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Information on "E-Classes" (English Immersion)

Biology is one of the several subjects (among mathematics, history and chemistry) taught in English if students choose the "E" immersion program at Gymnasium Muttenz. Contents of the course are comparable to regular classes in German (see below) however, the resources used are adapted to the anglophone context. At the moment, our courses are furnished with original textbooks published in the US, the UK and New Zealand.

Mandatory literature for basic and focus class is: Kent, Michael: Advanced Biology (2nd Edition), Oxford University Press, 2013

General Educational Goals

Basic Course

The biology course not only provides a significant contribution to the students' ability to study, but also ensure a more conscious perception of nature. At the same time, it awakens curiosity about biological relationships and the joy of discovery. Through an inquiry-based approach to biological phenomena and the inclusion of the history of biology, students gain a deeper understanding of life forms and life processes. This knowledge enables them to better understand the interactions between different biological communities and to better assess the effects of human actions. An important goal of the biology course is to strengthen the students' sense of responsibility towards the environment and their respect for living beings in their uniqueness and diversity. The biology course also promotes the understanding of scientific facts. In this way, it creates the prerequisites for a more differentiated approach to ecological, health and socially relevant topics. It helps students to understand their own bodies and enables them to take a critical stance on existential questions of nutrition, development, sexuality, illness and the shaping of life.

Focus Point Course

Focus biology (Major Biology/Chemistry) provide a basis for later study in the natural sciences, medicine, or pharmacy and thus promote students' ability to study in these areas. It also conveys an understanding of scientific (lab) work and promotes an interdisciplinary approach enabling the understanding of biological relationships. Independent practical, experimental work plays a major role in the lessons. Another important goal of focus point biology lessons is to encourage a more conscious perception and understanding of nature. This is done on the one hand by expanding the knowledge of species and on the other hand by imparting knowledge of evolutionary and kinship relationships. The lessons train a sense of responsibility towards nature and make clear the consequences of human actions for the environment. In field trips and lab sessions, the students directly experience nature and the living world in its uniqueness and diversity. At the same time, they directly recognize the influences caused by humans.

Biology lessons in focus biology help students better understand their own bodies. Other topics include sexuality, heredity, development and disease. Teaching methods include examinations of various organs and physiological experiments.

Contribution of the Subject to Interdisciplinary Competences

Basic Course

Independence

  • Showing responsibility towards oneself, society and nature

  • Using scientific basics from physics, chemistry and geography to derive relationships in nature.

Reflective Comeptency

  • Acting respectfully and sustainably towards the environment and fellow human beings. 

  • Evaluating health-related risk behavior

Social Competency

  • Justifying one's own position objectively and accept feedback openly.
    Respecting others, empathizing with their point of view and responding to them

Language literacy

  • Analyzing texts and reproduce their essential content correctly in one's own words.
  • Formulating results in an argumentative and coherent manner, taking into account technical language.

  • Writing reports according to scientific standards and citing sources correctly.

Working and Learning Comeptency

  • Formulating hypotheses and questions independently and developing solutions to answer them independently.
  • Distinguishing important from unimportant information and filling in gaps in knowledge. 

Literacy in Information and Communication Technologies

  • Efficiently researching and evaluating relevant information
  • Visualizing the contents and results of investigations using spreadsheet and presentation programs

Practical Competencies

  • Drawing scientifically
  • Independently producing microscopic specimens
  • Planning, conducting, recording, evaluating, documenting and interpreting scientific investigations

Focus Point Course

Independence

  • Acting responsibly towards oneself, society and nature
  • Using scientific basics from physics, chemistry and geography to deduce relationships in nature.
  • Working on problems according to scientific rules in an interdisciplinary experimental way and evaluating them mathematically.

Reflective Competencies

  • Argumenting differentially and making independent judgments and distinguishing facts from fake news.
  • Critically assessig the effects of human behavior, including one's own, on health, the environment, and the climate.

Social Competency

  • Justifying one's own position objectively and accepting feedback openly.
  • Respecting others, empathizing with and responding to their point of view.

Language Literacy

  • Analyzing texts and results and correctly reproducing their content in one's own words using technical terms.
  • Writing reports according to scientific standards
  • Making an efficient selection of relevant information and cite sources correctly

Working and Learning Competencies

  • Formulating hypotheses and questions independently and developing solutions to answer them independently
  • Distinguishing important from unimportant information and identifying and filling in gaps in knowledge

Literacy in Communication and Information Technologies

  • Efficiently searching for and evaluate relevant information
  • Using scientific databases for research purposes
  • Carrying out statistical analyses and visualizing the results adequately

Practical Comeptencies

  • Applying microscopic techniques independently.
  • Planning, conducting, recording, evaluating, documenting and interpreting scientific investigations
  • Drawing scientifically

Learning Areas and Professional Competences (Basic Course)

The learning contents of the subject Biology (basic course) in the individual school years are listed below. The order of the contents may vary.

1st Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Professional Competences

1. Organizational Levels of Life

Students are able to

1.1 Characteristics of Life
  • explain the organizational stages of life from the molecule to the biosphere and examine organisms microscopically.
  • interpret present-day life forms as the result of evolutionary processes.
1.2 Biomolecules and Cell Biology
  • explain the structure of the most important biomolecules and their role for organisms.
  • outline the structure of eukaryotic cells and describe the functions of cell organelles.
  • explain the cell cycle and mitosis.

2. Metabolism and Transport Processes in Cell and Organisms

Students are able to

2.1 Transport Processes and Energy Production
  • explain transport processes (diffusion, osmosis, active transport).
  • explain and outline the basic processes of energy production (photosynthesis, glycolysis, cellular respiration, fermentation).
  • describe the role of ATP as a universal energy currency.

3. Ecology

Students are able to

3.1 Abiotic and Biotic Factors
  • name the most important abiotic and biotic factors and explain their importance for different organisms (water, temperature, herbivory, predator-prey relationship).
  • explain the adaptations of organisms to abiotic or biotic environmental factors.
3.2 Materials Cycles and Energy Flow
  • analyze and interpret biological materials cycles and energy flows.

2nd Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Lerning Areas and Professional Competencies

1. Organ Systems

Students are able to

1.1. Cardiovascular System and Blood
  • distinguish the components of blood and explain their functions.
  • outline the structure of the heart and the circulatory system of mammals and explain how they function.
1.2 Nutrition and Digestive Systems
  • illustrate the structure and function of digestive systems.
  • demonstrate the use of ingested nutrients in the cells by way of example.
  • assess the importance of certain foods for a balanced diet.

2. Neurobiology

Students are able to

2.1 Stimulus and Response
  • explain the structure and function of neurons.
  • explain the formation, conduction and transmission at synapses of excitation.
2.2 Structure of the Human Nervous System
  • explain the structure of the human nervous system and name the functions of individual areas (CNS, PNS).
2.3 Sensory Perception
  • describe the functioning of a sensory organ.

3. Immunology

Students are able to

3.1 Pathogens

  • describe the different groups of pathogens (protists, bacteria, viruses).
  • discuss the problem of the development of resistance through the use of antibiotics.
3.2 Immune System and Immunisation
  • describe the mechanisms of the non-specific and the specific immune response.
  • explain the principles of passive and active immunization.

3rd Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Professional Competences

1. Classical Genetics

Students are able to

1.1 Mendelian Rules and their Exceptions
  • apply the Mendelian rules.
  • describe exceptions to the Mendelian rules and their biological significance (gene linkage, linkage disequilibrium).
1.2 Inheritance and Pedigree Analysis
  • determine hereditary traits using pedigrees and predict the inheritance of certain traits.

2. Molecular Genetics

Students are able to

2.1 Structure and Replication of DNA
  • outline the chemical structure of a DNA double helix and describe the process of replication within the cell cycle.
2.2 Protein Biosynthesis
  • explain the process of transcription and translation (mRNA, tRNA, ribosome).
  • apply the genetic code.

3. Reproduction and Development

Students are able to

3.1 Meiosis, Reproduction, Development and Birth
  • describe the process of meiosis and explain its significance in sexual reproduction.
  • describe the characteristic developmental stages in the development of an animal by way of example (zygote, furrow, blastula, gastrula).
  • describe the most important stages of pregnancy and birth and name harmful influences on the development of the unborn.

4. Evolution

Students are able to

4.1 Theories of Evolution and Mechanisms
  • explain different evolutionary theories (Darwin, Lamarck).
  • explain evolutionary mechanisms and apply them to practical examples (mutation, selection).

 

Learning Areas and Professional Competencies (Focus Point Course)

The learning contents of the subject Biology (focus point course) in the individual school years are listed below. The order of the contents may vary.

1st Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Professional Competences

1. Organizational Levels of Life

Students are able to

1.1 Characteristics of Life
  • explain the organizational stages of life from the molecule to the biosphere and examine organisms microscopically.
  • interpret present-day life forms as the result of evolutionary processes.
1.2 Biomolecules and Cell Biology
  • explain the structure of the most important biomolecules of life (nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids).
  • outline the structure of eukaryotic cells and describe the functions of cell organelles (nucleus, mitochondrion, chloroplast, ER, Golgi apparatus).
  • explain the cell cycle (G1, S, G2 and M phase) including the different mitotic phases. 

1.3 Structure and Function of Plants

  • draw the structure of plant organs and tissues and explain their function (leaf, shoot axis, root).
  • describe the structure of a flower and explain the function of the individual flower components.

2. Metabolism and Transport Processes in Cell and Organisms

Students are able to

2.1 Transport Processes and Energy Production
  • explain active and passive transport processes (diffusion, osmosis, active transport, exocytosis, endocytosis).
  • explain water and mass transport in plants (xylem, phloem, transpiration).
  • explain the basic processes of energy production (photosynthesis, glycolysis, fermentation, respiratory chain, ATP synthesis).
  • describe the role of ATP as a universal energy currency.

 

2nd Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Lerning Areas and Professional Competencies

1. Ecology

Students are able to

1.1 Abiotic and Biotic Factors
  • name the most important abiotic and biotic factors (water, temperature, light).
  • investigate, document, and interpret adaptations of organisms to abiotic or biotic environmental factors.
  • explain the interrelationships between organisms (herbivory, predator-prey relationships, parasitism, symbiosis).
1.2 Materials Cycles, Energy Flow, Ecosystems
  • explain the importance of nutrient production through photosynthesis.
  • explain biological material cycles (C cycle, N cycle) and analyze and interpret data on energy flows.
  • describe an ecosystem by way of example and assess the effects of human activity.

2. Animal Organ Systems

Students are able to

2.1. Nutrition and Digestive Systems
  • explain the importance of food components for nutrition.
  • describe the structure and functioning of the digestive tract (enzymatic digestion, peristalsis, absorption).
2.2. Blood, Cardiovascular System, Respiration
  • describe the structure and evolution of animal hearts and cardiovascular systems and explain the functioning of the heart.
  • name the components of blood and explain their role in relation to various metabolic functions (erythrocyte, hemoglobin).
  • describe the anatomy of animal respiratory organs and their functioning.

3. Microbiology

Students are able to

3.1 Viruses and Bacteria

  • outline the structure of viruses and compare them to microorganisms.
  • describe viral and bacterial infectious diseases and modes of transmission (e.g. Covid-19, AIDS, influenza).
  • explain recombination processes and assess their importance in connection with the development of resistance.

 

3rd Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Professional Competences

1. Neurobiology

Students are able to

1.1 Structure and Function of Neurons
  • explain the structure of a neuron and its different functional areas (soma, dendrite, axon, axonal termination).
  • explain formation and transmission of excitation (action potential, synapse).
1.2 Structure and Organization of the Nervous System
  • name different areas of the nervous system and outline neuronal interconnection (brain, spinal cord, PNS, reflex arc).
  • explain the structure of a muscle and how it works.
1.3 Sensory Organs
  • illustrate the structure of a sensory organ and explain the transformation of stimuli into excitation (e.g. eye, ear).
1.4 Behavior, Learning, Addiction
  • outline learning mechanisms and forms of memory.
  • identify characteristics of addiction.

2. Hormones

Students are able to

2.1 Hormones
  • explain the mode of action of hormones.
  • illustrate regulatory circuits (e.g. blood glucose regulation).

3. Evolution

Students are able to

3.1 Invertebrates and Chordates
  • compare the basic structure plans of different animal groups (e.g. insects, chordates).
  • describe evolutionary developments of different animal groups (e.g. adaptation strategies).

4th Grade

Learning Areas and Content

Professional Competences

1. Classical Genetics

Students are able to

1.1 Mendelian Rules and their Exceptions
  • apply the Mendelian rules.
  • describe exceptions to the Mendelian rules and their biological significance (gene linkage, linkage disequilibrium).
1.2 Inheritance and Pedigree Analysis
  • determine hereditary traits using pedigrees and predict the inheritance of certain traits.

2. Molecular Genetics

Students are able to

2.1 Replication and Protein Biosynthesis
  • outline the structure of a DNA double helix and describe the process of replication.
  • explain the molecular processes of protein biosynthesis (transcription, translation).
2.2 Methods of Applied Genetics
  • Describe methods of applied genetics and their significance (e.g., restriction digestion, PCR, genetic fingerprinting).
  • discuss ethical aspects of applied genetics.

3. Immunology

Students are able to

3.1 Immune System and Immunisation
  • describe the mechanisms of the non-specific and specific immune response.
  • explain the principles of passive and active immunization.
  • explain dysfunctions of the immune system (e.g. allergies, autoimmune diseases, immune deficiencies).

4. Reproduction and Development

Students are able to

4.1 Meiosis
  • describe the process of meiosis and explain its importance in sexual reproduction (meiosis 1, meiosis 2, mating of homologues, crossing over).
4.2 Reproduction and Prenatal Development
  • describe the characteristic steps in embryonic and fetal development of vertebrates (zygote, furrow, blastula, gastrula).
  • describe the main stages of pregnancy and birth and name harmful influences on the development of the unborn child.

5. Evolution

Students are able to

5.1 Theories of Evolution and Mechanisms
  • explain different theories of evolution (including Darwin, Lamarck).
  • describe mutations as the engine of variability.
  • explain evolutionary mechanisms and apply them to practical examples.
  • explain different mechanisms of speciation.