The Complete Guide to Becoming A Biological Science Teacher, Postsecondary

Chapter 1: What Does a Biological Science Teacher, Postsecondary Actually Do?

Imagine walking into a room with 150 students on the first day of the semester. Some are sitting in the front row, laptops open, pens ready. Others are in the back, scrolling through their phones, already looking bored. Your job is to get that whole room — the eager ones and the skeptical ones — to understand the structure of a cell, the dynamics of an ecosystem, or the mechanics of DNA replication. That is the public face of this job. But it is only one slice of what a biological science teacher, postsecondary actually does.

Before we go any further, let's clear up a common misconception. When you hear "biological science teacher, postsecondary," you might picture a professor in a tweed jacket at a prestigious university, walking across a leafy campus. That image is real, but it is not the whole picture. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics counts anyone who teaches biology courses at a college or university in this occupation. That includes people at community colleges, where the typical class might have 25 students and no research lab at all. It includes instructors at four-year state universities, private liberal arts colleges, and large research institutions. The job differs significantly depending on where you work. But there is a core set of responsibilities that you will have anywhere.

Let's start with teaching. This is the obvious one, but the actual work is more varied than just standing