A Call to All BC Senior Biology Teachers and Stakeholders

Preamble - A Call for Change in Senior Biology Curriculum

At the last two BC Science Institutes held on the provincial professional development day in October 2009 and 2010, senior science biology teachers have met to discuss issues related to the teaching of biology. While not a geographically representative sample or an exhaustive survey of all British Columbia biology teachers, at both meetings these educators expressed concern over the current state of senior biology in British Columbia.

These concerns included:

• a disjointed senior biology curriculum that does not align to the junior science curriculum and missing key concepts of biology like genetics.

• the need for an overall framework for senior science biology that supports the major themes of biology as identified by various science education curriculum initiatives and supported by peer reviewed
  academic research.

• a lack of academic rigour and lab experience standards to senior biology courses being offered on-line.  While no one is opposed to on-line courses, there is a need for standards, and an enforcement of those standards, to ensure the high
  quality teaching and learning now occurring in the "brick and mortar" schools is maintained.

• higher education stakeholders, parents, students, administrators, school board officials and counselors currently misunderstand and undervalue the importance of biology 11 in a students school science
  experiences.

As a result of the above four concerns, students are not discovering the sense of wonder and scope of career possibilities biology has to offer.

The group of teachers that met on October 21, 2010 support the call for a new biology 11 and 12 curriculum development process to be initiated. We also recognize the need for support from all groups with an interest in senior science biology for this to become an issue for the Ministry of Education. The group agreed to post the following summary of key words they brainstormed as a starting point for the discussion. If this discussion engages the biology teaching community, Lionel Sandner (President of Edvantage Interactive and the company hosting bcscienceinteractions.com) will invite Ministry of Education officials and School Board superintendents to join the conversation.

Beginning the Conversation

We believe a new senior science biology 11 and 12 curriculum for British Columbia requires reflection and comment on the following:

What do you think?
What's missing?
What should be removed or added?

Come join the conversation...