Category Biology

Educating for adventure; To the oceans

I had a group of young CAS students (Creativity Action and Service, a component of the IB DP programme) come to me asking for direction with their mandatory group CAS project The narrative went something like this; Student: The problem…

Back to the Trees

I recently visited the Botanical Gardens of Rio de Janeiro with a group of IB Biology students from the institution where I work. There are few areas of biology which benefit more from a dose of experiential learning, than taxonomy…

Laying the blueprint for MYP projects

As the institution I work in transitions to an MYP approach to curriculum, the challenge looms to create meaningful contexts in which students can design projects with an interdisciplinary component. Remarking that when a research project combines the three sciences,…

Make it visual

My students used the Nadler equation to estimate probably the amount of blood contained in their bodies. Most of us have difficulty visualising a quantity based on numerical data, so we decided to make things a little more visual. Following…

AMISA 2023

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn It was my pleasure to be able to participate in the AMISA 2023 conference, presenting alongside many of my peers from eminent international schools from the region and worldwide experts. Derrick Gay, Allison Zmuda, Warren Berger, Myron…

Having a heart for medicine

One of my groups of students were engaged this week in the common laboratory of dissecting a sheeps’ heart in class. One is never sure as a biology professor how students will feel about these sorts of labs, I can…

Mesocosm smashes school record

Every year I challenge my class to research, design and build a self-sustaining mesocosm. A mesocosm is an ecosystem in micro, the abiotic and biotic elements sealed together behind glass. This is the kind of research needed to facilitate a…

Climbing to the top

ROCK CLIMBING TO THE TOP For the last seven years I have been responsible for the maintanence and instruction for rock climbing at an international school somewhere. It has been my pleasure to work with a fabulous team of professionals…