Thread: General Science major - please help!

A lot will depend on your state's certification procedures.

NCLB "highly qualified" teacher mandates will have an impact also.

What kind of certification will you have?

If you have a general science certification, then you might have to teach physics or chemistry; and it would be much better for every one concerned if you are comfotable with the content.

Something else to consider - in Texas there are a lot more biology majors than there are biology teaching spots. Some biology majors get other courses like environmental science or aquatic science, but many, many of them end up teaching middle school. This is what happened to me. It was good for me though, because I found my niche, but if I had been set on HS bio...

Another thing to consider (again in Texas) lots of PE majors & wanna be coaches get biology certification because they take so many bio course anyway (general bio, anatomy, physiology...). I
When a HS has a choice between a straight bio teacher and a bio teacher/coach, oftentimes the coach will have the upper hand.

I would advise you to make yourself as marketable as you can.

Thanks for your reply. My first degree is actually in PE so I will be certified to teach phys ed and coach as well so that aspect shouldn't be a problem for me (I am doing PE as my minor). I am living in Canada and in my province we don't really have many schools that offer marine or enviornment sciences at the high school level so basically my only choices would be biology, chem or physics. I guess one thing maybe that might not be so good for me is that there is a certification for biology, phyics and chemistry, and then there is a certification for general sciences (which is what I'm taking). General sciences allows for more leeway in the prereq courses need to get that certification which is one reason I am taking it (as I can take the environment courses I'm interested in). Maybe it would be a good idea to call a school advisor or the liscencing board and ask them? Do you think they would be able to help me?

Remember that all the sciences are inter-related. Having a few courses in chem or physics might help you provide some more advanced types of questions for the students that need it. For example if a student is very interested in how the brain works, knowing the chemistry of sodium (IIRC) will help undertsnad the bio-chemical processes in the brain-cells.

What I am saying is it can't hurt and can only help. So go for it.

Oh, I teach jr high math and I am always bringing up stuff from physics as it relates to our content.