Fellow Frugal Biology Teachers: It Is Yard Sale Season!
The school year is coming to an end and now is a great time to look around your classroom and determine what your NEEDS are for next year.
After determining your needs, it is time to head out and find those items.
Tip: When shopping, let the people who are selling their stuff know you are a teacher. It makes bargaining a lot easier and in some cases they just give you the stuff.
Here is a checklist to get help you out. Print it out now and look around your classroom. Cross off the stuff you have or do not need. Add stuff that you do need but do not see on the list.
Using our Biology Scope and Sequence you will be able to present Biology content to your students in a logical manner.
Why is the Scope and Sequence arranged the way it is?
We are Biology teachers who have taught this course with well over 100 years of combined experience. We have debated, discussed and tweaked this order so it can be presented in a manner that we have found to be most successful.
Why doesn’t the Scope and Sequence include 180 days of instruction?
When you look at the total number of days that are written into the curriculum your will see two difference numbers (139/81).
One hundred and thirty nine days are planned out in our Full Biology Curriculum using (50) minute periods and eighty one days using (90 minute blocks).
As a team we discussed that we want to arrange the curriculum so that it could be flexible for teachers.
We wanted to save you time for reteaching, going over assessments, dealing with school-wide interruptions like large field trips, assemblies, school wide initiatives and local testing.
We also understand that every class is different and so is their pacing. With this flexibility you can take the extra time you need where you need it and still run a rigorous Biology Curriculum.
What if my state does not require everything that is in the USBT Curriculum?
In our Full Biology Curriculum detailed lesson plans, there are specific notes about areas that can be cut out or extended depending on your state’s requirements. For example, our Evolution unit includes speciation.
We know some states do not assess students on the speciation terminology so we created two separate assessments.
One assessment does not include speciation while the other does. There are also notes in the presentation to help guide the teacher so they know where the evolution assessment content ends and the speciation assessed content begins.
Materials List is Included
For our current members and future members we wanted to create a list of consumable materials that are used in each section of the curriculum. This list does not include general Biology lab supplies like microscopes, test tubes, beakers, pipettes ect.
When designing the Biology Curriculum we tried to make it economical yet engaging and hands-on. We assumed the teacher would only have access to a small budget for materials.
