About
i-ndependent, i-nternational, i-lluminated, i-nspired
I am currently MYP Coordinator & Middle School Curriculum Coach and science teacher at Western Academy, Beijing. It’s fab.
I was Director of Learning (Curriculum, PD, workshops, assessmenty bits, accreditation & MYP Coordinator at Canadian Academy, Kobe, Japan. Before that I was IB Bio, HS MYP Chemistry and Physics teacher, MYP Coordinator (and HOD Science). Before Japan, I was in Indonesia, as IB Biology, Science and Health teacher (and IB DP Coordinator) in Bandung International School.
I have a degree in Marine Biology from Queen’s University Belfast, A PGCE in Secondary Science from the University of Exeter and an MA in International Education from the University of Bath.
I am a cross-culture dad of two, surfer, reader, writer and giverer away of my resources. I keep a second blog – The Wayfinder Learning Lab – on reflections on education and my further studies here. A summary CV and portfolio of work is on this page.
This site served as my students’ online textbook or main resource from 2007 to about 2016.
The materials here are primarily for my own students, but feel free to use them in your own classes, within the limits of Creative Commons and these guidelines. All our presentation are here: Slideshare GuruStip. I encourage users of the site to donate to one of my chosen charities, through my Biology4Good project on JustGiving.
If you spot errors or have any suggestions for resources, please get in touch through the comments feature.
I hope you find i-Biology useful!
Stephen
Please email me for more information [stephen AT i-biology.net].
I do not accept requests for writing for free or for hosting ‘guest content’ or links on this site.
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About topics:
Creative Commons – Original Works – Biology4Good (Make a donation)
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The History of i-Biology
The summer of 2007 was a long one, as I moved between schools and had lots of free time with a newborn sleeping most of the day (oh how times have changed). It was a chance to reflect on my teaching and to think about how to engage students with different learning styles. I thought, “There must be a visualisation, movie or animation for every concept in Biology, online and for free by now.”
That’s when Science Teachers’ Video Resources was born and I started to search for and categorise video clips and interactives. As I got to BIS and thinking more about 21st Century Learning, I started to think of other ways to use the site to engage and communicate with students. I wanted to reduce the need for textbooks. I found that SlideShare could embed to WordPress and files could be uploaded. This site became more of a course management system for my Biology students and I changed the name to Science Video Resources, to reflect that it was not just for teachers but for all learners. I really should change it again, as it has gone beyond videos and into all Biology teaching resources (but I don’t want to change the domain name!).
Eventually word got out and students and teachers from other schools started to visit. This is great – the community acts as a quality-control system and I am able to edit and make corrections based on the feedback of others. This has the added bonus of ensuring that the materials my students are using are of the best possible quality.
If you use the resources here, please let me know. Have they worked for you? Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
I would be really interested in hearing from teachers who are real experts in EAL in the Science classroom and who would like to contribute to the site.
i-Biology 
He Steve,
We are scientist and once a year we do a Science Spoof.
e.g. the Launch of DiscoverMC-TV, a parody channel with programmes never seen on Discovery channel and National Geographic.
Or the Xperiment. Fusing Big Brother, Survivor, Total Makeover, Expedition Robinson, the Bachelor, Temptation Island and Idols into a new absurd Real Life Science format.
Cheers
Greetings all, another video link, probably best on vid arch big jobs.
Teachers TV has loads of downloadable videos; just about to use their friction video which is highly recommended by others.
cheers
Thanks Jake, I’ve posted it in the links section to the right. the results of the ‘Ready to Learn’ experiment were interesting -I did some of the activities from the ASE with my HPD class. Not so sure about Brain Gym, though – but it’s good for a laugh.
Hi Steve,
Awesome blog! Thanks for the support!
Thanks Mary!
Love the work you guys do at http://www.reefcheck.org
Stephen discovered all this great stuff in the OCC under you material in resources.
The stuff that you have and its organization is fantastic. It is really overwhelming.
If you ever want to link up our students here on Long Island, NY let me know.
I am interested in really having kids explore this IB Biology course on their own with my guidance not telling them what to do, from you material that is what you try to do.
I think school should be flat world schools. Somehow let communication and students creativity take over.
rich
oh waw!!!!!!!
very interesting blog
and as we say masha allah (u must know it as i think they use also in Indonesia)
great work ,go on
Thanks Richard and pharma!
Plenty more resources on the way…
i am waiting , sure that it will be very good
Hello,
Can you tell me where can I find your email address?
It’s stephen[at]i-biology.net
Have you yet been to: http://thesynapse.ning.com ?
If not, sign in… you’d probably not only find great resources there for what you do on a daily basis. but I would like to invite you to write a blog post there highlighting this site and what all we might find here.
If you are like me, you can even explicitly say that “Sean invited me to write this post highlighting my blog”….. heh… or something like that. That would make me feel less like a “self-promoter.” But yes- please do, if you are interested. You are building quite the resource here. But yes- be sure to visit The Synapse. There is quite the fun little community developing there.
😉
Sean
Thanks Sean – I’ve signed up for an account and am now hoping for some spare time. Ning’s a cool resource.
Steve- Love your blog and the resource you’ve set up for teachers! Would you be willing to share with our community of educators over at TheApple.com? I’m setting up a brand new channel just for STEM. Let me know if you’re interested.
Sounds like a good project, Jill. I’ll try to contact you through theapple.com.
Steve,
If you want to add Facebook or email sharing buttons to your blog posts, there’s a plugin that does it for you: http://www.picturesurf.org/share-buttons
Hope you find it helpful!
Cheers,
Jerry
Cool, thanks.
Hey Steve,
Great blog. You have put together an absolutely enormous amount of resources. Is your entire IB Biology course online? I teach at an IB school in Melbourne Australia, and although I teach Biology I don’t teach in our IB programme. I teach what we call VCE Biology (http://mrbarlow.wordpress.com/resources/).
Anyway thanks for the inspiration.
Mr. Barlow.
Hey Mr Barlow,
Thanks for the comment! I’m aiming to get everything one could need to study the IB Biology course on here (except the labs, of course), though it’s taken a couple of years.
I’ve seen your website – it’s cool! Really a bunch of interesting stuff! I’ll write a post about it here, once I’ve got a minute (we’re at the beginning of the new year here).
Cheers,
Steve.
Dear Steve,
This is by far the best IB Biology resource I have come across. Your presentations and worksheets have been a lifesaver for me as a new IB Bio teacher. Thank you so much for your genorosity of spirit in sharing your hard work with everyone (where on earth do you find the time!).
I noticed that you haven´t had a chance to explore and resource Option F to your satisfaction yet. I have a mini course that I have put together if you would like the resources? Of course, you could redo them to your standards but it would be a rough start?
Hina
Churchill College
Mexico City
Hi Hina,
Thanks for the comments and the kind offer to share your resources. If you have presentations, my suggestion is that you sign up for a free SlideShare account and upload them, then send the links. I can then embed them here, but you keep control.
Thanks again!
Stephen
I will go ahead and do that!
Cheers
Hina
Hi Steve,
Awesome blog. As a teacher new to DP I’ve found your blog and the resources you publish for teaching DP Biology to be invaluable. I hope you’ll continue to update the blog next year after you leave BIS.
Chris Paine
Thanks Chris!
I should still be teaching some IB Biology in Japan, though will be focusing mostly on MYP in High School. Expect to see the IB Biology stuff remain and be updated, and some additonal content for MYP.
Cheers,
Stephen
Hey Stephen. I am a Biology teacher at Carrollton High School in Georgia, USA. I will be possibly taking on the new IB Biology program next year. I will definitely be using your site as a resource. I was just wondering if you could give me some advice on any resources that you used to get started…….sites, documents, books, etc. Anything that you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Major kudos for your site. It is very impressive. Thank you for allowing other teachers to use it.
Hi Stacy,
Thanks for the message and I’m glad the site is of use. Once things quieten down a bit, I plan to have a spring clean of the site, including adding a page for teachers.
I don’t use textbooks much in class, but I’d recommend the following:
– Allott’s IB Biology study guide as a set of notes for students
– Allott/Mindorff’s Course Companion for something more cohesive
– The OCC is a must – your IB Coordinator can make an account for you and you will find stacks of stuff there.
– On the right-hand side of this site, there are many more links to resources.
Good luck!
Stephen
Hey Stephen,
As I promised I have finally got around to uploading my resources for Option F onto slideshare. I can´t take credit for everything so anything that isn´t mine I have tried to credit as far as humanly possible!
That’s great, Hina – thanks! I’ll take a look today and embed some of them to the Option F section.
Stephen
Hey Steve,
Just donated to Save the Children
A wonderful idea as always!!
Hina
Thank-you very much for the donation, Hina! It is very much appreciated. Good luck!
Please contact me privately regarding the Biology 4 Good website, as well as the Lab Bank for IB. I have emailed the Biology 4 Good folks and they have yet to respond to my inquiry…it has been about 2 weeks. This is a wonderful website…especially for a first year IB Bio teacher such as myself. It give a great format to follow for my students. Thanks for everything!! damie
Hi Damienne,
I will email you now – and you can email back. Please bear in mind that things here are very busy at the moment (I am starting in a new school).
Thanks for your kind comments,
Stephen
I also just want to thank you. I was a newbie IB BIo teacher in 2007 I was overwhelmed (also teaching 5 other courses at a small school) I received a lot of your older powerpoints at an IB conference from another teacher on a memory stick. Even though I am no longer teaching IB (now teaching European Bacc) I am still using a lot of your powerpoints and the students are loving them. I had also used a lot of the animations from McGraw Hill etc… and it’s so nice to have them embedded in the powerpoint (I was often clicking from ppt to website during lessons wasting time). So thanks again. I really appreciate all the work you’ve done/are doing.
Thank-you for the kind comments, Becca. Good luck!
First, thank you for the great resources. I was wondering if you know what the IB policy is about using on-line simulations, like those found at McGraw Hill, for IAs sent to moderators? Thank you for your time.
Hi Chris,
I’m not sure how they would be useful unless you were only assessing DCP. Some sims have built-in uncertainty that might be of use. Better get your DPCo to check. They certainly wouldn’t be useful for Design.
Good luck,
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
I was wondering if you have created database questions for genetics besides the Oxford textbook examples.
Hi Sully – there are a few original examples from research papers dotted through the presentations, but none recently, sorry.