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Session 9: Sciences collaborative session

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Session 9: Sciences collaborative session

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Session 5: Skills in the study of biology.

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Session 5: Skills in the study of biology.

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Session 4: Overarching frameworks: Approaches to learning (ATL) and the nature of science (NOS).

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Session 4: Overarching frameworks: Approaches to learning (ATL) and the nature of science (NOS).

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Session 3: Navigating the guide: The roadmap, guiding questions (GQ) and linking questions (LQ).

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Session 3: Navigating the guide: The roadmap, guiding questions (GQ) and linking questions (LQ).

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Session 1: Overview of the changes and rationale                                                      

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Session 1: Overview of the changes and rationale                                                      

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Essential understanding: Unit planning and course outlines for the new courses integrate the content, approaches to learning, NOS, skills in the study of biology, TOK, CAS, the learner profile, international mindedness, the scientific investigation and the collaborative science project.

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Essential understanding: Unit planning and course outlines for the new courses integrate the content, approaches to learning, NOS, skills in the study of biology, TOK, CAS, the learner profile, international mindedness, the scientific investigation and the collaborative science project.

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Essential understanding: The biology, chemistry and physics courses have the same aims and focus on NOS, as well as similar internal assessments and sciences skills.

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Essential understanding: The biology, chemistry and physics courses have the same aims and focus on NOS, as well as similar internal assessments and sciences skills.

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Essential understanding: The changes to internal assessment allow teachers to make connections with other aspects of the course.

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Essential understanding: The changes to internal assessment allow teachers to make connections with other aspects of the course.

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Essential understanding: Understanding the criteria and knowing how to interpret and apply them is essential for a successful internal assessment experience.

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Essential understanding: Understanding the criteria and knowing how to interpret and apply them is essential for a successful internal assessment experience.

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Essential understanding: The changes to external assessment align with the assessment objectives and many of the new biology aims.

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Essential understanding: The changes to external assessment align with the assessment objectives and many of the new biology aims.

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Essential understanding: The methods, tools and techniques that characterize biology are acquired when they are embedded and applied throughout the course.

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Essential understanding: The methods, tools and techniques that characterize biology are acquired when they are embedded and applied throughout the course.

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Essential understanding: Approaches to learning and nature of science are two overarching frameworks that help to develop learner profile attributes in students.

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Essential understanding: Approaches to learning and nature of science are two overarching frameworks that help to develop learner profile attributes in students.

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Essential understanding: The roadmap, guiding questions and linking questions, and skills underpin learning and teaching in DP biology.

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Essential understanding: The roadmap, guiding questions and linking questions, and skills underpin learning and teaching in DP biology.

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Essential understanding: Conceptual learning allows connections to be made between different areas of the subject to develop enduring understanding and facilitate the application of this knowledge in novel situations.

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Essential understanding: Conceptual learning allows connections to be made between different areas of the subject to develop enduring understanding and facilitate the application of this knowledge in novel situations.

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Essential understanding: The course changes align with IB philosophy, best practice in science education and feedback from stakeholders.

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Essential understanding: The course changes align with IB philosophy, best practice in science education and feedback from stakeholders.

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• To understand the changes to the IA criteria

• To apply the criteria to sample investigations

• To simulate the standardization process

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What have you heard about the new IA?

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• The new assessment model: internal assessment

• The new IA criteria

• Compare new and old; emphasize best-fi

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• To understand that NOS looks at the generation and justification of knowledge claims in science

• To identify opportunities and strategies to embed ATL and NOS in the course

• To reflect on the first four sessions

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Objectives for this session
• To understand that guiding questions give a sense of            what is covered in the topic
• To understand that the guide contains a non-exhaustive list of linking questions. LQs are intended to promote skills and promote links between the course understandings.

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Objectives for this session
• To explore the meaning of “conceptual understanding” in DP biology
• To explore the TSM resources developed for the “conceptual understanding” approach
• To recognize conceptual learning is encouraged throughout the IB programmes and in the approaches to teaching

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Objectives for this session -
• To give an overview of the curriculum review process
• To consider the necessary changes as indicated by            stakeholder feedback
• To understand the research-informed rationale for the intended pedagogical approach
• To consider the alignment of the new course with IB philosophy and the programme standards and practices

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• To integrate the course components into a scheme of work that supports teaching and learning.

• To connect the biology course to the learner profile, TOK, CAS, and international-mindedness to enhance learning.

• To collaborate on strategies that support inclusion.

• To reflect on the workshop and determine next steps.

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• To discuss the application of the IA criteria

• To develop strategies to prepare students to demonstrate mastery on questions designed to test conceptual understanding

• To reflect on sessions 5 to 8

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• 5 minutes to summarize the learning activities from session 3 with the rest of the group.
• After each has presented, take suggestions of possible approaches to teaching links from the group.

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• Think of a concept in the legacy biology course that is connected to another concept. For example, surface area is connected to gaseous exchange and absorption of nutrients in the digestive tract, diffusion is connected to the propagation of an action potential across a synapse and the movement of ions through ATP synthase.
• Consider how you teach students these connections. • Share this with your table.
• Have a brief discussion

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• Look at the biology roadmap.
o What do the topics within the level of organization of “cells” have in common?
o How are “themes” and “levels” connected?
o What is the role of the “skills” in the study of biology?

Skills: Learning and teaching through authentic scientific inquiry help support and develop the necessary skills to explain phenomena based on reliable evidence and logical reasoning. Developing these higher order skills enables students to become scientifically literate, lifelong learners.

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• Do you see yourself using the roadmap in class? If so, how? If not, why not?

• How do you see yourself using the GQs and LQs in class?

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See slides with the following options for this activity:
1. designing learning activities, option A: use a stimulus material to develop a learning activity
2. designing learning activities, option B: adapt a TSM resource
• Using the slides, ask participants to choose either option A or B to focus on in this session. Group those who choose the same option.
• Starting with either option A or B, ask teams to develop a learning activity that allows students to explore:
o an aspect of their choice of the biology curriculum o intra- and interdisciplinary connections
o the relevant micro- and macro-level concepts o any resources they could use
o where students might struggle and how teachers might support them.
• Groups summarize their work in a shared document, which can then be posted to Activity Padlet
• Groups present their summaries for activity 2 (5 mins per group).

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Session 3 Designing Learning  Activities

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List as many approaches to learning skills groupings and approaches to teaching pedagogical principles as they can from memory.

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Using the images posted below, choose the one that best represents how you feel about the new syllabus. Discuss why on Activity Padlet

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Use the slides to present on:

• planning the course.

• sequence and timings—encourage participants to volunteer some of the sequence and timing considerations they are faced with.

• what goes into planning the new DP biology course.

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Social Skills
Research Skills
Communication Skills
Self-management Skills
Thinking Skills

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• Prepare an outline of a scope and sequence or unit planner (not both) using the knowledge you now have of the new course and one of the templates.

• You may use one of the templates provided or use your own.

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Teaching based on inquiry.
Teaching focused on conceptual understandings.
Teaching developed in local and global contexts.
Teaching focused on effective teamwork and collaboration.
Teaching differentiated to meet the needs of all learners.
Teaching informed by assessments (both formative and summative).

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Information Regarding the Publication of Assessed Student Work

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Information Regarding the Publication of Assessed Student Work

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Information regarding Assessed Student work

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Assessment Outline plus External - Legacy

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• (10 min) Individually, participants complete a phrase-word-example activity for each NOS aspect. Participants will use the “Session 4 NOS aspects table” for this task. Ask participants to write a phrase and word to summarize and capture each aspect.
• (10 min) Individually, participants give examples of at least 5 of the 11 NOS aspects in biology. Ask participants to provide examples in the final column.
• (5 min) Pairs share their thoughts.
• (10 min) Collectively, participants choose their top three NOS examples and share them via Activity Padlet

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Shared Sciences: Biology, Chemistry and Physics

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Shared Sciences: Biology, Chemistry and Physics

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Shared_Sciences_TSM - Compiled for upskilling workshops

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Biology unit plan - Ecological interactions

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Biology unit plan - Water Membranes and cells

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1. Name
2. Total years teaching experience
3. Years teaching IB Biology - SL or HL?
4. If SL, is it a one or two year course?

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The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

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To be viewed in workshop.

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In groups, discuss one change that interests you.
Discuss the prompts below for each selected change and add a post to Padlet (Activity Padlet) (Password: Biology) summarizing your thoughts.
o State the change.
o What are the positive aspects of the change?
o Reflect on the implications of the change on your practice.
o Give two examples of how this change is connected to the IB mission and/or the learner profile.
o Give two examples of how this change aligns with the programme standards and practices.
• Padlet walk: participants comment on things they agree with.

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For this activity, participants should think individually about each of the following prompts, then discuss their thoughts on Activity Padlet
• What does a deep understanding of biology look like in a classroom?
• How can we, through our teaching, encourage a deep understanding?

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Participants read (or browse) the following resources.

o Read the “Conceptual learning” section in the guide. (p.17)
o Look at the conceptual learning section in the TSM.
o Skim the conceptual learning sections of other subject guides (such as mathematics or economics). Compare and contrast with biology.

Participants consider the emphasis on developing students’ conceptual understanding of biology, then discuss their response using the following sentence starters.

o “The emphasis on conceptual learning may present an opportunity to…”
o “However, a potential challenge might be…” o “This could be overcome by…”
Participants share answers with the whole group.

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• To appreciate that the approaches to learning support the development of assessable skills. These skills include experimental, mathematical, technological and scientific inquiry skills.
• To discuss ways to embed the “skills in the study of biology” in the course.

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• Share yesterday’s key takeaways.

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The approaches to learning, which are not assessed, are meant to support the development of the skills in the study of biology. And, as students gain proficiency with the biology skills, they will further their mastery of the approaches to learning skills.
The intention is that the skills in the study of biology are explicitly taught and practiced throughout the course. Many will be assessed through the IA and they could also appear in external assessment.

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Activity #1 - Integrating the skills in the study of biology into the course.

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Activity #1 - Integrating the skills in the study of biology into the course.

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• Assign a skills category in the Padlet
• Share the Padlet with participants.
• (20 min) Each group comes up with:
o examples of activities or resources that could be used to scaffold these skills into the course
o links to one or two specific approaches to learning

Example: Applying general mathematics: Calculating rates of change can be explored through enzyme-catalysed reactions, measuring the change in a dependent variable using sensors and then applying technology to process data. ATL: communication through an appropriate display of the data, thinking skills to appropriately process the data and reflect upon the results.)
• Each group shares briefly (5 min each, 30 min in total) in Activity Padlet

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Thinking Skills
Communication Skills
Social Skills
Research Skills
Self-management Skills

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• How do the skills in the study of biology compare to the legacy guide’s prescribed practicals? In the new curriculum, the theoretical context for the experimental work is no longer prescribed. Instead of focussing on specific experiments, the new curriculum allows students to develop a larger range of scientific skills.

• How do the approaches to learning support the development of the skills in the study of biology, and vice versa? Students’ approaches to learning skills will support their acquisition and understanding of the biology skills. In turn, learning the biology skills will provide them with opportunities to practice and improve their approaches to learning skills.

• What resources are needed to support the development of the skills in the study of biology? This might include a practical scheme of work, lab space, access to health and safety information, lab equipment, safe storage of chemicals, access to sensors, dataloggers and/or suitable apps, and so on

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• To explore the specimen papers and markschemes

• To consider how to prepare students for the new assessment model and corresponding objectives

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• Individually (15 min):
o look at specimen paper 1 o conduct the see-think-wonder routine by asking:
 what do you see?
 what do you think about that?
 what does it make you wonder?
o try to find examples of NOS, LQs, and skills questions.
• Share thoughts with table groups (10 min).

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 1A

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 1A

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 1B

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 1B

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - HL Paper 1A

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme HL Paper 1A

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - HL Paper 1B

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme HL Paper 1A(1)

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• Individually, participants mark an exemplar paper 2 (20 min). • On Padlet, table groups summarize their discussion of the following prompts (20 min).
o Where might students struggle?
o How do we prepare them for this?
o Share revision strategies you use with your students prior to an exam.

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 2

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FE2025 Specimen paper IB DP Biology - Mark scheme SL Paper 2