Biology/Life Science is the Science of the future. Advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology will change the world, as will diseases like HIV/AIDS. To equip boys to deal with this changing world it is not enough to provide them only with factual knowledge. They need to understand scientific principles and how to interpret information.  They need to be able to access the latest information and to evaluate this information. They must be able to incorporate knowledge into their value systems and be able to make informed decisions. They need to be able to communicate information and ideas to other people both in a written and oral format and they must be able to work with other people. They must be able to think creatively and to solve problems. Thus the content and style of teaching Biology/ Life Science has had to adapt to this exciting explosion of knowledge and advances in technology. Thus all boys would benefit from taking Life Science and the course is structured in a way that will allow academically weak boys to cope and strong candidates to be challenged and excited by the content and concepts covered.

Teachers in the department are actively involved in professional development and the department as a whole has attended a number of seminars and individuals in the department have attended and presented at both local and international conferences on laptops in education, teaching at boys schools, HIV/Aids education, co-operative learning, FET and more. Curriculum content in this department is developed around themes and the boys are guided in researching topics, working cooperatively in addition to learning factual content. The tasks they do range from making a healthy soup in Grade 8, observing organisms in an ecocolumn in Grade 9; through carrying out an experiment  and writing it up according to the scientific method in Grade 10, studying health and prevalent diseases in Grade 11 and genetics and evolution in Grade 12. Microscope work and a variety of experiments are carried out in all the grades. The teachers in the department are experienced and keep up to date not only with advances in their subject but also in the field of education in general and are well prepared to deal with the changes involved in FET.

Cheryl Douglas
cdouglas@bishops.org.za
Head of Biology Deparment