First teaching in Aug 2023, New IBDP Biology Curriculum
The new DP biology course will be launched in February 2023 for first teaching in August 2023. First assessment will take place in May 2025.
An overview of this IBDP Biology Curriculum update is detailed in the Biology Subject guide.
Overview of the new course
With a larger emphasis on skills and the interdependence of concepts, settings, and information, a relevant and effective biology education must reflect societal change and support student understanding and deep learning. To meet these needs, developments have been made.
The biology curriculum is organized into four main themes that each have two concepts and four degrees of structure.
The road map shows how the framework of the 40 topics in the biology course is set up. The themes are arranged in nodes that encourage the delivery of the information using either or both of the notions outlined for each theme. The node also suggests a suitable level of organization that depicts a potential lens through which the topic might be learned and taught.
Significance of Conceptual learning
The new biology course is heading toward a decrease in content and emphasising ideas that support learning. The course recognizes the significance of linking learning with conceptual understanding and seeks to generate understandings that connect factual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. This comprises a non-linear, continuous process of acquiring new information, developing understandings, and spotting misconceptions. Students that have conceptual understanding will be able to transfer and apply knowledge to new or different situations in inventive, generative, autonomous, and dynamic ways.
Greater Understanding of the Nature of science
The DP biology, chemistry, and physics courses all revolve on the overarching theme of "the nature of science," or "NOS," which investigates conceptual understandings relating to the goal, characteristics, and implications of scientific knowledge. DP biology students will have the chance to evaluate, debate, test, and improve their understanding of the scientific ideas and concepts introduced throughout the course.
Exemplary Practical and Collaborative Work
The DP biology course continues to place a strong emphasis on practical work. Teachers are invited to create their own practical lesson plans that will give students opportunities to develop a wide range of investigative and practical skills as well as a greater comprehension of the subject's material and related ideas. To give students the chance to engage in a variety of tasks, from closed to open inquiry, from hands-on experimentation to the use of simulations and modeling, and to appropriately include technology, the practical scheme of work should be broad and balanced.
The interdisciplinary collaborative sciences project tackles issues from the real world that can be investigated using the variety of topics covered by the sciences group.
Changes to the assessment model
External assessment
There will only be two external exams given to all students.
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In Paper 1A, there are multiple-choice questions from the curriculum, and in Paper 1B, there are questions about data analysis. These publications offer the chance to evaluate some of the experimental methods and methods.
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Paper 2 has both short-answer and extended-response questions that integrate knowledge, concepts, and skills into a relevant chemistry environment.
The choice subjects have also been removed, among other adjustments (neurobiology and behaviour, biotechnology and informatics, ecology and conservation and human physiology). Some of the content from the four available options was included to the course at either a standard or higher level.
Internal assessment
The "scientific investigation" (internal assessment) will change as well, giving students the chance to work together and help one another in small groups. If the independent or dependent variables are different and the data acquired is specific to each student, then students may share similar approaches when appropriate.
The number of words in each student's report will remain at a maximum of 3,000.
With 50% of the marks allotted for Conclusion and Evaluation, the revised criteria will place a stronger focus on higher-order thinking abilities.
