Welcome to Biology 11

What defines the parameters of life and death?  Why is a rock nonliving and a barnacle alive?  How does a jellyfish function with no brain, no heart? Probe, observe, examine, dissect the three hearts of a squid, the taste buds of a fly, “fangs” on a spider, “breathing” apparatus on leaves, carnivorous plants.  Record your observations in a journal, a sketchbook or blog.  Indulge in a microbial wine and cheese.  Get dirty as stewards of an urban bog, dig in our school community garden. 

This course explores the universal processes of life from the tiniest microbe to a blue whale.  All living things have common traits and interconnections.  These traits can evolve and change in response to a changing environment. Our modern, urban life is accelerating environmental change at a rate that may exceed the ability for organisms to adapt.  There are now 6 billion people on earth.  3 billion are in cities.  By 2050, there will be 9 billion people on earth and 6 billion will be in cities.  If all the cities are exactly like ours, we would need four earths.  Biology 11 provides a biological, ecological context to inform our ability to design a sustainable future -  which you must do within your lifetime.