California Experience Biology: The Living Earth

California Experience Biology: The Living Earth is a next generation high school 3-course biology program that makes biology exciting and relevant to students. Developed by two preeminent biologists and passionate educators, Ken Miller and Joe Levine, this bestselling biology curriculum immerses students in biological inquiry. Students think, investigate, and talk about biology. They interact with natural phenomena through hands-on and virtual student inquiry activities, problem-based learning, and lab experiments. California Experience Biology: The Living Earth is made of the following program components.

• Savvas Realize® includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation.
• California Teacher Edition - Available in digital and print, the wrap-around Teacher Edition provides point-of-use instructional strategies to support students as they make sense of the phenomena, answers to activities and assessments and classroom modifications to adjust instruction based on the diverse student needs, skills, and interests in their classroom.
• California Student Edition, available in print and digital California Experience Biology: The Living Earth is well known for its engaging student narrative. Ken Miller and Joe Levine’s storytelling writing style captivates students with real-world, relevant content. Visual analogies, virtual interactivities, simulations, and reading checks at point-of-use enhance student understanding of biology concepts. Also available in Spanish.
• The Biology Foundations Reading and Study Guide includes interactive experiences that improve science understanding and reinforce the three-dimensional aspect of learning. Practice focuses on key concepts and science literacy to improve students’ understanding of a scientific text. Find concise chapter summaries, written below grade level, with a focus on the Key Questions, vocabulary help, visual tools, and point-of-use reading tools in this student workbook. Also available in Spanish.

Yes, California Experience Biology: The Living Earth is available in Spanish. The following resources are available in Spanish.

• Print Student Edition 
• Student Edition eText on Savvas Realize™
• Print Biology Foundations Workbok
• Biology Foundations Workbook PDFs on Savvas Realize™

California Experience Biology: The Living Earth immerses students in real-world phenomena. The program drives student learning through a series of investigative phenomenon case studies, hands-on and virtual student experiences, and problem-based learning activities that support their understanding of the phenomenon under study.

Problem-Based Learning: Launch every unit with a Problem-Based Learning activity where learning is anchored in a local, relevant phenomenon. Connect concepts across multiple chapters through STEM projects, authentic readings, and virtual interactivities. Students design and revise their project throughout the unit in their Digital Explorer’s Journal.Case Study Phenomenon: Investigate phenomena with the Chapter Case Studies. Learning connects to the Case Study in labs, activities and assessment, creating a cohesive storyline throughout the chapter.

Active Student Experiences: Students build Science & Engineering Skills using hands-on inquiry labs, data analysis, STEM projects, and virtual simulations, labs and activities. Easy connections to the three dimensions are found at point of use in the Student and Teacher Editions.

Performance-Based Assessments: California Experience Biology: The Living Earth is rich with assessment types that work in combination to assess three-dimensional learning. Performance-Based Assessments measure students’ mastery of all three dimensions through scenario-based performance tasks.

The California Experience Biology: The Living Earth program includes a variety of resources and instructional strategies that help teachers address the diverse student needs, skills, and interests in their classroom. There are several techniques which are found throughout the program including:

• Hands-on Inquiry Labs: Available in two different versions, allowing instructors to differentiate based on student needs and abilities.
• Assess on the Spot: Quick formative assessments in the Teacher Edition allow instructors to assess understanding of key points in the lesson.
• Differentiated Instruction: Suggestions throughout the Teacher Edition provide support for modifying lessons for special needs students, struggling students, less proficient readers, and advanced students.
• Teaching Strategies are at point-of-use to support language proficiency and ELD/ELA Standards.
• DOK levels are noted in the lesson review questions and chapter assessment.
• Key questions are introduced in the lesson opener and highlighted throughout to help keep students focused on the main concepts as they read. The key questions are revisited in the chapter assessment.
• Visual Learning Strand: Core ideas in each chapter are supported by visual analogies, dynamic photos, illustrations, tables, and graphs.
• Virtual Interactivities: available at point-of-use in the student etext require students to manipulate variables to deepen understanding.
• Reading Checks support close reading and provide a pause point for students to evaluate their understanding.
• The Biology Foundations: Reading and Study Guide Workbook includes interactive experiences that improve science understanding and reinforce the three-dimensional aspect of learning.

California Experience Biology: The Living Earth digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation. Click here to sign up for a demo of California Experience Biology: The Living Earth.

Joe Levine earned a B.S. from Tufts University, a Masters from the Boston University Marine Program, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research has been published in scientific journals ranging from Science to Scientific American, and his popular writing has appeared in trade books and in magazines such as Smithsonian and Natural History. He has taught introductory biology, ecology, marine biology, neurobiology, and coral reef biology, and currently teaches Inquiry in Rain Forests, a field-based graduate- level PD course for science teachers, through the Organization for Tropical Studies.

Following a Macy Fellowship in Science Broadcast Journalism at WGBH-TV, Levine produced science features for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, served as advisor to NOVA, and helped launch Discovery Channel’s Discover Magazine. He has served as Science Editor for OMNI-MAX films and for PBS series including Evolution, and as judge for Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. He has designed exhibit programs for state aquarium projects in Texas, New Jersey, and Florida. Joe has led PD workshops across the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In 2016, he served as Outstanding Educator in Residence for Singapore’s Ministry of Education.