Vanke Meisha Academy

In my second year at Vanke Meisha Academy I transitioned from the Science Department in the US-track to the Cambridge Department in the UK-track to teach Cambridge IGCSE Biology, a two-year course for 10th and 11th grade students. IGCSE Biology was one of the new IGCSE courses available for the 2nd cohort of students in the UK-track.

I was excited at the opportunity to implement and teach a new curriculum. Unlike the biology course in the US-track where a student's grade is a holistic reflection of their exams, projects, and class participation, the student's grade in the IGCSE Biology course is entirely based on three exams taken during the summer of grade 11.

Having taught biology in the US-track during my first year at VMA, this transition to "teaching to the test" for IGCSE Biology was a challenging experience. But the experience has made me more aware of ensuring that my lessons are aligned to the syllabus. This was made easier with a plethora of past exams questions that are available to reference.

Curriculum development is one of my career interests since I started my teaching journey as an Americorps*VISTA corps member, where I designed a 12-week afterschool program ("Science Friday") for 6th grade students.

At Vanke Meisha Academy, I was given the opportunity to develop and teach the Integrated Science (IS) course to students in the Vanke Meisha Academy Arts (VMAA) program for their science credit. The goal of the course is to provide the students with an overview of various topics related to biology, chemistry, and physics.

I based the IS course on the Cambridge IGCSE Combined Science curriculum. Although the curriculum is designed to be taught over two years, I summarized the curriculum to be taught in one year—picking topics that I felt were interesting and relevant to the students' interests. For example, functions of body systems; food webs and ecosystems; types of chemical reactions; structure of atoms; forces, work and power; and drawing electrical circuits.