High School Biology Curriculum Map: A Free Scope & Sequence to Plan Your Year
Teaching high school biology is one of the great joys of my existence. I can’t believe I’m going to ay this out loud, but I just love freshman. That being said, developing the sequence of a high school biology curriculum can be a little tricky for a number of reasons - with freshman science students, it’s likely that you will have a wide range of former exposure to science. Some students will have had science five days a week for all of middle school, some will have experienced science as a once-a-week specials class, and then others will have had…no science. Because grasping biology is much more difficult without prior knowledge and exposure, I like to start very small and build my way up so that students handle increasingly complex topics through the school year. I begin with defining biology, the characteristics of life, and the biological levels of organization so that students get a taste of the year at a glance - but then I go backwards and begin at the smallest level we need to cover with atoms and compounds in my biochemistry unit and end the year with the units that cover things at the “largest level: - evolution and then ecology. You can grab my scope and sequence for free at the end of this blog post!
So How Do I Structure My Biology Curriculum?
While you truly can dive in anywhere with biology, I am a creature of organization and I like to start from small to big. Here is how my units are currently structured.
Unit 1: Basics of Biology (Including Parts of a Microscope and Characteristics of Life)
Unit 2: Biochemistry - The Chemistry of Life
Unit 3: Cells
Unit 4: Bioenergetics Part 1 - Cellular Respiration
Unit 5: Bioenergetics Part 2 - Photosynthesis
Unit 6: Cell Growth and Reproduction
Unit 7: Genetics
Unit 8: DNA & RNA
Unit 9: Theories of Evolution
Unit 10: Ecology
(If time) Unit 11: Biotechnology
And that’s it! I sprinkle in a couple of labs per unit, use webquests and case studies to reinforce understanding and apply biology to real life, and insert a couple of small research projects so that students start to get a feel for finding, reading, and locating science articles. And voila! A year of biology is complete!
If you need a framework for structuring your biology course, then this freebie is for you! Click here to download a copy of my tried and true biology scope & sequence to make your planning simpler. Have a great year in biology!
