Teaching Biology Career?

Teaching is a rewarding career because of the opportunities to help young people gain confidence and knowledge as they shape their future careers and personal lives. Biology is taught at all levels because it is all about life; even the youngest children are interested in how their bodies work and in the lives of plants, animals and insects around them.

Increasingly, hospitals, community agencies, and industry are also generating health-education materials created by biologists and others with science backgrounds. Opportunities for publishing educational materials, in print and electronically, are expanding rapidly.

K-12. Teaching from kindergarten through high school is governed by widely varying state laws on teaching credentials. Students interested in teaching children of these ages should be in touch with their campus experts very early. All teaching programs require supervised student teaching, to assure that there is a match between the desires of prospective teachers and their talents and skills. Seek out information early.

Most states have special positions at middle school level for "science specialists." At the high school level, some states require that teachers have a bachelor's degree in the specific subject they are to teach. There is no single place all these requirements are compiled and state requirements often change quickly. Be sure to start your investigations as soon as you think you might want to teach, and keep in close touch with expert advisors. In teaching, degrees with breadth across the life and physical sciences will prove valuable, as science teachers often find themselves called upon to fill-in in subject areas that were not their field of special expertise. Include studies in things of interest to the young - meteorology, oceanography, geology, and volcanoes, as well as animal, bird, fish and plant biology.

Community College. In some states there is a requirement that a Community College instructor have a master's degree in the subject(s) to be taught. Many biology graduate students do some teaching as they begin their graduate studies and find that they enjoy it so much they leave their original objective and complete a master's degree that qualifies them for community college teaching positions. One way to find out if this is a career that might suit you is to ask your undergraduate professors if there are opportunities for you to serve as a teaching aid in a lab, to grade examinations and problem sets, or to participate in development of teaching tools and strategies. Instructors are always anxious to have eager helping hands.

College and University. Requirements for full time and part time faculty often differ. Increasingly, it is expected that full time faculty at all but very small colleges have a doctoral degree, or at least be actively working towards the doctorate when they are hired. Part time faculty, on the other hand, often include experienced teachers who have master's degrees. It is very rare to find a college science instructor who does not have at least a master's degree. The difference between part and full time faculty is usually that the full time faculty are expected to conduct research and other scholarly activities, including professional publications, to gain their jobs on a permanent basis (tenure), while part time faculty may or may not be engaged in independent scholarship.

Health Educators in the community. Increasingly business and local governments are hiring people with backgrounds and special knowledge in health biology to provide such things as stress management classes for employees. The requirements for such positions are often quite flexible, with experience counting for more than specific degrees.

Publishing. Biological information must be broadly disseminated to be useful. The publishing industry ranges from textbook and video marketing to education of medical students to development of health-oriented and other scientific web sites. Many of those who work in this industry have backgrounds in science that enable them to communicate effectively with authors, editors and potential users of published material.