Biology Guide

Elementary

Starting September 1, 2026  ·  Jelsa, Croatia  ·  Ongoing

About The Field School of Hvar

The Field School of Hvar is an independent enrichment program located in Jelsa, on the island of Hvar, Croatia. We bring together children ages 3 through 15 from around the world for a year-round academic program grounded in experiential learning, close reading, and deep engagement with literature, history, and the natural world. Small groups, meaningful work, and genuine community are at the heart of everything we do.

Our curriculum is organized based on a chronological story of Western human development. In the 2026-27 academic year, we will be centered in pre-history, Ancient Greece, and Rome. All of these civilizations had significant presences on island Hvar and left vibrant traces of their culture. In year two, we will inhabit the Middle Ages and early Renaissance; in year three, the Modern era; and in year four, the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Elementary learners encounter this history through read-alouds, hands-on projects, and meaningful encounters with Hvar's historic landscape.

In the sciences, our focus will move from classical biology in year one, to classical chemistry, physics, and the atomic revolution in years two, three, and four. Ideally, the Biology Guide is a science generalist who will move with us through this arc.

About the Role

The Biology Guide is a curious, outdoorsy educator who will lead labs for our two primary school-age groups: Lower Primary (8 children ages 7 and 8) and Upper Primary (10 children ages 9 and 10). You will meet with each group twice per week for afternoon sessions of approximately three hours each.

This is a role for someone as comfortable digging in a garden as they are leading a philosophical discussion with kids about the biological meaning of life. Most sessions take place outside — in the school's community garden, in orchards and trails, and along the shoreline. Hvar is treated as a living classroom in the spirit of Aristotle’s Lesbos, which sparked his theories of natural science, as the Galapagos inspired Darwin’s The Origin of Species.

Your classroom work is not just a school project - it feeds into the renewal and growth of regenerative agriculture on island Hvar. More information about that program is here: https://www.fieldschoolhvar.org/regenerative-agriculture

Biology Program

Curriculum

The animating question for our biology program is: what is life? Even the youngest learners can engage with this question meaningfully — building a working definition through observation, comparison, and direct encounter. How are living things connected? Where does life end and begin? Where does artificial intelligence fit into our categories of living beings? Children return to these questions across the year from diverse angles and with ever-deepening layers of knowledge.

Curriculum

Both groups work from Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU), an inquiry-based curriculum developed by Dr. Bernard Nebel (pressforlearning.com). BFSU builds conceptual understanding from the concrete to the abstract, making it well-suited to a discussion-rich, mixed-age environment. Content is calibrated to each group's level.

Fall Semester (September 7 – November 28)

Topic focus: ecosystems, taxonomy, and the characteristics of living things.

• Interdependence - studying habitats and “jobs” of plants and animals to understand the interdependence of beings in a place

• Cycles - noticing decay, preservation, and rebirth through work in our garden and with simple projects involving pickling, marinating, and fermentation

• Categories - classifying types of wild plants, shells, insects, and other common organisms, and comparing our own “curiosity cabinets” or mini-museums against scientific taxonomies

Spring Semester (March 13 – June 5)

Topic focus: anatomy and the parts of living things.

• The structures and functions of plants — roots, stems, leaves, flowers, seeds — encountered through planting, propagation, and dissection.

• Animal anatomy through close study and accessible dissection: spring includes a fish-gutting session led by a local fisherman, integrating traditional craft knowledge with biological observation.

• An introduction to molecular biology and the building blocks of life through fermentation projects.

Session Structure

Each three-hour afternoon session follows a consistent rhythm, with the depth of discussion and complexity calibrated by age:

• 30 minutes: Focused tutorial from BFSU, introducing or extending a concept. Lower Primary sessions use illustrations and read-alouds to anchor ideas; Upper Primary sessions move more quickly into open-ended discussion.

• 30 minutes: Student discussion — children describe observations, make predictions, and connect the concept to what they have seen in the garden or field.

• 60 minutes: Critical Thinking — students work in groups to make observations, form questions, design hypotheses, and carry out experiments, generally related to the school garden

• 60 minutes: Craft/Experiential — carrying out garden tasks, including watering, weeding, pest removal, harvesting, and planting, as well as other occasional projects involving food preservation or natural dyes and textiles

Schedule and Responsibilities

Teaching Days

The school day runs 9:00am–4:00pm. Biology labs take place from 1:00pm–4:00pm, followed by a faculty hour from 4:00–5:00pm. During the faculty hour, teachers manage documentation, communicate with the administrative team, and prepare materials for the following day.

On Fridays, you will help students prepare and present a brief summary of the week’s work for parents. This is a valued part of how we keep families connected to their children’s learning.

Non-Teaching Day

One day each week (equivalent to one day in five) is reserved for non-teaching work, divided among three activities:

• Planning and administration — curriculum preparation, collaboration with other guides and specialist fellows, and coordination with the administrative team

• Workshop for local children — a free or low-cost offering for children from the Jelsa community who are enrolled in Croatian public school and cannot participate in the full program

• Workshop for community adults — open to Field School parents and local adults, connecting the school’s activities to a wider audience

Assessment and Documentation

There is very little formal grading. Instead, you will be expected to:

• Maintain ongoing observational notes on each student’s development

• Issue a brief weekly summary of work covered with each group

• Contribute to ongoing program assessment — what’s working, what needs adjustment

The administrative team manages parent communication, disciplinary matters, and family concerns. Teachers are not expected to interface with parents beyond the Friday presentations, community workshops, and everyday pleasantries. Our communication policies are described in detail in the staff handbook.

Annual Calendar

• Fall program: September 7 – November 28

• Winter: December through mid-March — equivalent to summer break at most schools. Teachers take their 20 days of mandated leave during this period; the remainder is used for planning, curriculum development, and preparation for spring.

• Spring program: March 13 – June 5

• Summer: Teachers work through the summer in support of the school’s summer programming and ongoing operations.

About You

We are looking for someone who brings several of the following:

• A strong foundation in biology or the natural sciences; passionate curiosity about the living world

• Comfort and enthusiasm for outdoor, garden-based, hands-on science with young children

• Familiarity with or interest in BFSU or other inquiry-based elementary science curricula

• Patience and skill in facilitating open-ended observation and discussion; interest in the history and first principles of science

• Willingness to participate in dissections (fish and potentially other animals) in a calm, instructional manner

• Warmth and adaptability within a small, close-knit school community; interest in engaging with the Jelsa community

As noted above, we are ideally looking for a science generalist who can move with the school's curriculum arc from biology into chemistry and physics in future years. That said, deep enthusiasm for biology paired with curiosity about science broadly is more important than breadth of formal qualifications.

Fluency in English is required. Croatian is not required but warmly welcomed.

Position Details

• Start date: September 1, 2026

• Duration: permanent (neodređeno) or from September 7 - November 28, if candidate prefers short-term contract

• Location: Jelsa, Hvar, Croatia (in-person)

• Groups: 8 children ages 6–7 (Lower Primary); 10 children ages 8–9 (Upper Primary)

• Schedule: Part-time — 2 afternoon sessions per week per group, approximately 180 minutes each, plus one non-teaching day per week. Can be combined with math or language roles at the school.

• Hours: 1:00pm–5:00pm on teaching days

• Salary: €1,500 per month gross (bruto) plus 20% tuition discount

• Leave: 20 days, taken during the winter period (December – mid-March)

• Employment: Through FSHvar, Ltd. (Croatian entity)

Please apply through the form on our Careers page. We look forward to meeting you!