Ag Biology Curriculum Development

Pilot Schools and Teachers Needed

From the ISBE's Weekly Message(Sept 8, 2021) -
Innovative schools are being sought for a pilot of an Agriculture Biology Course as an initiative of the IAVAT Curriculum committee. The course will use Storylining to engage students in figuring out phenomena and solving problems and will be aligned with the Illinois Science Assessment and explicitly linked to the Next Generation Science Standards. Pilot schools will identify agriculture and/or science educators to collaboratively write, pilot, revise, and support research with storylines for a recently approved ISBE course entitled Agriculture Biology.  Energetic and forward thinking teachers will engage in a professional learning community building capacities using storylining to explore biology in the context of agriculture over the three year experience (2022-24).  Year one will include professional development, collaboration, and writing. Year two will continue the writing process including piloting the course. Year three will expand the implementation with students, continue revision of the curriculum, and partnering with researchers for comparative study.