Students identify acids and bases, measure pH, and explore buffers.

Learning Objectives Include

• Measure pH in acidic, basic and neutral solutions and collect pH related data
• Examine factors that impact the pH of a solution
• Demonstrate how to adjust the pH of a solution
• Demonstrate how to maintain the pH of a solution using a buffer solution
• Discuss differences in the pH of different household solutions

Students test for carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, and fats.

Learning Objectives Include

• Write hypothesis statements based on biological principles
• Identify experimental variables as independent, dependent, or control variables
• Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data
• Determine the presence of amino acids, proteins, glucose, and starch using indicator solutions

Students explore concentration, osmotic pressure, tonicity and water imbalance.

Learning Objectives Include

• Define concentration in terms of solute and solvent
• Define osmosis in terms of concentration differences
• Explain the direction of osmotic pressure for isotonicity, hypertonicity and hypotonicity
• Distinguish movement of solutes and water
• Calculate concentrations of unknown solutions after testing osmotic pressure of known solutions

Students explore enzymes, substrates and reaction products, enzyme activity.

Learning Objectives Include

• Identify reactants and products in biochemical reactions
• Distinguish between enzymes, substrates and reaction products
• State the role of enzymes in biological chemical reactions
• Test how pH, temperature, and enzyme concentration impact enzyme activity

Students explore energy transfer, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration.

Learning Objectives Include

• Explore energy transfer in biological systems
• Discuss basics of reactions in photosynthesis and cellular respiration
• List the key molecules and cell organelles involved in photosynthesis and cellular respiration
• Explain the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in energy transfer
• Determine photosynthetic and cellular respiration rates under different illumination conditions

DNA, genes, traits and inheritance, Central Dogma, population genetics.

Learning Objectives Include

• Explain the relationship between genes, alleles and physical traits (phenotype)
• Experimentally explore how traits are inherited
• Construct Punnett squares and compare to data
• Explore the role of DNA in protein synthesis
• Evaluate how population genetics is used to study the evolution of populations
• Explain expectations about allele frequencies in a stable population

Perform crime scene analysis, paternity determination, and species comparison.

Learning Objectives Include

• Describe the molecular structure of genetic material (DNA), from nucleotides to chromosomes
• Explain the relationship between alleles, nucleotides, and genes
• Describe the genetic code and how the nucleotide sequence determines the amino acid sequence in proteins (central dogma)
• Explain how electrophoresis can be used to characterize DNA
• Use electrophoresis to determine paternity, analyze a crime scene, and characterize an unknown species

Explore trophic levels and food webs, biogeochemical cycles, human impact.

Learning Objectives Include

• Describe how organisms acquire energy and nutrients through trophic levels in a food web
• Explain the role of autotrophs, heterotrophs, and decomposers in the food web
• Describe the biogeochemical cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur
• Discuss the impact of human-made disruptions of a biogeochemical cycle
• Discuss how contamination through human-made processes can be toxic to living organisms
• Determine how nitrates, heavy metals, and pH impact mushroom growth and yield