The new year

Whether you are returning to school as a Grade 12 student looking to wrap up the Diploma and get to your chosen university (if you have indeed, an idea on what you plan to do after school), or if you are excitedly preparing to begin the Diploma, I very much hope the series of  blogs posted here over the year, will provide you with insights and guidance to assist. Much of what I write is to provide guidance,  to show you available resources and learning strategies and to help support dialogue and and strategy which you can present etc to your biology teacher. At times the focus will be for G12 and at others G11, though I hope all will benefit long term.

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The video is rather tongue in cheek, though the support their respective websites provides is excellent. As a starting point to your year, I highly recommend subscribing to their sites as they have a host of useful video resources to guide you.

One key feature of the video shown is the changing curriculum. The biology experience for G11 (first exam in 2016) will be different from that of G12. If you are studying Standard level biology in one year, the syllabus has not changed. Now, while it matters little to you “what the others are doing”, it may be a point of confusion if you are in conversation with someone from a different grade on, for example internal assessment rubrics, which have been totally revamped. Having said that, the content is very much the same in many respects. You just need to be aware that things have changed and roll with it somewhat. If in doubt, chat with your teacher, but do not get overly fixated etc.

Next month I will unravel somewhat, the Nature of Science (G11 applicable) and explain its central role in the new syllabus.