Biology – Grade 12

Course Details

Outline of Course Content

Course Details

Overall Curriculum Expectations

By the end of this course the student will:

Scientific Investigation Skills and Career Exploration

• Demonstrate scientific investigation skills (related to both inquiry and research) in the four areas of skills (initiating and planning, performing, and recording, analyzing, and interpreting, and communicating)
• Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study, and identify scientists, including Canadians, who have made contributions to those fields.

Diversity of living Things

• Analyse the effects of various human activities on the diversity of living things.
• Investigate, through laboratory and/or field activities or through simulations, the principles of scientific classification, using appropriate sampling and classification techniques.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of living organisms in terms of the principles of taxonomy and phylogeny.

Evolution

• Analyse the economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of an artificial selection technology and evaluate the impact of environmental changes on natural selection and endangered species.
• Investigate evolutionary processes and analyses scientific evidence that supports the theory of evolution.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it, and some of the mechanisms by which it occurs.

Genetic processes

• Evaluate the importance of some recent contributions to our knowledge of genetic processes and analyses social and ethical implications of genetic and genomic research.
• Investigates genetic processes, including those that occur during meiosis, and analyses data to solve basic genetic problems involving monohybrid and dihybrid crosses.
• Demonstrates an understanding of concepts, processes, and technologies related to the transmission of hereditary characteristics.

Animals: Structure and Function

• Analyse the relationships between changing societal needs, technological advances, and understanding of internal systems of humans.
• Investigate, through laboratory inquiry or computer simulation, the functional responses of the respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems.
• Demonstrate an understanding of animal anatomy and physiology, and describe disorders of the respiratory, circulatory, and digestive systems.

Plants: Anatomy, Growth, and Function

• Evaluate the importance of sustainable use of plants to Canadian society and other cultures.
• Investigate the structures and functions of plant tissues, and factors affecting plants growth.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of vascular plants, including their structures, internal transport systems, and their role in maintaining biodiversity.

Outline of Course Content