Week 1
Lesson 1
Chemistry of Life
Students will learn about the four main classes of biological macromolecules, water and its role in living organisms, carbon, functional groups, and chemical bonding and properties.
Lesson 2
Cell Structure and Function
Students will learn about prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, cell organelles and their functions, the plasma membrane structure and transport across the membrane.
Lesson 3
Cellular Energetics
Students will learn about the basic properties of energy and the various forms biological organisms use it in, enzymes and their roles in metabolic reactions, the process of photosynthesis, the process of glycolysis, the process of cellular respiration, and the process of fermentation.
Lesson 4
Cell Communication and the Cell Cycle
Students will learn about cell signaling and signal transduction pathways, how cells maintain homeostasis, positive and negative feedback, take a more detailed look at the events of interphase and mitosis, and learn about how the cell cycle is regulated.
 Week 2
Lesson 5
Heredity
Students will take a more detailed look at the events of meiosis, learn about genes and alleles, Mendel's experiments and laws, non-Mendelian genetics, X-linked inheritance, Punnett squares, and pedigrees.
Lesson 6
Gene Expression and Regulation
Students will study the structure of DNA and RNA in detail, learn the steps of DNA replication, transcription, and translation, and learn how gene expression is regulated and how mutations occur.
Lesson 7
Natural Selection
Students will learn about Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as other mechanisms of evolution, natural selection, the evidence of evolution that helped form current theories, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and how new species occur and how others go extinct.
Lesson 8
Ecology
Students will learn about basic animal behavior and communication, species interactions, the formation of ecological niches, community structure and biodiversity, different life history strategies, how energy flows through ecosystems, population growth and regulation, and ecosystem disruptions and human impact.