Rob Edinburgh

Head of Biology 🧬 👨‍🏫 | @DofE Lead 🥾 75/197 🌍

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Final question for tonight's #ChatBiology

What do YOU do outside of teaching to get involved in citizen science? Or if you did research before/outside of teaching have you brought any of it into school?

Comment below and share!

#Edutwitter

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology I’ve done quite a few CREST projects at year 9 or year 10. Mostly Bronze and a few silver. Struggled to ever get Gold off the ground at sixth form level. Exams and other things seem to take over

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Onto question 2!

What have you tried - particularly any work experience or projects that have worked well? Why was it good?

Comment your experiences below and share!

#Edutwitter #ChatBiology

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Welcome to tonight's #ChatBiology in celebration of #CitizenScienceMonth 🔎

First up - how do you get students involved in citizen science outside of lessons?

Comment below and share!

#Edutwitter

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

We are so excited to announce that Chat Biology Live is a go!

All the event information can be found here: https://t.co/1h5dygil1k

Please share as much as possible

Tickets will be on sale soon, we hope as many of you can join us as you can!

#EduSky #iTeachBio 🧬 #SciTeachUK

[Dr Dan Jones @Hookean1]

GCSE Science teachers. Some nice revision ppts here
https://t.co/PYjrZw08T9

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@teachyscience @chatbiology Would you provide these to all students or just a select few?

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology Would be interested on ideas for the essay and lower attaining students. I find that many really get stuck with even starting a plan… I think a similar problem to even 6-markers at GCSE - find it difficult to even start

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Thanks for all the ideas so far!

Onto our final question for tonight - about long form writing support especially that AQA essay!

Don't forget to share

#ChatBiology #Edutwitter

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology Key word lists and then repetition as much as I can. Often make this a focus of recall questions/mini whiteboard work. I find this hard though because (even with lots of prompts) I find that these students don’t often use the right terminology (especially A-Level)

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Onto question 2!

What techniques do you use to support students with using all the new language?

Please share and comment with your ideas/suggestions 😊

#ChatBiology #Edutwitter

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology Our English department have done some work around drawing annotations by the side of text (students have to draw at least 3 per page when reading texts/books). Linked to dual coding. Others departments do highlighting and tracking reading. Lots of different ideas at school level

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Welcome to tonight's #ChatBiology all about reading and writing in biology 📖✍🏻

First up - how do you incorporate reading strategies in biology lessons?

Comment below and share!

#Edutwitter

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Happy #ChatBiology Day!

Don't forget to join us at 8:30pm tonight for this week's chat all about reading and (longform) writing in biology! 📖✍🏻

Please share!

#Edutwitter

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology @RoyalSocBio We used to start GCSE after Jan in year 9 but felt we never had enough time. Last two years we’ve re-jigged things to teach KS3/GCSE crossover topics in year 9 from the start. A unique position though because we are an upper school (youngest cohort is yr 9)

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Good evening and welcome to tonight's #chatbiology 👋🏻

@RoyalSocBio research suggests 78% of schools reduce KS3 teaching in order to start science GCSEs in Year 9

What is your experience and what would you change?

Share and comment below!

#EduSky #iTeachBio 🧬 #SciTeachUK

[Chat Biology @chatbiology]

Next year we are hoping to take our awesome #chatbiology community offline for an IRL event! 💚🙌🏻

We would like your input so that we can try to make sure as many of you can come as possible

If you would be interested please fill out this short survey: https://t.co/V9nX5iQcCT

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology I just do lots of recall questions around carbon dioxide when teaching respiration and photosynthesis first. Try and set a strong foundation knowing that I’ve got to teach carbon cycle afterwards. find students struggle with exam questions though - unless link is obvious in Q

[Rob Edinburgh @R_Edinburgh93]

@chatbiology I like showing videos (things like David Attenborough clips) and getting students to work out the food webs from videos. Also make sure I use a big variety of different ecosystems. Sometimes start by getting students to do their own completely from scratch but they can struggle

[Wootton Upper School @WoottonUpper]

Congratulations to our Bronze @DofE pupils, who completed their expeditions today. Silvers have another day of walking, so are building up energy reserves with a campfire & marshmallows! Huge thanks to our dedicated staff who’ve given up the Bank Holiday weekend to support pupils