This week I attended a performance by a student in my senior IB Standard Biology class. She is a singer/songwriter and has performed her work internationally. It was her first 'Thursday night' performance in the city and I attended with several other faculty members. While I knew she was talented, her repertoire and stage presence blew me away and I couldn't compliment her enough. This is a student who up until that point I had only ever had contact with in the context of teaching her IBS Biology.
IBS Biology as a course attracts a wide range of students - those who already had higher course but enjoy Biology, those who were eligible for standard Biology and chose it over other Sciences (or could only choose Biology), and then there are those who need a Science to obtain their IB diploma and Biology is regarded as the 'easiest option'. Recently, with my senior class in particular, I have given much thought to what my students will leave my class with if, for various reasons, they choose never to continue studying Biology or Science again in college or beyond. Give the range of students and reasons for choosing the the class this is quite possible!
The IB curriculum is extremely content heavy, although it is based around the IB learner profile and has a significant focus on 'planning labs' where students design, implement and analyze the data from their own investigations. I initially began a website of video tutorials focusing on the content and standards - part of the reason I was chosen as ToF - however I am increasingly leaning towards those skills in tutorials that reach beyond a Science curriculum. While I completely respect that a significant number of those skills, for example interpersonal, do not lend themselves to a 'video tutorial', several do. In fact my top three most popular tutorials are those based on using MS Excel in order to support data analysis.
Narrow though that might be (MS Excel is clearly not the only means to use in data analysis!), it has made me focus more strongly on the fact that in a course like IBS Biology, with the 'audience' described, I should be placing in many ways much more focus on the development of skills such as data analysis, scientific presentation of findings and the scientific method relative to the content. Now disclaimer... it is not that I do not currently engage the student in developing these skills, nor that I am suggesting the content is not significant, it is a Biology course after all and required as part of it. I am simply sharing here a reflection and self-evaluation of the weight given to each, based on the range of students in the course and the reasons they chose to take it.
The student I watched perform on stage this week has told me she will likely never take Biology after she leaves high school, not because she does not enjoy it but because it is not her area of focus for the future. She did however share that she has been challenged to think logically through a problem and its variables in order to reach a conclusion, skills which she will carry with her no matter which field she pursues. In this way, the skills have been more important for her that the content.
How have you felt the balance of content and skills is weighted in your subject or curriculum area? Does this change depending on the level (higher vs standard)? What skills do you think are most important for high school students to leave school with?