Science FAQ's

• Can my child skip Physical Science their Freshman year and go straight into Biology?

It is important that students follow our course progression for a number of reasons.

1. As a department, we have worked to vertically align our curriculum so that chemistry and physical science concepts that are essential to Biological processes will be taught in advance of their time in Biology. There are other NGSS related performance and assessment tasks that the students get introduced to through the Physical science class so they will be able to successfully navigate the change in assessment in the Biology course work in regards to NGSS standards.

2. The Hawaii Department of Education has made Biology a required course for graduation and thus the only Science course that has an End of Course Exam attached to the class. This is an intensive test that covers all of the Biological NGSS standards and factors as 15% of a student's overall grade in Biology. We have designed our Science course vertical and horizontal alignment to provide students with the best educational experiences to prepare them for this statewide assessment.

3. From a social and emotional perspective, we have found that students who transfer in from other schools who were enrolled in Biology as a Freshman and are then scheduled into our Biology courses with Sophomores often face difficulty connecting with their classmates or feel out of place.