

Develop a conceptual framework of Biology ac science....
concepts and discoveries rather than simply memorizing terms and technical details and routinely repeating information on exams. Students should be able to appreciate science as a coherent body of information and seek to apply it both inside and outside of the classroom.
Gain an appreciation of the scientific process, its history, and its present day applications. Students should also be able to understand the importance of the scientific process while experimenting and be able to explain how they’ve used the scientific process in their own experiments both in writing and through the written word.
Develop a deeper understanding of different biological process, particularly as they apply to living beings and life cycles.
Use study notes and other study techniques in conjunction with various AP Biology textbooks.
The College Board also recently released a requirement for the AP Biology exam, underlining what portion of the test should be dedicated to what field of study. Accordingly, the following goals for the test were released:

25% of the test should be dedicated to Molecules and Cells.
25% of the test should be dedicated to Heredity and Evolution.
50% of the test should be dedicated to Organisms and Populations.
Students studying for both the AP Biology exam as well as the SAT should keep these parameters in mind. These basic goals may determine how much time is spent covering these different areas of study over the course of the school year as well as how much time is allotted to complete each section of the AP Biology test.

Students interested in taking AP Biology or any other Advanced Placement course should keep in mind that taking college level courses in high school requires a commitment of time and energy.  Students that commit themselves to their classes and treat them as college level courses will see a definite pay off in their grades as well as their confidence.

Students wishing to get into prestigious, well-respected colleges or universities should definitely consider taking Advanced Placement courses. These courses look excellent on high school transcripts and can give students an invaluable look at college courses before they even enroll in them. Students also have the opportunity to earn college credit before graduating, which can save valuable time and money once college begins. The more students work to prepare themselves for the high-pressure college atmosphere before beginning their college education, the more enjoyable and successful their college career will be in the end. So, for student wishing to get a jump start on their college education and their careers after college, the AP course program is the perfect choice!

Here you will find AP Biology outlines and slides. We are working to add more AP Biology resources such as vocabulary terms, unit notes, topic notes, study questions, practice quizzes and glossary terms.

Biology

Biology

• you can help prepare students who wish to continue their scientific education after high school, as well as students who wish to prepare for the SAT exam. The level of aptitude in this subject will assist students wishing to excel on the SAT and in college courses.
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• According to the College Board’s website, AP Biology courses are designed to be the equivalent of a college introductory course, usually taken during a biology major’s first year of college. Students who choose to take AP Biology may be allowed to skip over introductory biology courses and enroll in courses in which biology is a prerequisite. Because universities grant college credit for this course, they require that the textbooks, labs, and coursework used by AP courses be equivalent to those used in actual college courses.

Petrosino’s Former Doctoral Students Win Top Education Fellowship

wo of science education specialist Anthony Petrosino’s recent doctoral students – Vanessa Svihla and Candace Walkington – have been awarded National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowships. The NAEd Spencer Fellowship is one of the highest honors given to graduates who recently obtained a Ph.D. in education, and it’s designed to promote scholarship that improves the field of education.

Walkington is an assistant professor of math education in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on how abstract math concepts can best be understood when they’re grounded in students’ interests, experiences, and everyday reasoning practices. At SMU she teaches preservice and inservice STEM courses and is chair of the math, science and technology programs.

Svihla is an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico and director of the Interaction and Disciplinary Design in Educational Activity Lab. Her area of study is how learning occurs in authentic, real-world conditions. This includes a two-strand research program that includes: 1) authentic assessment, aided by interactive technology, and 2) design learning, in which she studies engineers designing devices, scientists designing investigations, teachers designing learning experiences and students designing to learn.

Both Fellows are continuing to pursue research that was launched under Petrosino’s mentorship in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Board of Regents Honors College of Education Faculty for Teaching Excellence

College of Education professors Kevin Cokley and Jo Worthy were among 27 UT Austin faculty to receive the 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, The University of Texas System’s highest teaching honor.

The Regents’ recognition program is one of the nation’s largest monetary awards for teaching in higher education, honoring the highest quality instruction and spotlighting innovation in undergraduate instruction.

A total of $2.4 million will be awarded to educators from the UT System’s 15 academic and health institutions during a ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom in the Texas Union at UT Austin.

“Our excellence in teaching faculty is a critical part of the System’s vision of an institution of the first class,” said UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “These awards are a reflection of the Regents placing the highest priority on undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching excellence System-wide.”

Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty members, and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations including outstanding teaching, mentoring, personal commitment to students and motivating students in the classroom.

“UT Austin places a very high value on classroom teaching,” said UT Austin President Bill Powers. “I am pleased that the UT System is recognizing these 27 individual faculty members for their performance as teachers and their commitment to their students.”

Dr. Jo Worthy

JO WORTHY

Worthy is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction’s language and literacy and a department graduate adviser. She teaches classes in literacy development and pedagogy and conducts research on children’s reading interests and preferences, alternatives to grouping students according to ability, and bilingual education. In 2006, Worthy won the Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education

Dr. Kevin Cokley

KEVIN COKLEY

Cokley is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology as well as director of UT Austin’s Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis. He researches African American psychology, with a focus on racial and ethnic identity development and how factors such as academic self-concept contribute to academic achievement. Cokley is a Fellow and Chair in UT Austin’s African and African American Diaspora Studies program. He’s also been honored with the Louise Spence Griffeth Fellowship for Excellence, Elizabeth Glenadine Gibb Teaching Fellowship in Education, and Charles and Shirley Thomas Award for mentoring, education, and training of ethnic minority students.

Boosting Emotional Intelligence With a Mobile Application

College of Education faculty Ricardo Ainslie and Chris Brownson have received a Longhorn Innovation Fund for Technology (LIFT) award to develop a mobile application that will boost students' emotional intelligence.

Ainslie is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Brownson is a clinical associate professor in educational psychology as well as director of UT Austin’s Counseling and Mental Health Center. The two will be working on the project, which is called Thrive@UT, with a team that includes Counseling and Mental Health Center staff Elana Bizer and Katy Redd.

"Emotional intelligence refers to how accurately someone reads their own emotions and the emotions of others, then uses that information to guide what they do and how they think and feel," said Ainslie. "With students, higher emotional intelligence usually means more success in school. If our mobile app can help students better handle the transition from a structured high school setting and the familiarity of living at home to the challenges of college life, they’ll be more likely to stay in college and graduate in around four years."

According to Ainslie, the mobile application will offer interactive exercises, videos, and assignments that promote emotional growth and prompt students to practice beneficial behaviors. The application will also send users alerts, reminding them of key learning points and encouraging them to apply the concepts in their daily activities.

Based on feedback from a preliminary student focus group, the team is going to start by targeting self-awareness and resilience, two factors of emotional intelligence that have the greatest impact on student academic success and that are well-suited to being taught on a mobile application. 

“This application is unique because students won’t just be tuning in and using it one or two brief times,” said Ainslie. “The application will continue to engage them throughout the day, every day. This tool is also different in that most existing interventions address a specific mental health issue like depression, anxiety, or insomnia, for example – ours will target broad factors that underlie emotional wellness and life success in general and that are relevant to all students.”

Once the application has been completed and launched, it will be maintained and updated by the Counseling and Mental Health Center. 

“This project puts UT Austin on the leading edge when it comes to combining technology and mental health interventions,” said Ainslie. “Our students will have tools that aren’t, to our knowledge, available at any other college or university.”

Two Faculty Honored With College’s Top Teaching Award

• The highest teaching honor bestowed by UT Austin’s College of Education has been awarded to Jo Worthy, a professor of language and literacy, and Tasha Beretvas, associate dean for research and graduate studies.
• The Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award is given annually, and winners are selected based on feedback from College of Education students and faculty.
• Worthy, who has been with the college since 1994, studies children and youth’s reading interests and preferences, alternatives to ability grouping in classrooms, and bilingual education. In addition to her research and teaching responsibilities, Worthy also has been a cohort coordinator for the undergraduate teacher education program and currently is a graduate advisor for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her past honors for teaching excellence include a Texas Excellence Teaching Award, Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, and a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
• Beretvas is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology as well as associate dean, and she has been chair of the department’s Quantitative Methods Program for the past five years. Beretvas also is a faculty associate with UT Austin’s Population Research Center and the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation, and is on the board for the college’s Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk.
• As a methodologist, her main areas of interest in research and teaching are evaluation and innovative application of statistical models. Nationally and at the university level, Beretvas has participated in programs, such as the AERA’s Faculty Institute for the Teaching of Statistics, that give her an opportunity to teach fellow scholars about statistics. In her role as associate dean, she has initiated several projects that support faculty research as well as graduate student research and experiences.
• Beretvas was among the first group of UT System faculty to be honored with a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
• "You can't overestimate the benefit to our college of having Dr. Beretvas and Dr. Worthy here, serving as mentors and examples of excellence in teaching, research, and leadership,” said Manuel J. Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “They are the teachers that we all aspire to be."

Two Faculty Honored With College’s Top Teaching Award

The highest teaching honor bestowed by UT Austin’s College of Education has been awarded to Jo Worthy, a professor of language and literacy, and Tasha Beretvas, associate dean for research and graduate studies.

The Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award is given annually, and winners are selected based on feedback from College of Education students and faculty.

Worthy, who has been with the college since 1994, studies children and youth’s reading interests and preferences, alternatives to ability grouping in classrooms, and bilingual education. In addition to her research and teaching responsibilities, Worthy also has been a cohort coordinator for the undergraduate teacher education program and currently is a graduate advisor for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her past honors for teaching excellence include a Texas Excellence Teaching Award, Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, and a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.

Beretvas is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology as well as associate dean, and she has been chair of the department’s Quantitative Methods Program for the past five years. Beretvas also is a faculty associate with UT Austin’s Population Research Center and the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation, and is on the board for the college’s Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk.

As a methodologist, her main areas of interest in research and teaching are evaluation and innovative application of statistical models. Nationally and at the university level, Beretvas has participated in programs, such as the AERA’s Faculty Institute for the Teaching of Statistics, that give her an opportunity to teach fellow scholars about statistics. In her role as associate dean, she has initiated several projects that support faculty research as well as graduate student research and experiences.

Beretvas was among the first group of UT System faculty to be honored with a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.

"You can't overestimate the benefit to our college of having Dr. Beretvas and Dr. Worthy here, serving as mentors and examples of excellence in teaching, research, and leadership,” said Manuel J. Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “They are the teachers that we all aspire to be."