What Are AP Biology Labs, and Why Are They Important?
AP® Biology labs are inquiry-based investigations that help you learn biology through hands-on experimentation. Instead of just reading about cellular processes, genetics, or ecosystems, you explore them by designing procedures, collecting data, and explaining results using scientific reasoning. These labs build the same skills you need for AP Biology exam questions, especially data interpretation, graph analysis, and evidence-based explanations.
These labs are also a required part of the course. The College Board® expects teachers to spend at least 25% of class time on lab investigations. Schools must complete a minimum of 8 labs, including 2 labs from each of the four big ideas: evolution, energetics, information storage and transmission, and system interactions. That’s why lab work isn’t optional; it’s a major part of how you learn and how you’re assessed throughout the year.
AP Biology Lab Materials
Most AP Biology lab materials are similar to what you’ve used in earlier science classes, including basic glassware, measuring tools, and safety equipment. However, some investigations may require specialized tools like gel electrophoresis equipment, respirometers, spectrophotometers, or potometers, depending on what your school provides. Along with the right materials, you’ll also need to know how to document your work clearly, since many classes require lab reports to explain your procedure, results, and conclusions. Even if your classroom setup looks different, the goal stays the same: practice core scientific skills like experimental design, data analysis, and biological reasoning.
AP Biology Labs List: The 13 Required Investigations
The AP Biology lab manual includes 13 inquiry-based investigations that align with the College Board’s course framework. Your teacher may use these exact investigations or substitute similar inquiry-based AP bio labs, as long as your class completes the required minimum lab time and covers the four big ideas: evolution, energetics, information storage and transmission, and system interactions.
Below is a clear breakdown of the 13 required AP Biology investigative labs, grouped by the four big ideas.
Evolution
These AP Biology labs focus on how populations change over time, how traits are inherited, and how scientists use evidence to explain biodiversity.
Investigation 1: Artificial Selection
You design an experiment using Wisconsin Fast Plants® to observe how selective breeding affects traits across generations. You’ll collect data, analyze patterns, and explain how human choices can shift genetic variation in a population.
Investigation 2: Mathematical Modeling: Hardy-Weinberg
This study, which is often called the AP Biology Hardy Weinberg lab, uses modeling to keep track of allele frequencies over time. You’ll explore what happens when Hardy-Weinberg conditions are disrupted and connect the results to real evolutionary forces like natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift.
Investigation 3: Comparing DNA Sequences to Understand Evolutionary Relationships (BLAST)
Using the BLAST tool, you compare DNA sequences and determine how closely related organisms are. You’ll use evidence from sequence similarity to build evolutionary explanations and create a cladogram.
Energetics
Energetics labs explore how organisms move materials, capture energy, and release energy to power life processes. These are some of the most common and high-interest AP bio labs, including diffusion/osmosis, photosynthesis, and respiration.
Investigation 4: Diffusion and Osmosis
Often searched as the AP bio diffusion and osmosis lab or lab one diffusion and osmosis, this investigation looks at how molecules move across membranes. You’ll model diffusion using artificial cells, observe osmosis in plant cells, and connect results to surface area-to-volume ratio and water potential.
Investigation 5: Photosynthesis
Commonly called the AP bio photosynthesis lab, this investigation focuses on how environmental variables affect photosynthesis rate. You’ll collect data, graph results, and explain how light energy is converted into chemical energy in biological systems.
Investigation 6: Cellular Respiration
Known as the AP bio cell respiration lab or AP Biology cellular respiration lab, this investigation uses a respirometer to measure respiration rate. You’ll analyze how factors like temperature or organism type impact energy release and connect evidence to cellular metabolism.
Information Storage and Transmission
These labs focus on how cells store, process, and pass on genetic information. Many students recognize these AP Biology labs because they involve biotechnology, DNA, and cell division.
Investigation 7: Cell Division: Mitosis and Meiosis
This investigation includes modeling chromosomes and analyzing how cells divide. You’ll compare mitosis and meiosis, explore genetic variation through crossing over, and interpret results using data analysis and statistics like chi-square testing.
Investigation 8: Biotechnology: Bacterial Transformation
Often searched as the AP Biology bacterial transformation lab, this investigation explores how bacteria can take up plasmids and express new traits, like antibiotic resistance. You’ll connect your results to gene expression and modern genetic engineering.
Investigation 9: Biotechnology: Restriction Enzyme Analysis of DNA
This lab is strongly connected to the AP Bio gel electrophoresis lab. You’ll use restriction enzymes to cut DNA and run samples through gel electrophoresis to analyze fragment patterns. This investigation helps you understand how scientists compare DNA evidence and interpret banding results.
System Interactions
System interactions labs focus on how organisms and ecosystems respond to changes, maintain balance, and interact with each other. These labs often include physiology, behavior, and ecological energy flow.
Investigation 10: Energy Dynamics
You’ll explore how energy moves through ecosystems by measuring productivity and analyzing energy transfer between organisms. This lab strengthens your ability to connect data to ecological principles like trophic levels and population change.
Investigation 11: Transpiration
Often searched as the AP bio transpiration lab, this investigation measures water loss in plants using a potometer. You’ll test environmental factors such as humidity, light, airflow, and temperature to see how they affect transpiration rate.
Investigation 12: Fruit Fly Behavior
Sometimes called the AP Biology fruit fly lab or animal behavior lab, this investigation analyzes how organisms respond to stimuli. You’ll observe patterns in behavior and use statistical reasoning to determine whether responses are random or influenced by environmental cues.
Investigation 13: Enzyme Activity
Known as the AP bio enzyme lab, this investigation focuses on enzyme-catalyzed reaction rates. You’ll test variables like pH or temperature, analyze how enzyme structure affects function, and explain results using biological cause-and-effect reasoning.
Common Scientific Skills Practiced Across AP Biology Labs
Even though each investigation covers a different topic, most bio labs build the same core scientific skills. These skills help you think like a scientist instead of just remembering facts. They also show up often on the exam, especially in questions that involve data, experiments, and evidence-based explanations. If you want extra support, a structured study plan can help you practice these skills, and a quick review of the equation and formula sheet can make calculations and graph-based questions feel much easier.
- Experimental design: Set up controlled experiments by identifying variables, controls, and constants.
- Data collection & graphing: Record results clearly and use graphs to show trends with correct labels and units.
- Statistical reasoning: Use math and basic stats to decide if patterns in data are meaningful.
- Error analysis: Identify sources of error and explain how they may impact your results.
- Biological argumentation: Make a claim and support it with evidence and biology-based reasoning.
AP Biology Lab Manual: What It Covers and Common Lab Challenges
The AP Biology lab manual is a College Board resource that outlines inquiry-based lab investigations used in AP Biology. It includes the 13 investigative labs, along with background concepts, guiding questions, suggested procedures, and expectations for data analysis and scientific explanations. It also helps you connect lab work to the course’s key concepts, like evolution, energy transfer, genetics, cell communication, and interactions within biological systems. The goal is to help you practice real lab skills that connect directly to course concepts and exam-style reasoning.
Even with a strong biology foundation, students often run into common challenges during biology labs, such as
- Interpreting complex data sets: Multiple trials and variables can make it hard to identify the main trend. Focus on overall patterns, not small fluctuations in individual data points.
- Identifying variables correctly: Confusing independent, dependent, and control variables can weaken your conclusion. A quick variable check before starting the lab can help you stay on track.
- Explaining results biologically: You need to explain why results happened, not just describe the numbers. Always connect your results back to a key biology concept like diffusion, enzyme activity, or gene expression.
- Connecting lab outcomes to exam questions: Labs build the same skills tested on MCQs and FRQs, especially data interpretation and evidence-based reasoning. Reviewing lab-style questions after each investigation can make exam prep feel much easier.
Frequently Asked Questions About AP Biology Labs
How many labs are required for AP Biology?
Most AP Biology classes complete at least 8 required labs during the school year. The College Board expects teachers to spend a significant amount of instructional time on lab investigations, and those labs must cover each of the course’s four big ideas. The AP Biology lab manual includes 13 inquiry-based investigations, and many teachers use all of them. Others may select fewer labs as long as the course still meets the required lab expectations.
If you’re self-studying or your class doesn’t complete every investigation, you can still build the same skills by practicing with lab-style data sets and AP-level questions. UWorld’s AP Biology prep resources can help you strengthen experimental reasoning and data interpretation without needing a full lab setup.
Are AP Biology labs tested directly on the AP exam?
Yes, AP Biology labs are tested, but the exam won’t ask you to recall exact lab steps. Instead, the AP exam focuses on the skills you build in bio labs, such as analyzing experiments, interpreting graphs, and explaining results using biological reasoning.
You may see questions that include a lab scenario, data table, or graph and ask you to identify variables, predict outcomes, or justify a conclusion. These are the same thinking skills you use during investigations like diffusion and osmosis, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration.
The best way to prepare is to get comfortable with lab-style questions and explanations. It helps you get faster at interpreting graphs, analyzing experiments, and explaining results using evidence. You can also build confidence by reviewing FRQ practice throughout your study plan.
Do all schools perform the same AP Biology labs?
Schools do different AP Biology labs. While many teachers use the investigations from the AP Biology lab manual, they’re allowed to substitute other inquiry-based labs that align with the course framework.
This is why one school might do a classic enzyme or catalase lab, while another uses a different setup that tests the same concept. The important part is that the lab is inquiry-based and builds skills like experimental design, data analysis, and scientific argumentation.
So if your friend’s bio labs list looks different from yours, don’t worry. What matters most is understanding the concepts and being able to interpret and explain experimental results.
Do students need to memorize lab procedures?
No, you don’t need to memorize every step of every lab procedure. The AP Biology exam isn’t testing whether you remember the exact materials used or the order of steps in a specific investigation.
You should know what the lab is measuring, what variables are involved, and what the results mean. Being able to read an experimental setup and predict what happens when a variable changes is much more important than memorizing instructions.
A strong way to study is to focus on the concepts and skills each lab is teaching. Tools like UWorld can support this by giving you AP-style questions that test reasoning and application, not just recall. If you AP Biology exam course want more structured support, an AP Biology prep course can also help you stay on track with guided practice and targeted explanations.
Are AP Biology labs mandatory for exam eligibility?
AP Biology labs aren’t mandatory for exam eligibility, so you can still register for and take the AP Biology exam even if you’re self-studying or your course doesn’t complete every investigation.
However, labs are still a major part of learning AP Biology. They teach you how to work with data, evaluate evidence, and explain biological processes in a way that matches the exam’s expectations.
If you don’t have access to full lab experiences, you can still prepare effectively by practicing lab-based questions, reviewing common investigations, and using resources like UWorld to strengthen the skills that labs are meant to build.
References
- (2024). Hands-On Labs. AP Biology. AP Central Retrieved January 22, 2025 from https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-biology/course-audit
- (2019). Investigations. AP® BIOLOGY INVESTIGATIVE LABS: An Inquiry-Based Approach. AP Central Retrieved January 22, 2025 from https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-biology-teacher-lab-manual-effective-fall-2019_1.pdf
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