"This Core Curriculum is not a syllabus. It addresses only the content and skills to be assessed at the commencement level by the Living Environment Regents science examination. The Core Curriculum has been prepared with the assumption that the content, skills, and vocabulary as outlined in the Learning Standards for Mathematics ,Science, and Technology at the elementary and intermediate levels have been taught previously. Work in grades 9-12 must build on the knowledge, understanding, and ability to do science that students have acquired in their earlier grades. This is a core for the preparation of high school curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the final stage in a K-12 continuum of science education. The lack of detail in this core is not to be seen as a shortcoming. Rather, the focus on conceptual understanding in the core is consistent with the approaches recommended in the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks of Science Literacy: Project 2061. It is essential that instruction focus on understanding important relationships, processes, mechanisms, and applications of concepts. Far less important is the memorization of specialized terminology and technical details. Future assessments will test students' ability to explain, analyze, and interpret biological processes and phenomena more than their ability to recall specific facts. It is hoped that the general nature of these statements will encourage the teaching of science for this understanding, instead of for memorization. The following question has been asked for each Key Idea: What do students need to know to have science literacy within that broad theme? The general nature ofthe Major Understandings in this core will also allow teachers more flexibility, making possible richer creativity in instruction and greater variation in assessment than a more explicit syllabus would allow."

For the entire Core Curriculum and past Living Environment Regents exams click on the sites listed below.

If you are interested in free and commerical lessons, books, and media related to the Core Curriculum, then click on the sites listed below.

This reference page is not affiliated with the New York State Education Department. For official information concerning the New York State Regents Exams, please visit the NYSED web site.