Progress Report on Revision of Curriculum in Biology for Iowa High Schools

When our committee submitted a list of objectives for high school biology to one of our colleagues for criticism, he commented in the margin, Making objectives has been a favorite indoor sport of educators for a number of years; but attaining the objectives is a different species of animal! From the outset of our investigation we have been aware that we could contribute very little to science teaching by producing a better set of aims or objectives. We know that for a long time teachers with good objectives have taught poor biology, while other teachers with the same objectives-or with none at all on paper-have taught good biology. Yet our first task, we felt, was to agree on the specific things which we believed should be accomplished in the high school course in natural science. The sad truth is, many of us teach without regard for the objectives which we have set up. Lesson plans are dictated by the expediency of over-crowded teaching schedules. We make our progress tests on items which are easy to test-whether we believe in their importance or not; and they become our objectives. It is much easier to ask students to name the enzymes of gastric juice than to determine whether they can use the principles of digestion for their own welfare