FSC Campaigns and Research

Save Our Biology

The campaign was started by the FSC working with the British Ecological Society. It emerged from concerns about the declining levels of science and biology fieldwork in UK secondary schools. Working with the BES and other partners, the campaign initially published two reports, both of which identified key areas of concern and barriers to fieldwork and these areas have become the focus for later activities. Since the campaign started in 2002 other bodies such as the Biosciences Federation and the Wellcome Trust have highlighted similar concerns, as have geographers through the Geographical Association and Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
The campaign has proposed a number of solutions in several key areas:

• Political lobbying to influence curriculum reform
• Developing more balanced assessment and coursework
• Building local opportunities for city schools
• Supporting initial and continuing teacher training
• Enhancing public understanding of the need for science fieldwork

Campaign update 2006

The campaign has continued to grow and is now working alongside the Association for Science Education - the UK 's leading science education subject association - which has recently set up its own Outdoor Science Working Group which will work closely with schools and teachers to develop resources and teacher training opportunities. The FSC will continue to direct the political campaign.

Much work remains to be done. The FSC is leading two major projects with secondary schools in London . Both London Outdoor Science and London Challenge are showing that fieldwork uptake by secondary science teachers - even in very local sites - is very low, and that the barriers to fieldwork are deeply entrenched. Resources and training support are being developed to remedy this.

Key FSC Objectives

The biology curriculum

1. 14-16 (GCSE): Curricula must acknowledge the importance of fieldwork in helping to deliver the learning outcomes. The need for fieldwork should be strongly encouraged.
2. 16-19 (A Level): Every A level Biology student should have field experience; fieldwork must become a mandatory requirement rather than an option in the A level biology curriciulum. The critical role of fieldwork in helping to deliver biology synoptic elements must be acknowledged.

Teacher training

1. The Training and Development Agency should ensure that all science/biology teachers have sufficient training to enable them to deliver basic out-of-classroom teaching.
2. The national and regional Science Learning Centres should provide field-work related Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for practicing teachers.

Inspections and monitoring

1. Inspections by Ofsted should ensure that policy and practice provide a full and fair entitlement to field experience. National data should be collected and collated by the government's advisers enabling trends in fieldwork to be measured.

Reports

• Teaching biology outside the classroom: is it heading for extinction? (2002)
• Creating the right balance: delivering fieldwork for effective 16-19 ecology teaching (2004)

Parliamentary Briefing Note

• April 2006

Further Information

Contact: Campaign Co-ordinator Dr Stephen Tilling at steve.tilling@field-studies-council.org