This book is your chance to shift the emphasis of your high school biology curriculum away from “we need to learn about this topic in order to do well in class” to “we need to figure out why or how things happen in the world.” Using the book’s model-based inquiry (MBI) framework lets you create meaningful learning experiences for your students as they strive to make sense of the world around them.

Aligned with A Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the book’s curriculum integrates disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. The goal is to engage biology students in constructing, critiquing, revising, and testing models to explain real-world phenomena.

Model-Based Inquiry in Biology is divided into two parts:

• Section 1 introduces MBI, including how to think about the role of teachers and students in MBI classrooms.
• Section 2 contains four complete MBI biology units with both teacher and student materials. They cover phenomena in four areas: molecules and organisms, ecosystems, heredity, and biological evolution. All give you the background, examples, and guidance to lead students to their final evidence-based explanations of the phenomenon that anchors each unit.

The authors are experts in model-based teaching and learning who tested each unit in actual classrooms. They know that too often, high school biology teachers like you have to scavenge for curriculum materials that both align with standards and engage students in developing their understanding of the natural world. With Model-Based Inquiry in Biology, your scavenging days are over.