Scope and sequence · Science

High School Biology

A full year of biology with home labs, told through the people who looked closely at living things: Leeuwenhoek’s animalcules, Pasteur’s flasks, Mendel’s peas, Franklin’s Photo 51, Fleming’s mold and Cuvier’s bones.

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Where this leads

Fields of study: Biology, Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary science, Agriculture and animal science, Forestry and wildlife management, Biotechnology, Public health.

Jobs and careers (trades, licenses and degree paths):

DegreePhysician, dentist or physician assistant
DegreeRegistered nurse
DegreeVeterinarian
DegreeWildlife biologist or game warden
DegreeAgronomist or plant breeder
2-yr / certVeterinary technician
2-yr / certMedical laboratory technician
2-yr / certEMT or paramedic
TradeFarmer, rancher or beekeeper
TradeArborist or landscaper
FieldPark ranger or naturalist

Key topics and where they’re used:

Cells and the microscope: medical labs, pathology, food safety
Genetics and DNA: plant and animal breeding, medicine, forensics
Microbes: nursing, sanitation, food and brewing
Ecology and stewardship: farming, ranching, forestry, wildlife management

Paths are examples, not promises. Most careers need further training, an apprenticeship, a license or a degree.

What to cover

36 of 40 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: The Study of Life

MUST COVER 1.1 What Is Life? Seven Marks of Living Things (“O LORD, how manifold are thy works!”) · unit test
MUST COVER 1.2 Life from Life: Redi (1668), Spallanzani (1768) and Pasteur’s Swan-Neck Flasks (1859–1862) · unit test
MUST COVER 1.3 The Microscope: Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), Leeuwenhoek’s Animalcules and the Wet Mount · exam
MUST COVER 1.4 Naming the Living World: John Ray (1691) and Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (1735) · unit test

Unit 2: The Chemistry of Life

MUST COVER 2.1 Atoms, Water and pH for Biologists · unit test
MUST COVER 2.2 Carbohydrates and Lipids: Wöhler’s Urea (1828) and Organic Chemistry · unit test
MUST COVER 2.3 Proteins and Enzymes: Fischer’s Lock and Key and Sumner’s Urease Crystal (1926) · unit test
MUST COVER 2.4 Nucleic Acids: Miescher’s “Nuclein” (1869) · unit test

Unit 3: Cells

MUST COVER 3.1 Cell Theory: Schleiden (1838), Schwann (1839) and Virchow’s “Every Cell from a Cell” (1855) · unit test
MUST COVER 3.2 Organelles: The Cell as a Workshop · unit test
MUST COVER 3.3 Membranes, Diffusion and Osmosis · exam
MUST COVER 3.4 Cell Division: Flemming Sees Mitosis (1882) · unit test

Unit 4: Energy in Living Things

MUST COVER 4.1 Van Helmont’s Willow, Priestley’s Mint and Ingenhousz’s Sunlight (1648–1779) · unit test
MUST COVER 4.2 Photosynthesis: Light Reactions and the Calvin Cycle · unit test
MUST COVER 4.3 Cellular Respiration: Krebs and the Citric Acid Cycle (1937) · unit test
MUST COVER 4.4 Fermentation: Pasteur, Yeast and Tired Muscles · unit test

Unit 5: Heredity

MUST COVER 5.1 The Friar and His Peas: Mendel (1865–1866) and the Rediscovery of 1900 · unit test
MUST COVER 5.2 Probability, Punnett Squares and Dihybrid Crosses · exam
MUST COVER 5.3 Beyond Mendel: Incomplete Dominance, Blood Types and Morgan’s White-Eyed Fly (1910) · exam
MUST COVER 5.4 Meiosis, Chromosomes and Pedigrees (Male and Female, XX and XY) · unit test

Unit 6: DNA and the Genetic Code

MUST COVER 6.1 Finding the Genetic Material: Griffith (1928), Avery (1944), Hershey and Chase (1952) · unit test
MUST COVER 6.2 The Double Helix: Chargaff, Franklin (Photo 51, 1952), Watson and Crick (1953) · exam
MUST COVER 6.3 Replication, Transcription and Translation: Nirenberg Cracks the Code (1961) · exam
MUST COVER 6.4 Mutations, Biotechnology and Bioethics: Mullis’s PCR (1983) and the Image of God · unit test

Unit 7: Variation, Adaptation and Origins

MUST COVER 7.1 Darwin’s Voyage (1831–1836) and What He Observed · unit test
MUST COVER 7.2 Variation Within Kinds: Finch Beaks, Peppered Moths, Antibiotic Resistance and Blyth’s Conserving Selection (1835) · unit test
MUST COVER 7.3 Common Descent: The Claim, the Evidence Offered and the Open Questions · unit test
MUST COVER 7.4 Origins Fairly Told: Creation, Intelligent Design and Darwinian Theory Compared · unit test

Unit 8: The Diversity of Life

MUST COVER 8.1 Bacteria and Viruses: Jenner (1796), Koch’s Postulates (1884) and Pasteur’s Rabies Vaccine (1885) · unit test
MUST COVER 8.2 Protists and Fungi: Fleming’s Penicillin (1928) · unit test
MUST COVER 8.3 Plants: Grew, Malpighi and Hales’s Vegetable Staticks (1727) · unit test
MUST COVER 8.4 Animals: Cuvier’s Comparative Anatomy and the Dissection Lab · unit test

Unit 9: Ecology and Stewardship

MUST COVER 9.1 Ecosystems, Food Webs and Elton’s Pyramid (1927) · exam
MUST COVER 9.2 Cycles of Matter: Water (“All the Rivers Run into the Sea”), Carbon and Nitrogen · unit test
MUST COVER 9.3 Populations: Growth, Carrying Capacity and Gause’s Experiments (1934) · exam
MUST COVER 9.4 Dominion and Care: Game Management, the Bison and the Duck Stamp (1934) · unit test

Unit 10: The Human Body (Optional Bonus Unit) OPTIONAL unit

OPTIONAL 10.1 Vesalius and the Skeleton: De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543)
OPTIONAL 10.2 Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (1628): “The Life of the Flesh Is in the Blood”
OPTIONAL 10.3 Beaumont and Digestion (1822–1833)
OPTIONAL 10.4 Nerves, Senses and Damadian’s MRI (1970s)

36-week pacing calendar

From the course’s own 35-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Week	Plan	Done	Notes
Wk 1	Day 1: Lesson 1.1 What Is Life? Seven Marks of Living Things (“O LORD, how manifold are thy works!”): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 1.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 1.1: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 1.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 1.2 Life from Life: Redi (1668), Spallanzani (1768) and Pasteur’s Swan-Neck Flasks (1859–1862): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 2	Day 1: Lesson 1.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 1.2: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 1.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 1.3 The Microscope: Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), Leeuwenhoek’s Animalcules and the Wet Mount: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 1.3: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 3	Day 1: Lesson 1.3: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 1.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 1.4 Naming the Living World: John Ray (1691) and Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (1735): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 1.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 1.4: lab and lab notebook
Wk 4	Day 1: Lesson 1.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Unit 1 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 3: Lesson 2.1 Atoms, Water and pH for Biologists: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 2.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 2.1: lab and lab notebook
Wk 5	Day 1: Lesson 2.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 2.2 Carbohydrates and Lipids: Wöhler’s Urea (1828) and Organic Chemistry: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 2.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 2.2: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 2.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 6	Day 1: Lesson 2.3 Proteins and Enzymes: Fischer’s Lock and Key and Sumner’s Urease Crystal (1926): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 2.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 2.3: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 2.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 2.4 Nucleic Acids: Miescher’s “Nuclein” (1869): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 7	Day 1: Lesson 2.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 2.4: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 2.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Unit 2 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 5: Lesson 3.1 Cell Theory: Schleiden (1838), Schwann (1839) and Virchow’s “Every Cell from a Cell” (1855): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 8	Day 1: Lesson 3.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 3.1: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 3.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 3.2 Organelles: The Cell as a Workshop: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 3.2: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 9	Day 1: Lesson 3.2: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 3.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 3.3 Membranes, Diffusion and Osmosis: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 3.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 3.3: lab and lab notebook
Wk 10	Day 1: Lesson 3.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 3.4 Cell Division: Flemming Sees Mitosis (1882): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 3.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 3.4: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 3.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 11	Day 1: Unit 3 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 2: Lesson 4.1 Van Helmont’s Willow, Priestley’s Mint and Ingenhousz’s Sunlight (1648–1779): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 4.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 4.1: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 4.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 12	Day 1: Lesson 4.2 Photosynthesis: Light Reactions and the Calvin Cycle: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 4.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 4.2: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 4.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 4.3 Cellular Respiration: Krebs and the Citric Acid Cycle (1937): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 13	Day 1: Lesson 4.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 4.3: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 4.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 4.4 Fermentation: Pasteur, Yeast and Tired Muscles: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 4.4: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 14	Day 1: Lesson 4.4: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 4.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Unit 4 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 4: Lesson 5.1 The Friar and His Peas: Mendel (1865–1866) and the Rediscovery of 1900: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 5.1: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 15	Day 1: Lesson 5.1: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 5.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 5.2 Probability, Punnett Squares and Dihybrid Crosses: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 5.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 5.2: lab and lab notebook
Wk 16	Day 1: Lesson 5.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 5.3 Beyond Mendel: Incomplete Dominance, Blood Types and Morgan’s White-Eyed Fly (1910): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 5.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 5.3: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 5.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 17	Day 1: Lesson 5.4 Meiosis, Chromosomes and Pedigrees (Male and Female, XX and XY): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 5.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 5.4: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 5.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Unit 5 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before)
Wk 18	Catch-up and review week (no new lessons)
Wk 19	Day 1: Midterm review: formula sheet and missed problems Day 2: Midterm exam Day 3: Lesson 6.1 Finding the Genetic Material: Griffith (1928), Avery (1944), Hershey and Chase (1952): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 6.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 6.1: lab and lab notebook
Wk 20	Day 1: Lesson 6.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 6.2 The Double Helix: Chargaff, Franklin (Photo 51, 1952), Watson and Crick (1953): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 6.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 6.2: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 6.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 21	Day 1: Lesson 6.3 Replication, Transcription and Translation: Nirenberg Cracks the Code (1961): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 6.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 6.3: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 6.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 6.4 Mutations, Biotechnology and Bioethics: Mullis’s PCR (1983) and the Image of God: warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 22	Day 1: Lesson 6.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 6.4: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 6.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Unit 6 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 5: Lesson 7.1 Darwin’s Voyage (1831–1836) and What He Observed: warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 23	Day 1: Lesson 7.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 7.1: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 7.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 7.2 Variation Within Kinds: Finch Beaks, Peppered Moths, Antibiotic Resistance and Blyth’s Conserving Selection (1835): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 7.2: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 24	Day 1: Lesson 7.2: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 7.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 7.3 Common Descent: The Claim, the Evidence Offered and the Open Questions: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 7.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 7.3: lab and lab notebook
Wk 25	Day 1: Lesson 7.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 7.4 Origins Fairly Told: Creation, Intelligent Design and Darwinian Theory Compared: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 7.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 7.4: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 7.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 26	Day 1: Unit 7 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 2: Lesson 8.1 Bacteria and Viruses: Jenner (1796), Koch’s Postulates (1884) and Pasteur’s Rabies Vaccine (1885): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 8.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 8.1: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 8.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 27	Day 1: Lesson 8.2 Protists and Fungi: Fleming’s Penicillin (1928): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 8.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 8.2: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 8.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 8.3 Plants: Grew, Malpighi and Hales’s Vegetable Staticks (1727): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 28	Day 1: Lesson 8.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 8.3: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 8.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 8.4 Animals: Cuvier’s Comparative Anatomy and the Dissection Lab: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 8.4: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 29	Day 1: Lesson 8.4: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 8.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Unit 8 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 4: Lesson 9.1 Ecosystems, Food Webs and Elton’s Pyramid (1927): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 9.1: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 30	Day 1: Lesson 9.1: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 9.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 9.2 Cycles of Matter: Water (“All the Rivers Run into the Sea”), Carbon and Nitrogen: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 9.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 9.2: lab and lab notebook
Wk 31	Day 1: Lesson 9.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 9.3 Populations: Growth, Carrying Capacity and Gause’s Experiments (1934): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 9.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 9.3: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 9.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 32	Day 1: Lesson 9.4 Dominion and Care: Game Management, the Bison and the Duck Stamp (1934): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 9.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 9.4: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 9.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Unit 9 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before)
Wk 33	Day 1: Final review Day 2: Final exam Day 3: Lesson 10.1 Vesalius and the Skeleton: De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 10.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 10.1: lab and lab notebook
Wk 34	Day 1: Lesson 10.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 10.2 Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (1628): “The Life of the Flesh Is in the Blood”: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 10.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 10.2: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 10.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 35	Day 1: Lesson 10.3 Beaumont and Digestion (1822–1833): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 10.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 10.3: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 10.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 10.4 Nerves, Senses and Damadian’s MRI (1970s): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 36	Day 1: Lesson 10.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 10.4: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 10.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Unit 10 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before)

Grading: Practice sets and worksheets (completed and corrected) 15%, Labs and lab practical 25%, Lab notebook (sketches, data, honesty) 10%, Unit tests 30%, Midterm exam 10%, Final exam 10%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60.