A reminder to AP Biology teachers

We're knee-deep in molecular genetics now in AP Biology--and it's not your father's biology anymore, or even your older sister's.

She only had to contend with mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA.

Created by WGScott, shared under CC

The biology world has exploded with RNA confetti!

miRNA  siRNA. 

 ncRNA RNAi piRNA

tasiRNA and rasiRNA

While this leads to big fun for old AP teachers who love to joust with other AP teachers (and you know who you are), I realized this week that even my most interested biology superstars can only take so much RNA fun in a month.

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I keep about 10 gallons or so of pond water in my basement during the winter months. I pretend I do it to save money--I can overwinter my elodea--but I really do it for my sanity.

Once or twice a week I peer into the bucket, tap its side, and watch the daphnia dance. I watch a water strider hunt, a spider weave, larvae wiggle just under the surface,

I brought in a pint this week, ostensibly to test run our new microscopes. Within this pint lived hundreds of daphnia, and all kinds of other strange critters simply going about the business of living, something my AP students gave up years ago, so that they can live later.

It's a harsh trade, schooling for living. The cracks are starting to show.

With snow on the ground outside, the local ponds half frozen, a few brilliant, exhausted kids peered into a drop of pondwater, and remembered why they fell in love with biology in the first place.  
Wow! Look a this! Yuck! I'll never swim again!

Shame on me for letting them forget.

 I forget every year, too. Time to read Kim Foglia's letter again...

Kim Foglia

"My biggest pet peeve about science teaching is approaching biology as a second language — making it an exercise in vocabulary memorization — rather than an approach to questioning how the world works and on the flipside an understanding of interwoven concepts explaining how the world works."

I learned tonight that Ms. Kim Foglia, the most generous teacher I never met, died today. I learned this from a post by one of her students, whom I never met, though did share a few words. I am glad I got to thank her for her help.

I kept a letter of hers in my pocket, written for struggling AP teachers like myself, trying to satisfy the College Board while guiding young adults through a dense curriculum. She reminded me (and so many others) why we teach, and that the why matters as much (or maybe more) than the what.

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Kim also taught through her cancer. She shared her story as a teachable moment, but it never defined her.

She shared everything, everything!

We will miss her help, her words, her lessons, and her silly penguins.

Why AP Bio may become great

I have mixed feelings about teaching AP Biology. See the last post...

I love teaching, I love science, and I prefer to keep the two together in my classroom. Alas, my hands have been tied a bit by the AP auditing process, but I get the reasons.

If my high school wants an official AP stamp on the school transcripts, I have to deliver the product promised by the College Board. That in itself is not the problem. That the course has become a bit of a bear, though, has become a problem, and the College Board said last year it planned to fix this.

Yesterday, I got to see a video in a poll on some of the specifics of their new plan--I am ecstatic!

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The College Board has created a course that puts inquiry first. The focus will be on science, not minutiae.



Kim Foglia teaches AP biology, and she does it extremely well. She has done it for years, and she shares her ever evolving resources at her Explore Biology website.

For me, Kim's biggest strength has been her unflagging dedication to teaching science. I kept a folded letter she sent out to new AP teachers struggling to march through the AP curriculum, reminding us to teach to the joy of science, to teach biology, not a curriculum.

Ironically, her students consistently nailed the AP test.

Guess who's on the committee revising the course?

This is going to be GREAT!