Jungle justice. Voodoo weekend. Fruit flies. Whatever that means. These are phrases that many Chaminade students have become accustomed to over Mr. Bangura’s tenure as a biology teacher. However, for the first time in a decade, Mr. Bangura isn’t teaching Honors Biology; he has now transitioned to AP Biology. As an AP Biology scholar myself, I interviewed Mr. Bangura to discover the challenges he encountered on his jungle journey back to AP Biology.
(M=McDaniel, B=Mr. Bangura)
M: What has been the biggest challenge going back to teaching AP Bio?
B: It’s new prep. I want to call it new prep because I have not taught it for maybe 10 years or so. Things have changed, the curriculum has changed over a period of time, so it’s trying to adapt to the new changes.
I wouldn’t call it a challenge, I’d just call it just a little bit of time consuming for now, but something that is doable.
M: So, you told us in class that you had an issue with your credentials for ACC. Would you like to elaborate on that?
B: Well, I didn’t struggle with it per se. I had an issue with UMSL. UMSL wanted me to send in a new credential, [but] they already had me. I had taught the course before and so I wrote them back and said “Do you want me to start all this over again? You already have me in the system as an adjunct.” I got an email back: “[W]ell, the information that we had before, we can’t find it.” So, I said, “Is it my fault then or your fault for archiving stuff and not sav[ing] it well?”
It went that way quite a while, so I really did refuse to send him [the credentials]. I did refuse, because I knew that I had the credentials. I had taught in the AP Bio before, and being a university you should be able to keep credentials. Not even for 10 years, maybe 20 years, 30 years or so. So, I was just being more pragmatic about it.
Later on, I sent in my credential after we just started school. When I sent in my credential, it didn’t take any time [for them to] send me “Oh, you’re already in the system.”
I said it, I told you so.
M: Yeah, that’s frustrating, but that makes sense. But what inspired you to start teaching with the last unit of AP Bio first?
B: Well, you had me for Honors Bio, [and] you know that we did not touch ecology at all. If you look at the AP Bio, the unit on ecology is a new unit for most of the students. Besides that, it’s a unit that has a lot of information.
AP Bio is like teaching the test, which I don’t like because it puts you in the position where you can’t go anything outside; you have to go straight away with the text so that you can get the information across before the test in May.
In order to do that, we want to cover materials that the students do not have a lot of information on first. We have seven chapters just on ecology, including animal behavior, which we put in the category of ecology. So, we want to cover all of that. The remaining things I have done with you guys. [We can] move very fast into it.
M: I get why we started with ecology now. So, curriculum-wise, what’s different about teaching honors bio compared to AP bio?
B: I call [AP Bio] a triangle. I don’t want to call it a triangle of death. * I call it a triangle because you have to satisfy the school curriculum, the AP curriculum, [and] the college curriculum. You have to set it for all three of them in order to be in line.
With the Honors Bio, you’re just looking at it from the school’s perspective. So, there’s not much pressure on that.
*The triangle of death is what Mr. Bangura calls the combination of taking AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and Anatomy and Physiology. Another fun phrase I learned in Honors Biology.
M: Final question. What’s some advice you have for your students for the rest of the semester?
B: There’s a lot of material. I’m going to try my best to get you prepared at least to [a] three [or] four. And then, if you want to get a five, it’s on your own to do extra work. I’ll do my best to prepare you guys. If you want to get a five, it’s up to you to put in the extra work.
M: Thank you for your time, Mr. Bangura.
You have it here folks. Despite challenges with ACC accreditation, a ten-year gap of curriculum changes, and a triangle of death, Mr. Bangura has been able to refamiliarize himself with the AP Biology class. Let’s hope his students and him are able to keep up their stride and have many more voodoo weekends.
