Biology Education in an Era of Acronyms

Abstract

Prior to the 1920s, physics and chemistry were the two dominant science courses in U.S. high schools. They were “precollege” requirements, needed before acceptance to schools such as Harvard University. Every high school wanted its students to be admissible to the top colleges, so they offered courses in physics and chemistry. Dozens of other courses in the public school curricula – including health, hygiene, nutrition, agriculture, home economics, manual training, physical exercise, nature studies, cell theory, and human anatomy – were ultimately combined in the category of “Biology.” By the 1980s, biology had become the third science course in most high schools. Since World War II, U.S. schools have typically included biology as a 10th-grade class, along with physics and chemistry for 11th- and 12th-graders. As the 20th century concluded, biology was often the only science course required for graduation from high school. Students were interested in biology and nature studies, but biology was taught, too often, in a teacher-centered fashion. Students were frequently asked to remember the content of textbooks, laboratory manuals, and lectures without any opportunity to focus on personal explorations and explanations of nature. This was done in spite of the continual plea that we must encourage more student experiences in the actual “doing” of science and focus less on remembering …