AP Biology: Major Themes

A Theme is an overarching feature of biology that applies throughout the curriculum.

Themes and Concepts

Topics, concepts, and themes all give structure to an AP Biology course. Topics are the subject areas in biology. An example of a topic is cellular respiration. Concepts are the most important ideas that form our current understanding of a particular topic. In a conceptual approach to the topic of cellular respiration, for example, it is important to understand how membranes couple ATP synthesis to the energy released by electron transport. This key concept stands above discrete facts, such as the role of a particular cytochrome in electron transport. Emphasizing concepts over facts makes the content of a biology course less overwhelming and more meaningful. A biology course has more structure and meaning when the key concepts for each topic are placed in the broader context of unifying themes.

AP Biology defines a theme as an overarching feature of biology that applies throughout the curriculum. For example, the theme of energy transfer helps students connect topics as diverse as cellular respiration and ecosystem dynamics. Concepts are the key ideas, restricted in scope to a certain topic. Themes cut across the topics.

See the topic outline that organizes biology into subject areas.

It is followed by an annotated version of the topic outline with examples of questions designed to direct students toward some key concepts for each topic.

There are eight major themes that recur throughout the course. AP Biology teachers should emphasize the pervasiveness of these themes to assist students in organizing concepts and topics into a coherent conceptual framework:

1. Science as a Process
2. Evolution
3. Energy Transfer
4. Continuity and Change
5. Relationship of Structure to Function
6. Regulation
7. Interdependence in Nature
8. Science, Technology, and Society

1. Science as a Process
   • Science as inquiry
   • The history of biological conceptions
2. Evolution
   • Change of living things through time: Evolution
   • Diversity of type and unity of pattern in living things
3. Energy Transfer
4. Continuity and Change
   • The genetic continuity of life
5. Relationship of Structure to Function
   • The complementarity of structure and function
6. Regulation
   • Regulation and homeostasis: preservation of life in the face of change
7. Interdependence in Nature
   • The complementarity of organism and environment
8. Science, Technology, and Society
   • The biological roots of behavior
   • The nine major themes of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study 1959