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Biology

A complete biology course, built one module at a time. Every module is short videos plus the written explanation, the vocabulary and the practice that go around them. This page is the whole map, including the parts that are not built yet.

How this course works#

Each module answers one large question and breaks into about a dozen short videos, each of which answers exactly one smaller question. You can watch a single video and get something out of it, or read a module end to end and come out with the whole picture. Nothing here is gated: there is no account, no email, no trial period.

The videos are made by A Wandering Mind, which is our own channel, so the same diagrams, colours and characters run through the entire course. The written material on these pages is not a transcript of the videos. It is the slower version, with the parts that do not fit in sixty seconds put back in.

The course is built on the eight units of College Board AP Biology, the NGSS life science strands and the scope of OpenStax Biology 2e, so the sequence should line up with most introductory syllabi. It is a study aid, not a substitute for a course you are enrolled in.

Structure and functionWhy a thing's shape is usually the explanation for what it does.
Energy and matterWhere energy comes from, where it goes, and what is conserved.
InformationHow instructions are stored, copied, read and occasionally misread.
EvolutionWhy anything alive is the way it is rather than some other way.
SystemsWhat happens when parts that each make sense are put together.

The 23 modules#

The order runs parts, cells, energy, information, inheritance, evolution, organisms, ecosystems, application. You do not have to follow it. Each module names what it assumes, so if you arrive in the middle and hit something unfamiliar, you will be told where it was introduced.

  1. BIO 01

    What Is Life? How Biology Works

    What separates something living from something that merely moves or grows, and how biologists tell a hypothesis from a guess.

    Planned
  2. BIO 02

    Chemistry of Life

    Atoms, bonds and water. Why a molecule with no overall charge can still have a positive end and a negative end, and why that one fact explains so much.

    Planned
  3. BIO 03

    Biological Macromolecules

    The four families of molecule life builds with, and why a protein's shape is not a detail but the entire point.

    Planned
  4. BIO 04

    Cells: The Basic Unit of Life

    What is inside a cell, what each part is for, and what a plant cell has that an animal cell does not.

    Planned
  5. BIO 05

    Cell Membranes and Transport

    How a cell controls what crosses its edge, and why osmosis is not the cell deciding anything.

    Planned
  6. BIO 06

    Energy, ATP and Enzymes

    Why a reaction that gives off energy still needs a push to start, and what an enzyme actually does about it.

    Planned
  7. BIO 07

    Photosynthesis

    Where a plant's mass really comes from, and why the oxygen it releases came out of water rather than out of carbon dioxide.

    Available
  8. BIO 08

    Cellular Respiration and Fermentation

    How a cell gets usable energy out of sugar, with oxygen and without it, and why you exhale carbon.

    Planned
  9. BIO 09

    Cell Communication and Homeostasis

    How cells send messages to each other, and how a body holds conditions steady by correcting constantly rather than by staying still.

    Planned
  10. BIO 10

    Cell Cycle, Mitosis and Cancer

    How one cell becomes two, the checkpoints that police it, and what cancer is once those checkpoints stop working.

    Planned
  11. BIO 11

    Meiosis and Heredity

    Why siblings are not identical, and how much Mendel worked out without knowing that DNA existed.

    Planned
  12. BIO 12

    DNA, Replication and Mutation

    How biological information is stored, how it is copied, and what happens on the occasions it is copied wrong.

    Planned
  13. BIO 13

    Gene Expression: DNA to RNA to Protein

    How a cell reads a gene and builds the protein it describes, and why cells carrying identical DNA end up completely different.

    Planned
  14. BIO 14

    Evolution and Natural Selection

    How populations change across generations, why an individual does not evolve, and what antibiotic resistance demonstrates in real time.

    Planned
  15. BIO 15

    Evolutionary Relationships and the Diversity of Life

    How biologists work out what is related to what, and what a branching tree diagram is actually claiming.

    Planned
  16. BIO 16

    Microbes, Viruses and Host Defense

    Bacteria, viruses, why a virus is not a cell, and how a body learns to recognise something it has met before.

    Planned
  17. BIO 17

    Plant Biology

    How water climbs a tree without a pump, how a plant senses which way is up, and what a flower is for.

    Planned
  18. BIO 18

    Animal Physiology: Exchange, Transport and Waste

    How animal bodies take material in, move it to where it is needed, and get rid of what is left over.

    Planned
  19. BIO 19

    Animal Physiology: Control, Movement, Defense and Reproduction

    Nerves, hormones, muscle and development: how a body coordinates parts that are nowhere near each other.

    Planned
  20. BIO 20

    Ecology: Populations and Communities

    What stops a population growing forever, and what organisms do to one another when they share a place.

    Planned
  21. BIO 21

    Ecosystems, Matter and Energy

    Why energy runs out as it moves along a food chain while matter keeps going round indefinitely.

    Planned
  22. BIO 22

    Biodiversity, Conservation and Human Impact

    What biodiversity actually measures, what removes it, and what goes missing along with it.

    Planned
  23. BIO 23

    Biotechnology, Bioengineering and the Future of Biology

    Reading and editing genomes, growing tissue, and the judgement calls that arrive with both.

    Planned

Where this course stands today#

One module of twenty-three is published. That is module 07, photosynthesis, and it is out first for an unglamorous reason: its videos were already made. The rest of the course is planned in the same detail you see above, and is being built module by module.

We would rather show you the whole map with one pin in it than show you one page and imply there is more behind it. If you want the next module to be a particular one, the fastest way to say so is a comment on the channel.

While the course is being built#

Kestrel Exams already has two other things that may be more use to you today. The study guides are single-topic explainers for specific things people get stuck on, several of which are maths and programming rather than biology. And Kestrel Exams .org carries the longer science writing, with the citations attached.

Frequently asked questions#

Is this really free?

Yes. No account, no email address, no paywall, no trial that expires. Everything published is readable and watchable by anyone who opens the page.

Do I have to go in order?

No. Each module stands on its own and names the ideas it assumes, so you can start anywhere and backfill. The numbered order is simply the order that builds fastest from nothing.

Does this line up with AP Biology or my college course?

It is built on the eight AP Biology units, the NGSS life science strands and the scope of OpenStax Biology 2e, so the coverage should be familiar. It is an independent study aid, though, and it is not affiliated with the College Board or with any school.

Why are there videos and written pages for the same thing?

Because they do different jobs. A sixty-second video can show you a mechanism moving, which text cannot. Text can put back the qualifications, the exceptions and the history that will not fit in sixty seconds. Each module gives you both.