Written By: Elizabeth Rockey
While the smell of crayfish, shark, sheep, rat, or pig hasn’t penetrated the high school building yet, Advanced Placement Biology has been hard at work learning about life. St. John prides itself on offering advanced academic courses and this course is just one of many. Jennifer Fontaine, a Saint student through middle school, and now high school science teacher, has the privilege of instructing AP Biology along with her other courses. It is a college level course that follows the advanced placement guidelines written by the College Board. The class works towards full preparation for the National AP Exam in spring.
The class investigates molecules and cells, heredity and evolution, and organisms and populations. Biology is broken down into eight major themes: Science as a Process, Evolution, Energy Transfer, Continuity and Change, Relationship of Structure to Function, Regulation, Interdependence in Nature, and Science, Technology, and Society. AP Biology moves at a fast pace and has already uncovered Units One and Two. Unit Three includes Laboratory Two, Four, and Five. These Biologists in training have been doing these experiments for weeks. Lab Two was on Enzymes Catalysis. Students explored the enzymatic activity of catalase through titration to measure the amount of substrate that remained over time. Lab Four was about Plant Pigments and Photosynthesis. Students extracted chloroplasts from fresh spinach leaves and placed them under experimental conditions to measure the rate of photosynthesis. The Dye DPIP was used to isolate the chloroplast to better evaluate the light-transmittance of light through each sample. Lab Five was on Cell Respiration. The class built Respirometers to visually observe and measure the respiration rates of germinating and non-germinating peas in different experimental conditions.
Does this sound a little too scientific for you? Well, in summary, Mrs. Fontaine’s AP Biology class loves learning all they can about biology in a short amount of time. Fontaine’s goals again are in correlation with having fun with science. Her students in this class are stepping closer to becoming future scientists of the world. An exciting new addition to our high science program next year will be Forensic Science, also taught by Mrs. Fontaine.
Check out our Advanced Placement Biology pictures here!
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