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Secondary Biology Standards

The following outline is a brief summary of the National and State Standards for 9-12 Biology Education. I have also included some of my own thoughts and reflections on the standards.

I. National 9-12 Biology Standards

• Trends in Content
  
  • Develop students’ ability and understanding of scientific inquiry
    
  • Topics:
    
    • The Cell
      
    • Molecular Basis of Heredity (DNA, chromosomes)
      
    • Biological Evolution (mutations, natural selection, classification)
      
    • Interdependance of Organisms (cycles, energy flow, relationships, carrying capacity, human effects)
      
    • Matter, Energy and Organization in Living systems (energy flow etc.)
      
    • Behavior of Organisms (nervous system, response to environment, natural selection)
      
• B. Trends in Instruction
  
  • Toward:
    
    • inquiry-based learning
      
    • student involvement in inquiry, classroom set-up, assessment etc.
      
    • group discussions evaluating the soundness of scientific models etc.
      
    • focus on extended investigations
      
    • Start with student knowledge, interest, abilities etc.
      
  • Away from:
    
    • lecture
      
    • memoriztion, recitation
      
    • stictly following text and curriculum
      
• C. Developmental Issues
  
  • Students will have difficulty with:
    
    • higher level thinking and problem solving
      
    • evaluation of ideas and models
      
    • unbiased scientific thought (making conclusions from well-designed experiments rather than general oberservations, impressions and experiences).
      
• D. Interesting Components
  
  • Progressive with a lot of flexibility and room for teacher agency
    
  • Focused on process rather than product
    
  • Assessment focuses:
    
    • elegance
      
    • behavior in the face of adversity
      
  • Examples:
    
    • good concrete examples of ways in which these techniques are being used in the classroom (balances broad, general nature of content and instructional standards)
      
• E. Questionable Components
  
  • Too broad? How can you assess whether or not these standards are being met (especially on a national level)?
    
  • Third grade music and sound example:
    
  • interesting, but would students necessarily come away with a genuine understanding of the concepts and properties of sound?
    
  • Seems to be dependent on something else unstated – assumed by certain teachers
    
  • structure could be misused so that this is just an activity

II. State 9-12 Biology Standards

• Trends in Content
  
  • General topics:
    • Structure and function
    • Chemical basis of life
    • Inheritance and molecular expresssion at a molecular level
    • Theory of Evolution
      
  • Specific topics: click here to view Specific Standards for Grades 7. 10 and 12
    
• B. Trends in Instruction
  
  • Toward:
    
    • The ability to not only know information, but critically evaluate, analyze, judge and interpret scientific information, data conclusions.
      
• C. Developmental Issues
  • As students move up through the grades, they should be developing the ability to use higher thinking and knowing levels on Bloom's Taxonomy (i.e. from being able to explain a concept, to being able to apply it to being able to evaluate it's soundness).
    
• D. Interesting Components
  
  • Focus on development toward a higher and more complex level of knowing and understanding information.
  • Provides a specific and strong norm guide of what students should know and when they should know it. It would be possible to make a standardized test for all students in the state based on these standards.
    
• E. Questionable Components
  
  • Too specific? The State standards don't give indications of how students should be taught or specific methods that should be employed.
  • Not all of these concepts and material may be directly relavent to student's lives. Are teachers allowed to pick and choose?
  • There is a lot of information to be covered here. Do teachers have the flexibilty to sacrifice bredth for depth?

III. Conclusions

• Both sets of standards are useful, but in different ways.
  • National Standards provide more general standards regarding the process of how students should be educated.
  • The State Standards provide more specific standards regarding the product of what students should know.
• Neither one is entirely sufficient in and of itself, but are helpful tools when examined together in a context-specific manner.
• Teachers need to have the flexibility to deviate from some aspects of the standards depending on the context in which they are teaching. Standards should be a guide, not a set of rules.

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