Any Biology teachers out there?

[Supermum222]

Hello,

I am 'thinking' of applying to do a PGCE (secondary science) next year. However, I want to bring myself 'up to scratch' over the next year so I need to get my hands on decent textbooks for biology (specialism). Can you recommend any that are in line with today's curriculum?
I am changing career from the NHS :-)

You are likely to be asked to teach all 3 sciences up to (and including) GCSE, only teaching to your specialism at A'level. The CGP revision guides are good to give you a general overview of the syllabus.

Thanks. I will take a look at those.
I have never done physics so a little worried about that!

Hi! I have helped out on interview panels for prospective PGCE: Biology candidates. During the interview we would ask questions on their knowledge of basic biology. Usually the candidates had progressed much further with their degrees and forgot all the basic stuff (like the word equation for photosynthesis & respiration). We would also ask a couple of questions at an A level standard (usually mitosis and meiosis stages). Most candidates freaked out at this!

They would also use role play to see what sort of teacher you are likely to be, 60+ year old man pretending to be an 11 year old boy bringing his teacher something he found in the garden and asking what it is. They generally didn't know what it was but pretended to know what it was (WRONG)! The best candidates discussed with the pupils ideas about what it could be/asked questions.

Don't worry too much about physics as you do get tuition in chemistry and physics during the course and you also learn a lot on teaching practice. We did not ask any questions outside of your specialism.

I definitely need to refresh. I have looked at SKE courses and will probably need to do one of those.
I used to be so good at biology (and extremely passionate about it) so, hopefully, my brain will start to remember...I hope

I always thought it odd that I am technically qualified to teach all 3 sciences to GCSE. I would not make a good Physics teacher, I did not even do Physics A level. In my current school I teach mostly Biology with a bit of Chemistry.

I would suggest having a look at something like Bitesize to see GCSE topics. And agree with a CGP guide to get an idea of the A level topics, different specs are slightly different for different exam boards (and likely to change again shortly...) - when I did my PGCE which was admittedly a while back, I found a general Biology textbook more useful.

Lots online you can look at - try Crash Course videos on Youtube: