The Science of Life is a comprehensive teaching and learning package for the NEW specification for Leaving Certificate Biology. It is suitable for both Higher Level and Ordinary level students. Inquiry-based in its approach, research and investigation are treated as key components of student learning.

This exciting and engaging textbook aims to provide Biology students with all the resources and learning opportunities they need to:

• Understand the core biological concepts, explained in clear concise language.
• Apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems.
• Develop models to represent structures, function and interactions in biology.
• Learn an evidence-based habit of mind through scientific inquiry.
• Safely use the materials and equipment of modern practical biology.
• Practise the skills they need to plan and carry out investigations in the laboratory and in the field.
• Research the important ways in which biological knowledge is applied in health, industrial processes andagriculture.
• Appreciate and evaluate the impact of technological advances in biology on society.
• Develop a critical awareness of the impact of human activity on biodiversity and ecosystems.
• Explore ways in which biology can provide sustainable solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Textbook

The Science of Life chapters are closely aligned to the new specification’s structure as Strands of study.

• Organisation of Life
• Structure and Processes of Life
• Interactions of Life

Learning Outcomes and Prior Learning checks are clearly indicated at the start of each chapter.

Cross-cutting themes of Health, Technology and Sustainability are explicitly presented in all relevant areas, as intended by the new specification.

Experiments and other investigations and activities in the Research and Investigations Book are flagged at the appropriate points with banners that point to the relevant page in the Student Textbook.

Definition boxes are easily identified and carefully worded to be clear and accurate.

A comprehensive glossary of key terms is also included for quick reference.

Key terms are highlighted and hyperlinked throughout the eBook so that students can quickly and easily remind themselves of a concept or definition by clicking on the word. 

Each chapter has been carefully sequenced as a comprehensive but concise treatment with clear explanations of the Learning Outcomes, providing just the right amount of detail to allow students to develop a concrete understanding of biological concepts and processes. 

The Nature of Science Unifying Strand Learning Outcomes are introduced in Chapter 1. Here students begin to explore the investigative process and are provided with the support needed to develop their own research questions and carry out well-designed experiments. Students continue this process by engaging with the variety of activities in the Research and Investigations Book

End-of-chapter summaries offer students a useful revision tool and learning checklist.

Assessment includes differentiated end-of-chapter revision questions, while data analysis, extended answers, research tasks, modelling activities and other formative assessment activities are presented in The Science of Life Research and Investigations Book.

Customised artwork – illustrations, infographics, diagrams and photos – helps students to visualise and develop a clear understanding of the various models in LC Biology.

Video animations are presented throughout the Student Textbook to support students in forming clear representations of the ideas they are learning about. They include 3D computer models of processes that are new to the LC Biology course such as:

• Phylogenetic trees
• ATP Synthase and the Electron Transport Chain
• Genetic Engineering
• Agarose gel electrophoresis
• The Polymerase Chain Reaction
• DNA sequencing

QR codes bring students to various extra online resources and activities including interactive laboratories and podcasts, as well as opportunities for interested students to extend their knowledge

Audio recordings of biological terms and their pronunciations are also available for students to listen to.

Expert reviewers and consultants ensures up-do-date content that reflects current and emerging understanding of biological processes.

The Research and
Investigations Book

The Science of Life Research and Investigations Book is a carefully scaffolded guide to help students to develop their skills in the lab and in their learning. Students do this through various kinds of activities in each chapter, with the Nature of Science Unifying Strand threaded throughout, and the specific NOS Learning Outcomes highlighted in the relevant activities.

Laboratory and Field Investigations
Specified Investigations

The Science of Life Research and Investigations Book provides detailed, step-by-step, illustrated guides for students to enable them to confidently navigate the specified laboratory and field investigations, in an inquiry-based, student-centred way. Students are explicitly guided to develop their investigative skills in:

• Formulating hypotheses
• Planning controlled experiments
• Making predictions
• Identifying variables
• Gathering primary data
• Analysing and presenting data
• Drawing conclusions
• Critical evaluation

Further Laboratory Investigations

In the case of many of the Specified Investigations, a choice of lab protocols are provided for teachers and students. Teachers may prefer one over another depending on the time and equipment available, and the skills they would like their students to learn while carrying out a particular Specified Investigation.

There are also supplementary lab activities, some in the book, with many more online, intended to provide students further opportunities to develop their laboratory and investigative skills.

Students may also look to these alternative and supplementary lab investigations and protocols to support them with, and provide some ideas for, their Biology in Practice Investigations. 

Laboratory Skill Development

All investigations have been carefully chosen and designed to be accessible to students in a way that helps them to develop the technical lab skills they will need for their Biology in Practice Investigation.

• Preparing solutions and reagents, making extracts, serial dilutions etc.
• Using a range of laboratory equipment.
• Precision and accuracy in measurements.
• Recording data.
• Applying mathematical skills (calculating concentrations, graphing, inverse relationships, rates of change).
• Keeping a detailed laboratory journal.
• Using technology for measurement (sensors) and data analysis (IT).

Research Tasks

• Activities that guide students to carrying out independent research, learning how to evaluate reliable sources, critically analyse secondary data, and communicate their findings.
• Students are given structured tasks, including a guide, often with a list of resources to begin their research. Students use the TRAAP tool to evaluate the authenticity and reliability of the sources they use.

Modelling Activities

• Students learn the central importance of modelling in Biology, through tasks that introduce them to different ways of representing key biological concepts in areas like Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Human Physiology and Ecology. Through carefully chosen and scaffolded modelling activities, students appreciate the usefulness of, the limitations and the changing nature of models.

Milestones in Biology

There are lots of activities in which students are presented with an account of, or carry out some research on, the historically important work of a famous scientist whose contribution to our understanding of a biological process or concept was pivotal.

These Nature of Science (NOS) activities are valuable in various ways. 

• Students appreciate how scientists work and how scientific ideas are modified over time (NOS U1)
• They provide a deeper understanding of the model or process that these scientists developed. (NOS U4)
• They are often excellent examples of how robust scientific investigations are conducted, key experiments that illustrate the importance of fair testing, controlled experiments, and critically analysing data to identify patterns. (NOS U2)
• The Milestones in Biology activities give students the opportunity to identify these skills, reflect on them through answering the carefully choses formative assessment questions that follow. (NOS U2, U3)
• They see how models change over time, dependent on the available evidence. They also see how ethics and science are intertwined, and how the work of scientists impacts society. (NOS U3, U4)

Evaluating media sources

There are various news media type articles contained in the Research and Investigations Book, as well as many other activities in which students are asked to go and find some media-based content in the context of a research task. Students then apply the TRAAP tool outlined in Chapter 1 to evaluate the authenticity, accuracy, reliability, fairness and integrity of these sources.

Analysing Secondary Data and Problem-solving

The Curriculum Specification for Leaving Cert Biology emphasises the importance of students being able to effectively and routinely apply their understanding of biological processes to analysing secondary data. In each chapter of The Science of Life Research and Investigations Book, students are presented with various forms of secondary data with which they practise their skills in data analysis, problem-solving and critical thinking.

There are many problem-solving activities in The Science of Life Research and Investigations Book, opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to genetic crosses, pedigrees, DNA sequence analysis, classifying organisms using molecular data, identifying anomalies and critical evaluation of experimental methods.

The Science of Life also provides students and teachers with many more online resources to ensure that students are comfortable and proficient in tackling problems and analysing data in unfamiliar contexts.

Applications of Biology

There are various sections in the Student Textbook, and activities in the Research and Investigations Book, that provide students with the opportunity to learn about how Biology is applied in various industries and processes in the modern world. Examples of the use of Biotechnology and other biological strategies are detailed in the relevant chapters, with comprehensive treatment and a solid base for further research if students or teachers wish to do so. Students are also asked to evaluate the societal and ethical aspects of developments in the applications of Biology.

Teacher Resources

The Teacher’s Resource Book, together with a suite of online resources for teachers, provide all the support and materials that teachers need to tackle the new specification for LC Biology. Included are:

• Suggested schemes of work for the two-year Senior Cycle.
• A Biology in Practice guide for teachers on integrating the Additional Assessment Component (AAC) into the teaching schedule.
• Answers to the end-of-chapter revision questions.
• Animated PowerPoints for each topic.
• Student revision worksheets.
• End-of-chapter class tests.
• Laboratory Guidelines and notes for each of the Specified Investigations with detailed instructions and tips for preparation and planning.
• Lab recipes and instructions for:
  • Solutions and reagents, extracting enzymes, etc.
  • Microbiology – making up agar, sterilising solutions, pouring agar plates, disposing of waste.
  • DNA technology – preparing agarose gels, DNA profiling, PCR.
  • Choosing equipment, how to set it up, using digital tools and devices.
  • Trouble-shooting frequently encountered issues with experiments.
  • Safety.
  • IT for recording and analysing data in Biology investigations.
• Modelling activities (e.g. Carbon and Nitrogen Cycle, Steps in Evolution, Photosynthesis and Respiration Pathways, Transcription and Translation, Genetic crosses, Pedigree charts, etc.)
• Crosswords and Quizzes.
• Groupwork activities (research tasks, debates, case-studies).

About the Authors

The Science of Life began in 2021 as a collaborative project between Declan Cathcart and Barbara Kelly. It was finalised following the release of the new specification in late 2024.

The authors are both highly qualified biologists and very experienced Biology teachers. Between them, they have over 20 years working in Biology research in university labs and industrial settings. They have a combined 35 years of experience teaching Biology at secondary school level, both in Ireland and in schools abroad. They are both also experienced authors. This combination of qualification and experience gives The Science of Life team a unique insight and perspective into the new Curriculum Specification for Leaving Certificate Biology.

Dr DECLAN CATHCART has been teaching Biology in secondary schools for 25 years. Before that, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and university lecturer in industry labs and universities in the UK and Ireland for over 10 years before becoming a science teacher. During this time, he worked in various microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and protein engineering laboratories, developing expertise in microbial fermentations, genetic engineering, PCR, bioinformatics, protein purification, DNA sequencing and more.

Declan has a deep knowledge and understanding of the Leaving Certificate Biology course. He has since 2020 been lecturing PME and MSc student science teachers in UCD in both years of the two-year programme. There he focuses on inquiry-based and investigative approaches to teaching and learning Science. For many years, Declan has run annual revision courses for Leaving Cert Biology students, originally in Trinity College Dublin, but more recently online.

Currently an Oide Biology associate, Declan started work with the PDST Biology team in 2016, when he developed and ran a joint PDST/Amgen Teach CPD programme for teachers, delivering workshops around Ireland. Declan has been a member of the Irish Science on Stage team since 2017, and on the National Steering Committee for SonS Ireland. He was on the international jury panel for the 2024 European SonS Festival in Finland. He is also a member of the ESAI Special Interest Group on Biology Education.

Since 2015, Declan has worked closely with Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) Ireland and was a recipient of the first global ABE Master Teacher Fellowships in 2021. He has collaborated with ABE in recent years to develop teaching and learning labs in biotechnology for secondary schools and continues to run CPD workshops on these labs in Ireland and other European countries.

Declan is the author of CJ Fallon books Active Science (for Junior Cycle) and Biology Extra!

Dr BARBARA KELLY has a BSc in Science from University College Dublin, a PhD from Oxford Brookes University and a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Wollongong. She spent 13 years as a research scientist, with a focus on molecular biology and virology, before retraining as a teacher. For the first five years of her teaching career, she taught in New South Wales, Australia. At present, she teaches Science, Biology and Mathematics at Temple Carrig School, Greystones. Barbara is also the co-author of Inquiring Minds for Transition Year students, published by CJ Fallon.