Essential knowledge 3.E.1: Individuals can act on information and communicate it to others.

Picture
A. Organisms exchange information with each other in response to internal changes and external cues, which can change behavior.

Students should be able to demonstrate understanding of the above concept by using an illustrative example such as:
• Fight or flight response 
• Predator warnings 
• Protection of young 
• Plant-plant interactions due to herbivory 
• Avoidance responses

B. Communication occurs through various mechanisms.
 Evidence of student learning is a demonstrated understanding of each of the following:
1. Living systems have a variety of signal behaviors or cues that produce changes in the behavior of other organisms and can result in differential reproductive success.
To foster student understanding of this concept, instructors can choose an illustrative example such as:
• Herbivory responses 
• Territorial marking in mammals 
• Coloration in flowers

2. Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical and chemical signals to indicate dominance, find food, establish territory and ensure reproductive success.

To foster student understanding of this concept, instructors can choose an illustrative example such as:

• Bee dances 
• Birds songs 
• Territorial marking in mammals 
• Pack behavior in animals 
• Herd, flock, and schooling behavior in animals 
• Predator warning 
• Colony and swarming behavior in insects 
• Coloration

Responses to information and communication of information are vital to natural selection and evolution. [See also 1.A.2]
Evidence of student learning is a demonstrated understanding of the following:

1. Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase survival and reproductive fitness.
Students should be able to demonstrate understanding of the above concept by using an illustrative example such as:

• Parent and offspring interactions 
• Migration patterns 
• Courtship and mating behaviors 
• Foraging in bees and other animals 
• Avoidance behavior to electric fences, poisons, or traps

2. Cooperative behavior tends to increase the fitness of the individual and the survival of the population.

To foster student understanding of this concept, instructors can choose an illustrative example such as:
  • Pack behavior in animals 
  • Herd, flock and schooling behavior in animals 
  • Predator warning 
  • Colony and swarming behavior in insects


✘✘ The details of the various communications and community behavioral systems are beyond the scope of the course and the AP Exam.

Essential knowledge 3.E.2: Animals have nervous systems that detect external and internal signals, transmit and integrate information, and produce responses.

Picture
a. The neuron is the basic structure of the nervous system that reflects function.

Evidence of student learning is a demonstrated understanding of each of the following:

1. A typical neuron has a cell body, axon and dendrites. Many axons have a myelin sheath that acts as an electrical insulator.

2. The structure of the neuron allows for the detection, generation, transmission and integration of signal information.

3. Schwann cells, which form the myelin sheath, are separated by gaps of unsheathed axon over which the impulse travels as the signal propagates along the neuron.

B. Action potentials propagate impulses along neurons.
 Evidence of student learning is a demonstrated understanding of each of the following:
1. Membranes of neurons are polarized by the establishment of electrical potentials across the membranes.
2. In response to a stimulus, Na+ and K+ gated channels sequentially open and cause the membrane to become locally depolarized.
3. Na+/K+ pumps, powered by ATP, work to maintain membrane potential.

C. Transmission of information between neurons occurs across synapses.
 Evidence of student learning is a demonstrated understanding of each of the following:

1. In most animals, transmission across synapses involves chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

To foster student understanding of this concept, instructors can choose an illustrative example such as:
  • • Acetylcholine 
  • • Epinephrine 
  • • Norepinephrine 
  • • Dopamine 
  • • Serotonin 
  • • GABA

2. Transmission of information along neurons and synapses results in a response.

3. The response can be stimulatory or inhibitory. Different regions of the vertebrate brain have different functions.
To foster student understanding of this concept, instructors can choose an illustrative example such as: