Science Ambassador Eoin Lettice
Why do so many Leaving Certificate students take biology – far more than those who sit the physics and chemistry exams?
That’s the intriguing question on the Frogblog.ie science blog, in a guest post by Eoin Lettice.
Eoin (right) is one of our Science Ambassadors, who lectures in plant science and zoology in UCC. He explains that:
- About 30,000 students sat Leaving Cert biology this year
- About 8,000 took the final chemistry exam
- Just under 7,000 sat the physics exam
- About 6,000 did agricultural science
“The statistics beg the question as to why so many students are attracted to biology rather than chemistry or physics,” Eoin says.
“Perhaps they believe it to be easier, but colloquial evidence suggests that students who take another science exam other than biology often find biology the more demanding of the two.
“There may well be a large number of students who take biology as a means of ensuring they have that ‘one science subject’ in case they wish to study science at third level.”
Junior Cert experience
While many students do biology because they have a real affinity for the subject, he says many may also be guided by their experience at Junior Cert level.
“In my opinion, the biology curriculum at Junior Cert level (as part of the Science course) lacks depth to such a degree that students anticipate Leaving Cert biology to be much easier than Leaving Cert physics and chemistry, which students consider more difficult at the junior level.”
Importance of experiments
Eoin makes other interesting points about the curriculum, and says hands-on experiments are very important, along with competitions such as the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition and SciFest.
These, he writes, “are excellent introductions for students into the experimental nature of science”.
Learn more
- Read Eoin Lettice’s guest post on Frogblog.ie
- Check out Eoin’s own blog, Communicate Science
- Find out more about what Eoin studied at school and his career as a zoologist on MyScienceCareer.ie
- Check out our other Science Ambassadors, who explain how they became interested in a life in science and what it’s like working in their particular areas
