This isn't the way Nathan Amoth expected to approach biology.
"It's one of the only classes that I have that actually makes you think instead of going, sitting, listening, maybe doing some busywork and going home," said the 14-year-old freshman at Broadneck High School in Annapolis. "It's like my hardest class in the whole day."
On a recent morning, Amoth and his classmates were studying the salinity of the Chesapeake Bay, which varies with time of year and proximity to the ocean. Teacher Randy Stevens asked them to predict salty water's effect on various organisms: rockfish, oysters, bay grasses. And he asked them to start with nothing, just basic concepts and an empty chart waiting to be filled in.
This is the new biology. Gone are the days of lengthy forays into dissection: earthworms, frogs, then cats. Gone are the long lists of vocabulary words, begging to be memorized and spat back on pop quizzes. Gone are the so-called cookbook labs, step-by-step recipes for experiments with little need for student thought beyond following directions.
In its place for the past three years is a more concept-oriented, less detailed biology course that expects far more in the way of problem-solving and interaction among students and their teachers.
This change in Anne Arundel County's approach and similar refinements in the way biology is taught in other Maryland school districts are in anticipation of new state testing that could end up as a graduation requirement. The changes range from using computer models in place of textbooks in Carroll County, to offering more teacher training in Howard, to drafting a new final exam in Baltimore similar to the new state tests. Anne Arundel County started work on its new curriculum five years ago knowing the new tests were coming, but also because of the hue and cry nationwide that American students were far behind in science education. The new curriculum emphasizes application of broader concepts to problem-solving because complicated science is everywhere now. As one county science supervisor put it, there is more technology in a car dashboard than in Apollo 13.
"The how-to of putting the science [lesson] together was done by the author of the lab book," said Rochelle Slutskin, science coordinator of Anne Arundel County's public schools. "The difference in our new curriculum is we provide the students with the tools to be able to design and carry out their own learning."
The true trial of the new curriculum comes Jan. 8 and in May when Maryland does a statewide dry run of its biology assessment test, a test targeted to be a graduation requirement for the Class of 2007, today's sixth-graders.
Four other statewide assessments also are in the works - algebra, geometry, government and English - and will be fine-tuned and ready for implementation in the summer of 2003. Assessment tests - and curriculum adjustments - in Earth and space science, chemistry and physics will follow.
The state school board will decide in 2003 whether to make passing the biology assessment test a prerequisite for getting a high school diploma.
No decisions have been made on what to do with students who fail the first time around - whether they'll get more than one chance or some sort of help.
"That's when the high stakes for students will kick in," said Gary Hedges, in charge of science assessment at the Maryland State Department of Education.
In Baltimore County, the curriculum has been changed to reflect higher expectations in biology, said Ronald L. Barnes, the county's science coordinator. This year, the county has added assessment tests for each biology unit based on the state tests coming in May.
Baltimore City is working on a final exam that mirrors the state assessment test, said science specialist Beverly Feig.
In Howard County, teacher training programs have been a high priority, giving biology educators the help they need to change the way they teach this rapidly changing subject. The curriculum has been refined and officials have designed quarterly assessment tests to prepare students for the state assessment tests, said science coordinator Clarissa B. Evans.
In Carroll County, officials have changed the order in which courses are taught, moving chemistry to ninth grade to provide a foundation for 10th-grade biology, when biochemistry and biotechnology will be taught, said Brad Yohe, that county's science supervisor. The county also rewrote its curriculum, tossing aside biology textbooks in favor of computer software. The computer models of experiments enable students to do more in less time.
A photosynthesis experiment, for example, which determines the effect of light on the growth of plants, can be done without the painstaking process of waiting for the plants to grow. "If we did the experiment, it would take us months, and we can do it [on the computer] in just minutes," Yohe said.
