Teaching biology is highly rewarding for teachers and students alike! Kids love learning about their world, and when you combine this with strong pedagogical practices for biology teaching, you’ve got a strong recipe for student engagement and some fun in the classroom too.

Regardless of the grade level you are working with, there are many ways that you can approach biology teaching that are meaningful and rewarding.

Active Learning Approaches

Active learning involves encouraging inquiry-based activities where students formulate hypotheses, conduct experiments, and analyse data.

• Have a look outside your classroom to see where this might be possible! Can you take students on a bushwalk nearby to investigate changes in vegetation structure with altitude or proximity to water?
• What scientific tools do you have at your disposal to measure biological change? Even your phone has access to a variety of apps that can support your biology teaching in real time.
• Can you use project-based learning for real-world applications? For example, can you make a school garden and measure fruit output, leaf colouration, responses to soils and more.
• Make your own quadrats and line transects to create your biological surveys.
• How might you incorporate collaborative group work? Groupwork fosters teamwork, peer learning, and communication skills and active learning in biology teaching directly facilitates this.

Hands-On Laboratory Experiences

Students love a laboratory experience where they get to be hands-on with the content that you’re teaching. By providing students with regular lab experiences, you will not only reinforce theoretical concepts through experimentation, you’ll also increase student interest in science overall as they use the tools in your lab.

• Use microscopes (both analogue and digital) to investigate both prepared media as well as media that the students have created themselves. Can they use biological stains to show certain structures?
• A flower dissection practical is always a winner when combined with models of flowers and supporting visuals. Challenge students to swap groups halfway through the practical and see if their pattern group have labelled their specimens appropriately.
• Challenge students to identify organic in a human model.
• Investigate a chicken wing in a simple dissection and compare the bone structure with that of human, whale and bat hand structures.
• Utilise simulations and virtual labs to supplement or expand traditional laboratory experiences, especially when resources are limited. This is especially handy when student dissections are not appropriate.

Integration of Technology

There are so many ways to incorporate educational technologies into the biology classroom. From mobile apps through to handheld digital technologies, opportunities abound.

• Artificial intelligence is being used in applications such as disease recognition in animals to plant identification in the field. How can you incorporate artificial intelligence into your biology classroom? Can you use it to analyse large data sets to pick up trends not readily apparent?
• Search for interactive apps, virtual reality or simulations to visualise complex biological processes. You can go inside a cell or learn about the solar system with augmented reality.
• Use digital tools like bioinformatics software, databases, or online resources for data analysis and exploration.
• Use Raspberry Pi units, Micro:bits or similar to create smart gardens that water themselves when soil moisture is dry.
• Technology doesn’t necessarily mean digital. How might you apply analogue technology to solve a given biology challenge?

Inquiry and Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Problem-based learning is simply that – solving problems! Given the chance, students are natural problem solvers, especially when they practice solving problems over and over again.

• Create open-ended questions and scenarios that require students to apply biological knowledge to novel situations. For example, how can you use biological growth to detect contamination in a waterway?
• Challenge critical thinking, analytical skills, and independent problem-solving in your students. You can create scenarios for them to solve such as forensic science investigations or how to grow food in space such as in the AVA Challenge.
• Talk with local authorities to learn how they solve problems in biology, whether its disease outbreaks or public sanitation.

Connecting Concepts to Real-Life Context

From agriculture to marine science, there are many real-life scenarios that biology students can explore. Connecting real-life examples to the curriculum makes the content more meaningful and highlights opportunities for your students for future careers.

• Make biology relevant by linking content to current events, public health issues, biotechnology advances, or environmental concerns. Students can report on this week’s advances in science using a free service such as Science Alert.  Students will then develop critical thinking and literacy skills by evaluating scientific claims, analysing research papers, and encouraging evidence-based discussions.
• Highlight careers and interdisciplinary connections to motivate student interest. Have a speaker come to your school or via a web conference.
• Visit a botanical garden to learn about herbarium collections, go for a guided rainforest walk, discuss coastal erosion with a ranger at a beach, find out how mines are rehabilitated after resource extraction and more.
• Engage students in discussions about ethical implications and societal impacts of biological discoveries.

Differentiated Instruction

Recognise diverse learning needs by offering multiple modes of instruction (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). There are many methods for science teaching and teaching biology requires the same dynamic approach.

• Differentiated teaching means using different teaching methodologies. Is group work more appropriate or should students work on a given task themselves? Is this a time for a teacher’s hands-on demonstration, or will a mixed-media instruction presentation suit the needs of the topic?
• Use formative assessments regularly to identify student understanding and adjust instruction accordingly. This will help to pick up students needing further support as well as offer more insight for those students with learning difficulties.
• Clear and structured lesson plans always help, but be open to adapting to the classroom environment should the class need it. Regardless of what lesson plan you choose, organise content logically, highlighting key concepts and summarising regularly.
• Ensure that you use many visual aids, concept maps, and models to simplify complex concepts. The students will thank you for it!
• Provide frequent, targeted feedback to help students monitor and improve their learning.
• Summative assessments should be varied as well, using diverse formats (written, oral, and practical assessments).

Continuous Professional Development

You need to connect with colleagues! Professional development does not necessarily need to be in a formal environment. What matters is the tips, the tricks, the ideas that worked and the lessons learned when a class went awry.

• Keep up-to-date with current biological research, new pedagogical techniques, and educational resources. You can follow a variety of science teaching feeds on social media for free (just search relevant hashtags!).
• Find professional development teacher communities on social media. There are plenty of social media groups that offer professional support and guidance in an informal setting.
• Attend conferences and hang out with people doing great things. This goes beyof the keynotes and workshops, arrange to chat with your colleagues and newly met educators to have lunch or dinner together after the formal conference proceedings have ended.
• Regularly reflect and improve teaching practices based on student outcomes and feedback. What is working? What needs to be adjusted?

By the very nature of teaching science, the ideas above are by no means exhaustive. There are many ways to approach biology teaching that will make a difference to your students and teaching practice. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that there is always another way to present a given concept and that there are people out there who can support you. Have fun with it!

Happy teaching,

Ben Newsome

Primary science teaching book!

“Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love”