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Teaching Biology
By: Christian Moore-Anderson
Author of: Difference Maker | Biology Made Real
Post Categories: How I Teach | Pedagogy & Theory | Biology Education | Podcast Conversations

Biology teaching resources (11–18)
I co-construct meaning with students through diagrams and dialogue, so I don't have any slide decks to share. Learn how to teach this way...
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Podcast: Sense-making in Classroom Teaching
Podcast: Sense-making in Classroom Teaching
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How I teach ultrafiltration and selective reabsorption in the kidney
The nephron is a tricky concept for many students but it doesn't have to be. In this post, I explain how I've taught it recently, without...
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Podcast: Knowledge Doesn't Equal Understanding
Podcast: Knowledge Doesn't Equal Understanding
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Content and Metacontent: A key distinction for teaching for long-term learning
Including metacontent in your teaching will ensure students learn for the long-term.
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How I teach oxygen dissociation curves with a stock and flow model
Oxygen dissociation curves are difficult for students. I often find that difficulty comes from trying to visualise the mechanism through...
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Knowledge doesn't equal understanding
Does knowledge = understanding? This simple equation suggests that the extent of a person's understanding is purely equal to the extent...
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How I teach speciation with a stock and flow model
Teaching about natural selection gives a mechanism for how species change but it doesn't directly address how one species can diverge...
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How I teach the role of fungi in ecosystems as autonomous organisms
The role of individual organisms is vital to understanding ecosystem functions. Often, the organism—and how it goes about its life—is...
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How I teach the meaning of the nervous system using variation theory
The nervous system is a great topic for exploring who we are and what we can do. It's also great for explaining experience. But to do...
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How I teach enzymes with a stock and flow model
What are enzymes? For students that's a strange word. So, firstly, we'd better have a look. To do so, my favourite animation is one of...
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How I teach the lac operon with a model and variation theory
The lac operon is a classic of genetics and is common in biology curricula. Yet, students can sometimes find it difficult. I want to show...
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How I teach the monogenic disorder PKU with a model and some history of eugenics
If you're teaching Mendelian genetics, monogenic disorders are on the cards. But which ones are good examples? The IB has once again...
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How I teach the relationship between photosynthesis & respiration in plants
The relationship between photosynthesis and respiration—within an individual plant—isn't easy for students. Often I find, they've been...
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How I teach Endler's evolution experiments
The peppered moth of industrial England—and the Galapagos finches on Daphne Major during the 1976 drought—are common examples used for...
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Should management mandate precise teaching activities? Probably not.
Often, people seem to discuss schools as centres for optimising students' learning and teachers' teaching. However, I want to share a...
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Difference Maker: Enacting Systems Theory in Biology Teaching
"Rarely have I been so convinced by the power of a new theoretical underpinning for a pedagogical technique such as the one presented...
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How I teach the nitrogen cycle with a stock and flow model
Teaching the nitrogen cycle is one of my favourite lessons. There's so much to connect to: history and everyday life. But, students also...
1,252


What's the purpose of rehearsal (during lessons)?
Recently the idea of "rehearsal" has appeared in UK-based educational blogs. But there appears to be confusion. What's it for? Here are...
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Evidence-based educational movements are actually games
Around 2012ish, a new movement rode into the UK (school) educational scene. It came with the banner of "evidence-based", to counter the...
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How I teach the meaning of (statistical) p-values using variation theory
A principle of variation theory is identifying the aspect you want students to discern and then varying it. When you vary it, keep all...
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Helping students develop study skills: a simple model.
Advising students how to study is complex. Learning is messy, with ups and downs. Sudden insights may punctuate periods of seemingly...
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How I teach thermoregulation with a stock and flow model
How to teach mammalian thermoregulation with a system dynamics model.
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How I teach osmosis with a stock and flow model
How to help students understand osmosis by building a stock and flow diagram with them.
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What the variation theory (of learning) is and isn't. A brief introduction.
The variation theory of learning is a theory about how we learn and, therefore, how to teach. It isn't a theory of how memories are...
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How I teach population size controls with a model
After reading about stock and flow diagrams in my book, many people have asked for more details about how I actually go about building...
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Why endothermy should be an explicit part of the biology curriculum
During my training year I had to teach a Year 8 class (12 year-olds) the physics topic of heat. I began with a common question for the...
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My thoughts on the new IB Biology syllabus—plus some free resources
Summer is ending and the new syllabus is rolling out. I just spent a few months developing my resources for the entire course and I want...
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The ups & downs of retrieval practice: my experience
For years I've toiled with quiz questions in my biology courses (AKA core questions). I've used quiz questions as starter quizzes, to...
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Subject Knowledge: Great books for biology teachers
There is only one short cut to improving subject knowledge—reading great books. In this post I compile a selection of the books that have...
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How I introduce the digestive system
In my view, the teaching of the digestive system isn't just another topic of here's how the body works , but another opportunity to...
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Biology Made Real: Ways of teaching that inspire meaning-making
Download chapter 1 here Summary This outstanding book... deserves to be very widely read. I hope it makes a major contribution to how...
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Case studies I've made to share for A-level, IB, and AP biology: Indicator species & life strategies
After coming across two interesting journal papers I thought they would make excellent case studies for my students. Let me introduce,...
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How should we teach the mechanism of osmosis?
What is the cause of osmosis? Typically, with my students of 14-16 years old (GCSE courses), I don't delve into the mechanism. It's the...
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A simple model for teacher sustainability and growth
What are the most important factors for teacher sustainability? I'm sure there are many. Student behaviour, planning time, teaching...
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Upgrading formative assessment: The questions that actually lead to responsive teaching
Short answer questions are currently ubiquitous in UK secondary biology education. They work well for providing objectivity. This gives...
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How I transitioned from Powerpoint-led lessons to drawing under a visualiser
The Powerpoint years Creating presentations were great for organising my thinking while I planned, I could include: Exactly the right...
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Reading the organism: Studying the whole to give meaning to the parts
This preprint was vastly improved and made into Chapter 5 of my book . This is a brief summary of my new (preprint) paper in which: I...
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How I teach blood glucose homeostasis with a stock and flow model
Glucose homeostasis—What will happen? On the surface we have the learning of the component parts of the human body that function as a...
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Why a teacher's philosophy matters as much as their pedagogy
A thought experiment: Scenario 1: Two pedagogy-passionate colleagues (of the same subject) are being observed by a non-specialist. The...
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A taxonomy for feedback: a shared understanding of learning in biology
They say that feedback is not about improving the work, but about improving the learner. Yet, what aspect of the learner? Their knowledge...
2,520


Unifying & discerning organisms through a diagram: Making meaning of life
Whilst reading through a rather old book called Life Cycles by Peter Calow (1978), I came across a diagram that instantly struck me as...
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Putting nature back into secondary biology education: a framework for integration
This is a summary of my paper here in the Journal of Biological Education , whose ideas have been vastly advanced and presented in my...
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Embedding natural selection throughout the biology curriculum
In lower secondary science education, chemistry and physics curricula seem to focus on developing robust explanatory models, such as the...
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How I teach SA:V in biology & where some explanations fall short
In this post I will explain where I think many typical explanations fall short on the concept of surface area to volume ratio (SA:V) in...
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Why Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve isn't useful for teaching
Ebbinghau's forgetting curve has seen a resurgence in popularity. While I agree that knowledge is essential for domain specific...
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Concept maps for homework with my IB biology (KS5) course: How I did it, and what I learnt
Update I like concept maps, I think they're a valuable tool, but students do need training and I found that they also need motivation....
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How excessive use of the respiration equation can cause problems:
Cell respiration and its relationship to photosynthesis is one of the fundamental concepts of biology. It sits up high in the hierarchy...
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On life as a flow: making meaning in secondary biology education
I once approached a physics teacher to lend me his expertise and opinion on my sequence of lessons for Gravity, Mass, and Weight. His...
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Teaching variables: Does X affect Y?
While the scientific method doesn't exist , experimental methodology remains an important concept for secondary science education. It is,...
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