The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a college introductory biology course taken by biology majors in their first year. It is a course designed for students that have a strong interest in, or desire to pursue a career in, the sciences. Students accepting the challenge of an Advanced Placement course will be required to actively participate in all lectures and laboratory activities that are conducted during the school year and to take the AP Biology examination in May. Students who are most successful have developed a sense of self-learning and are able to integrate the general topics or facts of biology (cells, genetics, diversity of life, behavior and ecology) with the eight major themes of biology (science as a process, evolution, energy transfer, continuity and change, structure and function, regulation, interdependence, and science, technology and society). Students are required to take the AP exam near the end of the second semester.