Woodside is now requiring biology as a freshman class. Previous years freshmen could decide between either biology or physics as the class they would want to take that year.
This requirement is now two years old. Before this new requirement, it was the student’s choice for what classes they wanted to take. With students’ choice being implemented there were more versions of classes and electives offered. The school was offering choice for everything including classes that needed to go in order.
“People accept that there is an order for math,” biology teacher Shomace Ighanian said. “Science is very similar, if we talk about something in human biology and people haven’t taken biology, I can’t go as in depth.”
There once were other options for just biology, like advanced biology. The school decided to remove that class as it was not deemed effective. Then when students of all grades were allowed to pick and choose between what science classes to take, the science department came to the admin team with concerns.
“One [concern was] that students weren’t prepared to do the rest of the pathway because they didn’t have that life science background in freshman year,” instructional vice principal Cara Kclackle said. “The students who were taking physics had a difficult pathway because it is required by the state of California to have a lab science and physical science.”
Klackle also mentioned how some teachers are feeling like the grades of the students are more accurate. Meaning that they’re actually testing on what the kids know and not what they may or may not have taken in a previous class.
“When we look at people’s grades, the people who have taken certain biology and chemistry before they’ve taken higher level sciences do better than kids that have not taken them,” Ighanian said.
The science teacher’s want ninth graders to take biology, tenth graders take chemistry and that eleventh and twelfth grade students to choose what they want to study. Ighanian mentioned how it was sometimes nice to have older grades in biology because they sometimes add some maturity to the class.
“In terms of building strong friendships, if you’re with people that are in your grade level, you’re gonna be with them more and you’re going to build a stronger foundation,” Ighanian said.
