Relevant material from MIT's introductory courses to support students as they study and educators as they teach the AP Biology curriculum.

The bee obtains nectar to take to the beehive where it is used to make honey and provide food for the bees. The bee grabs pollen and transfers it to other flowers. This is called pollination and helps flowers reproduce.

The bee obtains nectar from the flower to make into honey. During this process, the bee is covered in pollen that will be transferred to other flowers for reproduction. Both the bee and the flower benefit from this process.

Biology of cells of higher organisms: structure, function, and biosynthesis of cellular membranes and organelles; cell growth and oncogenic transformation; transport, receptors and cell signaling; the cytoskeleton, the extracellular matrix, and cell movements; chromatin structure and RNA synthesis.

In Origin of Species, Darwin provided a model for understanding the existence of objects and systems manifesting evidence of design without positing a designer, and of purpose and mechanism without intelligent agency. Texts deal with pre-Darwinian and later treatment of this topic within literature and speculative thought since the eighteenth century, with some attention to the modern study of "feedback mechanism" in artificial intelligence. Readings in Hume, Voltaire, Malthus, Darwin, Butler, Hardy, H. G. Wells, and Freud. This subject offers a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the immediate intellectual antecedents and some of the implications of the ideas animating Darwin's revolutionary On the Origin of Species. Darwin's text, of course, is about the mechanism that drives the evolution of life on this planet, but the fundamental ideas of the text have implications that range well beyond the scope of natural history, and the assumptions behind Darwin's arguments challenge ideas that go much further back than the set of ideas that Darwin set himself explicitly to question - ideas of decisive importance when we think about ourselves, the nature of the material universe, the planet that we live upon, and our place in its scheme of life. In establishing his theory of natural selection, Darwin set himself, rather self-consciously, to challenge a whole way of thinking about these things. The main focus of attention will be Darwin's contribution to the so-called "argument from design" - the notion that innumerable aspects of the world (and most particularly the organisms within it) display features directly analogous to objects of human design and, since design implies a designer, that an intelligent, conscious agency must have been responsible for their organization and creation. Previously, it had been argued that such features must have only one of two ultimate sources - chance or conscious agency. Darwin proposed and elaborated a third source, which he called Natural Selection, an unconscious agency capable of outdoing the most complex feats of human intelligence. The course of study will not only examine the immediate inspiration for this idea in the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus and place Darwin's Origin and the theory of Natural Selection in the history of ensuing debate, but it will also touch upon related issues.

Basic subject in ecology: understanding the flow of energy and materials through ecosystems, and what regulates the distribution and abundance of organisms. Productivity and biogeochemical cycles in ecosystems; trophic dynamics; community structure and stability; competition and predation; evolution and natural selection; population growth; and physiological ecology. Emphasis on aquatic systems.

What is it that distinguishes a living organism from a nonliving object? This video presents examples that aren't as clear-cut as one might think, enticing students to question what it means to be alive.

The fungi provide the water needed by the unicellular organism for photosynthesis.  Lichens also fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into organic forms that can be used by other organisms.  Lichens are sensitive indicators of air pollution. Nancy Pelaez

CK-12 Life Science Honors For Middle School covers seven units: Understanding Living Things; Cells: The Building Blocks of Life; Genetics and Evolution; Prokaryotes, Protists, Fungi, and Plants; The Animal Kingdom; The Human Body; and Ecology.

CK-12 Life Science For Middle School covers: Cell Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Prokaryotes, Protists, Fungi, Plants, The Animal Kingdom, The Human Body, and Ecology.

Praying mantids are beneficial to other plants and animals because they act as pest controllers. Mantis habitat provides shelter and protection for the insect. Both the community of organisms and the mantis benefit.

This video segment explores the astounding diversity of the world's smallest life forms: single-celled organisms.