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The Salters-Nuffield Biology (Edexcel) course is 'context-led'. Hmmm.

I'm hardly learning any biology here. They even admit that the course takes the focus OFF science and on to a hodgepodge of other things. I see my friends' notes and things from other biology courses, and they seem to have so much more substance.

I don't want to learn about politics, current events or ethics. I want to learn about biology. It seems to me that anyone with a genuine interest in the subject will come to understand its applications and relevance to 'real life' naturally. Those without a genuine interest can only be helped so much by superficial attempts to make the course more interesting.

What do other biology students think? Agree/disagree?

Reply 1

kashkash786

i agree, i'm an A2 student and i did this course, its a load of ****, trust me, you have to learn about ethics and stuff like that, nothing related to proper biology, i wish i could go back in time and do AQA biology but alas i have to continue with this wierd subject. if ur an AS student why don't you see if u could transfer to AQA? they may still be places if you ask your principal

Reply 2

Biochemical Wizard

9

lol ia lso done this course and am in my second year now the only good thing is that it is quite easy

Reply 3

michaelyus

10

Well the exams look more like proper Biology exams, but I agree the course is not really...biologically structured. I actually transferred to the SNAB course (from OCR), but I am finding it really...strange.

Reply 4

Liberties

OP

kashkash786

i agree, i'm an A2 student and i did this course, its a load of ****, trust me, you have to learn about ethics and stuff like that, nothing related to proper biology, i wish i could go back in time and do AQA biology but alas i have to continue with this wierd subject. if ur an AS student why don't you see if u could transfer to AQA? they may still be places if you ask your principal

I'm an A2 student, so switching isn't really plausible. But anyway, it's not the plague of my life or anything. I just find it very distasteful, and regret that I haven't seen as much of the subject as I might have done otherwise.

This sort of thing is happening in virtually all other parts of academia -- less so in A-levels, but it is shown quite eloquently in the fact that my AS biology textbook had an 'ethics' and a 'global warming' section. We need to rebel against it. :smile:

Reply 5

Liberties

OP

nonconformist07

lol ia lso done this course and am in my second year now the only good thing is that it is quite easy

It is very easy. That doesn't seem to effect the grade I get, though. My lowest AS grade was in biology. -_-;

Reply 6

Annaconda

17

i hate the was everything is layed out, the way the facts are all put into stories and not just written down staight.
my college have been doing it since the pilot version before most schools and absolutely love it! All the work we do ti look through the presentations and fill in the worksheets. Its really annoying how the teachers dont teach!

Reply 7

style

13

yh it annoys me to how they put it all in dumb little stories like 'peters story' its just more reading when they could just give you the facts.

Reply 8

RosiePosiePuddingAndPie

12

I don't like how they split up areas that, in my opinion, should be together. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is how you do plant cells and animal cells seperately during AS, yet in the exam you're expected to have noticed the differences. I just wanted to learn them together!! I don't like context learning either, I like learning the facts, and then being shown how it works in 'the real world'.

On the plus side, the textbooks are quite eloquent really, and quite clear. And I like the diagrams. And having the website resources is great too, really.

Also, I'm sure a lot of biology courses will include things about ethics, because that's an important part of biology if you're going to go into that area later on. Obviously the biology parts are most important, but ethics are important too. Also, I quite like the current events things - I wouldn't know about some of them otherwise, and I think they're quite interesting :redface:

Maybe that's just me.

Edit: I realise that I've put "also," in this post quite a lot, but I can't be bothered to think of new words :redface:

Edit2: I put "textboobs" instead of "textbooks"... I think I need to go to bed!! :eek:

Reply 9

Democracy

20

I hate SNAB...I mean yeah, it was an easy A grade for AS and hopefully A2 but it's not really biology...more like geography with a side of medical ethics.

Core practicals = ****

Reply 10

Liberties

OP

RosiePosiePuddingAndPie

Also, I'm sure a lot of biology courses will include things about ethics, because that's an important part of biology if you're going to go into that area later on.

Yes, but I'm arguing that the people interested enough in biology (the people who will go into that area later on) will learn about that sort of thing on their own, incidentally.

Obviously the biology parts are most important, but ethics are important too. Also, I quite like the current events things - I wouldn't know about some of them otherwise, and I think they're quite interesting :redface:

Maybe that's just me.

Yeah, that's true -- it is fun. ^^ But unlike my other A-levels, I don't really feel like I'm getting into a subject here. On the SNAB course they try to relate biology to other areas, but I find that since I'm learning so little of the subject, it is actually less easy to relate it to other subjects.

Edit: I realise that I've put "also," in this post quite a lot, but I can't be bothered to think of new words :redface:

I didn't notice. :p:

Edit2: I put "textboobs" instead of "textbooks"... I think I need to go to bed!! :eek:

Mmmm, Freudian slip. :wink:

Reply 11

RosiePosiePuddingAndPie

12

Liberties

Mmmm, Freudian slip. :wink:

Well...

You raised some good points actually - I've got no argument for them (hey, I'm not defending SNAB - if anything, I'd rather learn the subject, and connect it to other areas myself!). I like the way my other subjects are taught, like Salters Chemistry, so I'd be happy if my Biology was taught in the same 'old fashioned' way!!

I was just trying to put a positive spin on poor old SNAB really. With an ugly name like that, it was never going to get that many fans :redface:

Reply 12

Annaconda

17

do they do chemsitry and physics as well?
cos theyd be called SNAC and SNAB.

if you did all three you could just go round saying you do snab, snac and snap!

lol sorry

Reply 13

Democracy

20

There's Salters Advanced Chemistry...but it has nothing to do with Nuffield :P

For all you snab haters, join the facebook group!

http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2349946987

Reply 14

michaelyus

10

Salters Nuffield Biology (Edexcel)

Salters Chemistry (OCR)
Nuffield Chemistry (Edexcel)

Salters Horners Physics (Edexcel)
Advancing Physics (OCR) - but not related to Nuffield; I think it's with the Institute of Physics or something.

There used to be Nuffield Physics with OCSEB, and even Nuffield Maths with OUDLE.

Reply 15

bright star

1

i did salters chemistry and survived. they're all stupid applied subjects. it's dense. one of those textbooks is actually called "chemical storylines" it's basically a book of silly chemistry stories. they base all their questions around silly examples. there's little examination of key facts and concepts.

Reply 16

Nichrome

18

The Salters Advanced Chemistry isn't so bad in that you can just get all the theory you need from Chemical Ideas (great book) and just burn the usuless pile of crap that is Chemical Storylines. With Salters Horners Physics, they force you to cringingly learn every bit of physics through terrible applications, and the textbooks are the worst things I've ever read. I agree with the posts here in that the Salters syllabuses are designed to give you LESS knowledge and understanding of the subject YOU'VE CHOSEN to do and are interested in, replacing it with rediculous applications just to try and keep up the interest of people who obviously can't really be interested in their subject that much anyway. Pathetic.

Reply 17

Annaconda

17

is ti easy to get a good grade in though

Reply 18

Nichrome

18

I don't know about SNAB since I did AQA bio, but for Salters chemistry, yes it's quite easy to get a high grade in. For SHAP, it's very very difficult to get a high grade in due to the terrible resources for the course and the horrific and random nature of the questions asked in exams.

Reply 19

bright star

1

the resources for them all are pretty **** tbh. just look at how unprofessional their website is http://www.york.ac.uk/org/seg/salters/chemistry/

i wouldn't trust them as far as i can throw them. it's easy enough although whatever module i did where you had to learn all those mechanisms and conditions was a bit gay. most of it's obviously really useless as well.

The Salters-Nuffield Biology (Edexcel) course is 'context-led'. Hmmm.

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