This weekend I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a high school science teacher and we were talking about high school science textbooks. She was bemoaning the lack of teacher resources in the high school biology textbook her school uses. Sure, she has the teacher edition textbooks that go with the program, but she’s looking for something more. At the private school where she teaches, they’ve been using the program for a number of years and are hoping to change soon.
She had no idea the inquiry based science resources that are available online now. When I told her about the virtual autopsies that are available with our Forensic Science for High School program, she was so excited. That got me thinking, are you happy with the resources that school textbook publishers are providing for you as teachers? Does your high school physics textbook give you online resources for experiments & interactive learning exercises? Is your high school chemistry textbook robust enough to keep your students engaged? I’d love to have a conversation about this!
Looking for a great resource to assist you when looking for the right high school Biology textbook? If so, take a look at the following review of high school biology textbooks by The American Institute of Biological Sciences:
http://www.aibs.org/bookstore/resources/TextbookReview.pdf
Do you have a hard time getting all your students involved in biology class? Do some or most students sit back and let others do all the work? If so you need to look at Kendall Hunt's "A Human Approach" textbook.
One thing I hear when teachers implement our BSCS " A Human Approach" textbook in their classroom is students can't sit back and do nothing. This biology text gets everyone involved because of labs, journaling, discussion, etc. The collaborative aspect is very strong with this textbook
All students in their collaborative group have a job to do. No one can sit back and let others do all the work. Students are responsible for their own learning and the success of the group during their experiments or labs.
Students must keep a notebook and journal their activities and experiments daily. They will often refer back to previous entries as they move along in the activities.
The "AHA" textbook is not your typical worksheet driven biology book. Students must do the labs and experiments in order to get the answer. This is the most difficult part for some students to grasp. Teachers do not provide the answers and students must formulate their own opinion and reasoning.
Get your students involved in your biology classroom and check out the BSCS "A Human Approach" textbook.
Back in High School, I had wonderful teachers. I wanted to preface this before I went any further. I took all of the classes that were required for freshmen. During my freshaman year, my last class of the day was biology. My teacher, who will remain anonymous because she may be reading this, was instrumental in me not having any interest in science at all. She would lecture, lecture, lecture, and lecture some more. There was so much lecturing going on that my high school biology textbook didn't get much use at all. I can still picture the view of the neighborhood as I gazed out the window during class. As the school year went on, the more I disliked biology and the more my teacher sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher. The problem was that I was an active learner. I needed to be involved. I needed to get my hands dirty.
I went away to college and based off of my high school science experience, I decided to put off my college science requirements until my senior year. One of the courses that was offered was Introduction to Inquiry Biology. Let me tell you, this was nothing like my high school biology course. It was engaging and we had discussions in each class. I found myself taking the lead on many of the group assignments. I was amazed as to how biology could be taught in two different ways. I then began to ask what would have happened if I would have had a course like this in high school. Would I have majored in the science field of study. How many students are missing out on science because they are students like me and had a high school biology class like mine. I strongly believe that if you have a chance to implement an inquiry based science program in your school, do it. Why, you ask? Because Don said so.
How can we keep up with all the new and ever-changing technologies that have kids mesmerized? Teachers often feel overwhelmed with the challenges and options this digital culture presents to students. We want students to take advantage of all technology has to offer; however, how familiar are teachers with technology? Teachers often throw up their hands and say, “My students know how to work this stuff and I don’t” or “How can I utilize and implement something that I don’t understand?”
The digital world is growing and changing very fast. Technology companies release products so rapidly that there is little time for anyone to stop and think of the many issues that may arise with their use. Too often when schools and districts purchase new digital technology for their elementary school textbooks they look at all the bells and whistles and don’t think of how will this fit into an inquiry based science classroom or a teacher's daily lesson plan.
Technology offers exciting opportunities in the science textbook publishing arena, but for some teachers this strange new world can be intimidating. Thankfully, there is help available…
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for students, teachers, and administrators. With these standards, ISTE provides structure for utilizing technology in an effective and responsible way. This site offers a plethora of information, tips, direction, and support. You can even visit a school that has embraced the digital world: http://www.istevision.org/watch.php?vid=fc10dbd9251623e4379652fd1cb0ac54e5ad04a5
As an educational publisher we are committed to assisting teachers to best educate students. Inspiring teachers to transform their classrooms away from traditional teaching toward a new vision of student-centered learning is our mission.
We aim to offer technology that is relevant and to provide implementation support in our teacher edition textbooks. And if you are still struggling with turning on the laptop or downloading the Nano Legends game that came with your KH high school biology textbook, just ask your students for help...they love to show off their expertise.
Were you good at science? I loved science, and did fine in biology, but chemistry and physics? Not so much. I was having this conversation with a colleague last week and we were discussing the fact that at the time, most of our learning came from our high school biology textbook, our high school chemistry textbook, our high school physics textbook or some other high school science textbook. In biology, at least we got to dissect actual (formerly) living things, maybe that’s why it sunk in so much easier for me.
This led to a discussion about how lucky our kids are now to have so much available to them in the world of inquiry based science. Educational textbook publishers, like Kendall Hunt, well, we’re not just school textbook publishers anymore. Take, for instance, our Forensic Science for High School program. Yes, there is a book, but there’s also an interactive website with the new edition that will have virtual autopsies and other interactive investigations. Another of our programs, Nano Legends, is a video game in which students learn cellular biology by helping a nano-adventurer kill a cancer cell! There was a great article about learning through video games in the NY Daily News a couple months ago. You can read it here.
Learning science through video games…even I might have pulled an A out of Chemistry that way!
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, there was no such thing as talented and gifted resources, gifted education books, or, for that matter, talented and gifted education. We had accelerated courses, but those were more about working a grade level ahead, using a high school biology book in 8th grade, or using middle school books in 5th grade, rather than the textbooks for elementary school.
What type of accelerated learning resources is your school using? Do you have a budget for books for gifted students? At my son’s school, the gifted teacher does a wonderful job of creating projects for the children using ideas of her own because she doesn’t have a budget. But I think about how much easier her job would be and how much more robust the program could be if she had a budget to purchase a curriculum for high ability learners.
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