General Biology
The General Biology course targets 9th grade high school students, but students that are younger and older that are ready for and need the course are welcome to join in. The course has several options. a local hands-on co-op options. There is a live, online option that allows students from around the world to participate in live lectures, virtual hands-on labs (at home labs are supported too), and more using Collaborate (webinar platform). Though the live, online class is synchronous, it has a rolling admissions policy meaning that students can jump in to the course at almost any point in the curriculum. The course wraps around immediately after the last module in the text. This lets students that jumped in at module 10, for example, to keep on going until they graduate when we wrap around to module 9. This means that, depending upon when a student jumped in to the course, they may find they will be working through what would otherwise be summer break. Summer is a fantastic time for working on biology though.
Students that prefer the option of going at their own speed instead of having to match the pace of the live class, may prefer to take the at-your-own-pace Moodle option in the course. Instead of like lectures, this option uses recorded lectures. Students in the live class option can switch to this option at any time as well. This helps families have the flexibility to work around vacations, health issues, and other major family events.
Students that live in the local area can opt to participate in the hands-on co-op option. Ask for more details if you participate in a local co-op by e-mailing Tammy Moore at [email protected].
Students that prefer the option of going at their own speed instead of having to match the pace of the live class, may prefer to take the at-your-own-pace Moodle option in the course. Instead of like lectures, this option uses recorded lectures. Students in the live class option can switch to this option at any time as well. This helps families have the flexibility to work around vacations, health issues, and other major family events.
Students that live in the local area can opt to participate in the hands-on co-op option. Ask for more details if you participate in a local co-op by e-mailing Tammy Moore at [email protected].
Lecture 1: What is Life?
In lecture 1 of this module, we will be introduced to the criteria for life and be introduced to some foundational classification schemes in biology. Lecture 1 will be a fairly short lecture which will be great for introducing the many new students that we will have coming in to biology here in module 1.
Lecture 2: Scientific Method
In lecture 2, we will talk about the scientific method and look at how many misconceptions have changed over the years, even when they were once thought to be proven as a scientific law at the time. They will learn about Dr. Simmelweis, the discovery that fossil fish are still alive, and that long held beliefs about the source of life face experimental testing.
Lecture 3: Biological Classification
In biological classification, we will examine how the huge number of living things makes organizing them into groups a help when studying and learning about them. This topic heads up the organizational structure for much of the rest of the text and also for the biology section of this site. That makes it important enough to give it its very own page. You will find module labs in this section as well. To jump to it, go to the Kingdoms tab under biology in the navigation or CLICK HERE.
Getting Ready for Labs
This module will be our formal introduction to microscopes. I have an entire section of the site set aside for microscope information. To find it, go to Biology/Biology Tools/Microscopes or CLICK HERE to jump to it.