THE SUDDEN EMERGENCE of action-learning programs in high schools across the country signals not another passing educational fad but a substantive change in the very nature of the secondary school curriculum. A basic feature of these programs is the acceptance of the principle that all school-sanctioned education doesn't have to come from a textbook, take place in a classroom and be dispensed by a teacher. Once that principle is adopted, as it already is in schools which have action-learning, every course comes under scrutiny and will be evaluated directly or indirectly in the light of action learning. So far most high school action-learning programs have not been in the basic academic disciplines of English, social studies, mathematics or science. They have been occupational, social or community service courses, with the exception of a few college courses opened to qualified high school students. The community-issues biology courses at Bellport High School, Brookhaven, Long Island, New York, are impressive exceptions to standard action-learning programs. They incorporate the best dynamics of actionlearning with the academic disciplines of science, English and social studies. Equally important, they do not invalidate the institution of the school but rather assert that a school is a special place where educational activities can be organized and implemented. The critical features of these courses are their unusual organization, their use of group activities, their stress upon the development of writing skills and the new role they create for the teacher. The effectiveness of these courses suggests the potential for action-learning within the school may be as great or greater than that outside the school. In addition, the community-issues biology courses integrate community resources into the school curriculum. When I first began teaching biology almost twenty years ago, the content of my science courses was largely determined by either a textbook or a detailed curriculum. The decisions that confronted me as I approached each teaching year were primarily ones of deciding upon techniques. My purpose as a teacher was to develop means to translate the material in the course outline into interesting and educationally productive activities. Little thought was required in deciding what was to be taught; only how it was to be taught. Since my early teaching years, a larger percentage of my time has been devoted to deciding what to teach, although it is still important to know how to teach biological topics. However, this shift in emphasis is not easy to describe fully, nor is it clear what effects it will have on traditional methods. This article discusses the criteria used in this approach to biology and the structure of a course that evolves by adopting this model. My biology courses, advanced biology and school biology, are each composed of a series of topics which are related to each other only in that biology is the central feature of each. I have made a collection of these topics over the years. Some I have used for only one year; others I use each year in both of my courses, advanced and school biology. I have never taught the same topics in the same order in two successive courses; there-