My name is Jacqueline Tran and I have been teaching since 2015. I teach AP Biology and Integrated Science at Northwood High School in Irvine, California and have experience in AP curriculum design. I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry with an emphasis in Medical Science from the University of California-Riverside and a Master's in Education from the University of Redlands. Beyond the classroom, I am the Advisor for Biology Olympiad at our school and support students in preparing for the USA Biology Olympiad Exam each year. I have also graded AP Biology Exams as an AP Reader each summer and have applied what I have learned from this experience to better prepare my students for the AP exam. While teaching AP Biology, my average pass rate over the last 6 years for the AP Exam is 99%. This means that all students, except for one or two per year, received a score of 3 or above on their exam.
My goal is to help students develop a conceptual framework for modern biology, through a comprehensive and interlinking understanding of the big ideas in biology, and to help students gain an appreciation of science as a process, through experiment and inquiry-based experience of the science practices. The science practices enable students to establish lines of evidence and use them to develop and refine testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena. Essential to this conceptual understanding are a grasp of science as a process rather than an accumulation of facts, recognition of unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology, and application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to solve novel problems. I am very passionate about Biology and my enthusiasm shows in my teaching. I truly that hope my students enjoy learning about these topics while gaining a deeper understanding.