Curriculum Committee Supporting Transition from School to Higher Education
On July 8th 2016 the Biology Curriculum Committee hosted an event at the University of Birmingham for teachers of biology in schools and higher education.
The purpose of the meeting was to bring together members of the bioscience education community to discuss post 16 biology education and consider the recent changes that have taken place, how this will impact on the skills and understanding that biology students will have and how to support them into higher education. At this event there were a number of speakers discussing practical work, mathematical skills, innovative teaching and collaborations between universities and schools. At the end of the day there was a workshop on a draft document developed by the RSB Curriculum Committee which focused on practical and transferable skills that should be developed in post 16 education biology.
The delegate booklet and the RSB draft discussion document are available along with a storify of the tweets. The outline of the day and the speakers slides are below:
Agenda
Session 1 Skills development between school and university
a) Overview of changes to A level Biology & impact of reforming biology qualifications
Dr Katherine Hands-Taylor Subject Specialist at OCR - slides
Ann Fullick Education Consultant - slides
Dr Nick Dixon Head of Department at Magdalen College School - slides
b) Mathematical Skills
Dr Jenny Koenig Lecturer, Researcher and Secondary Science Teacher - references -
slides
c) Transitioning from School to University
Dr Leanne Williams Senior Lecturer School of Life Sciences University of Warwick -
slides
d) Skills Discussion Panel
Session 2 Innovative teaching and collaborations between universities and schools
a) Innovative Teaching Practice in Schools and Universities
Dr Paul Weeks Head of Biology at Oxford High School - slides
School Biology Teacher of the Year 2015 - teaching blog biological burblings
Professor Mark Clements Director of Education / Chair in Science Education University
of Lincoln, Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year 2015 - slides
b) Schools and University Collaborations
Dr David Colthurst Simon Langton Boys School, Authentic Biology Programme - slides
c) Discussion Panel
Session 3 Development of the post 16 biology curriculum
a) Workshop discussing the RSB Curriculum Committee post 16 skills document.
Your input
We would like to hear from anyone interested in the work the committee are doing and welcome comments on the draft document. Within TalkBiology there is a curriculum consultation forum where we will continue to gather input from our wider stakeholders on the draft post 16 document.