FEATURE | Roadside Anik-Aniks and the Tree of Life: The Biology 3 Elective
By Jay Adrian Lotivio
Cram-filling out clearance forms has been an unfortunate part of every Pisay student’s experience perhaps since the school’s inception. Final moments with teachers you loved (and disliked, maybe), finishing out academic loose ends, and memorializing your most recent year in the school is definitely nothing short of exhausting. But perhaps one common experience in every 10th Grader’s journey is the all-too-familiar pause when filling out a specific form: your elective forms.
“What do I really want to take as an elective?” had definitely passed the thoughts of everyone in Batch 2026 this school year, and that is to be expected.
The start of Grade 10 begets that students now realize their various nuances and interests form a complex amalgam not just limited to the hard sciences of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, but also other scientific disciplines. With this, the school has introduced elective classes, where students can choose not only from sub-specializations of these hard sciences, but also from the broader disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Today, in the aim of further assisting students from lower grades in choosing their electives, I interviewed a rising senior who took the Biology 3 Elective.
Preferring to remain anonymous, we’ll be calling the interviewee “Bestie”. According to Bestie, he describes the Biology 3 curriculum as simply “tracing the tree of life”.
“You start with general concepts regarding evolution, and throughout the year, move on across the tree of life, meeting microscopic and macroscopic specimens, handling laboratory equipment and field works, and inevitably meet right at the present, finally learning about the organisms you meet everyday” he said.
Expounding further, Bestie said that despite the vast amount of knowledge and concepts taught, he never really got the feeling that it was too indigestible because of the various activities planned for the curriculum that were not just limited to classroom learning. He was greatly surprised at this since he was usually content with the hard sciences being very difficult and hard.
As a backgrounder, he then explained that he chose Biology 3 as his elective because of his already inherent and prevalent interest in Biology, due to his Biology subjects last Grades 9 and 10. According to him, the concepts of not just evolution, but also biochemistry, biostatistics, and the various intersections of biology with his interests really pushed his decision to fill out the elective forms last Grade 10 with Biology.
And from what I could perceive — at least through the extent of Messenger chats — he truly did not regret it. He said that one specific memorable experience from him that was also very unique was from his elective teacher, that the reason that she went to Pisay was because of the beautiful greenery and lush forests that graced the bus windows from Sorsogon, her hometown, to Goa, Camarines Sur. In fact, one skill Bestie learned during his Biology classes is to always look deeper into things, that perhaps what might be some roadside greenery or anik-anik to some would actually be Mimosa pudica or a Canarium ovatum to us.
Learning Biology, or any one of the hard sciences for that matter means not just memorizing concepts or formulas written momentarily on whiteboards, but the application and realization that these concepts very much exist in our very lives. We can interact with them, and they just as well interact with us. Bestie, as his recommendation for the next batch of Biology 3 students mentions that commitment is integral for not only success in intellectual pursuits, but for your success in these pursuits to effectively be realized as the flat 1.0 on your report card.
“Sa Biology kasi, clear na there is a balance of theoretical and practical knowledge. Sometimes, lumalabas kami to collect specimens, at dinadala rin namin sila sa lab. Pero before this, we learn the concepts so we know what we’re dealing with, what we’re touching and seeing. So ayun, kailangan mo mag commit the whole way [to learning] para di siya mawawala sa utak mo,” Bestie said.
In convincing future batches of Biology 3 Elective students with only one sentence, Bestie had this to say: “Teacher niyo si Ma’am Jona.”
This writer agreed almost simultaneously with Bestie’s sentiments! The Biology 3 Elective may be challenging, but the teacher is someone who knows that and is ready to guide you every step along the way. She always ensures that the data she discusses with us is at its latest and backed with scientific data, but also combines that with the necessary practical activities to ensure our skills permeate through the body and not just get in the ear and out the other.
As the last question, I asked Bestie if he really thinks that Biology is just about plants and animals. Bestie replied with an outstanding “Definitely not. Biology might be the study of life but when we study Biology, it doesn’t study ‘alive’ specimens or was previously so. You can expect to study the interdisciplinary nature of life: how life exactly begins, how it ends, how it influences, how it changes, and of course, how it stays alive.”
So, if you’re still stuck on filling out that elective form, think of the roadside anik-aniks you see on your weekly drive to Pisay and back home. Do you want to learn what exactly is that tree with red leaves, or what are the names of the little green mosses you find under moist rocks? Perhaps Biology 3 might be the right one for you.
