Science
CURRICULUM ETHOS
The Science curriculum at Eastbrook School aims to encourage student enquiry and justified application to build well rounded individuals with the skills and the knowledge to understand the world around us.
We have designed the curriculum:
- To foster an interest, curiosity and enquiry to promote engagement in science and build students to continue to pursue the field of science in further and higher education as well as science-based careers.
- To provide contextual understanding of scientific theory and processes through linking knowledge and skills to real world scenarios and career possibilities.
- To ensure students have a profound understanding of scientific knowledge, ideas, and skills to allow them to make informed decisions and form justified conclusions about the scientific principles that impact them as individuals and take an active role within society, to share the collective responsibility of ethically guiding scientific discovery.
- To develop a wide range of skills including observation, analytical, mathematical, critical thinking, evaluation, communication, prediction, organisational and metacognitive skills to develop transferrable skills via a growth mind set as reflected through scientific process.
The Science Curriculum in Summary
At Key Stage 3 students follow the Oxford Smart Activate curriculum which encompasses Biology, Chemistry and Physics alongside the Working Scientifically unit encouraging practical work to be embedded across all three disciplines, providing a firm foundation of scientific knowledge and skill in Year 7, which is built upon and further strengthened in Year 8 to effectively prepare students for entry into Key Stage 4.
At Key Stage 4, students study the AQA Trilogy Combined Science or AQA Trilogy Triple Biology, Chemistry and Physics GCSE courses, continuing via the Oxford Smart curriculum and deepening their understanding of core scientific knowledge and skills whilst broadening their knowledge on the scientific aspects of life and how it relates to them as learners. There are 6 core fundamentals each for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and 4 core fundamentals for scientific skills. These core fundamentals of biology are: Cell biology; biological transports systems; health and medicine; coordination and control; biological cycles and processes; genetics and evolution. The core fundamentals of chemistry are: atomic structure and the periodic table; matter, structure and bonding; chemical analysis; chemistry analysis; chemistry and industry; Earth and atmospheric science. The fundamentals of physics are: Energy; Forces and motion; Waves; Matter; Electricity, magnetism and electromagnetism; space physics. Finally, the core Scientific skills developed are: scientific method and thinking, experimental skills, analysis and evaluation of data; scientific units, symbols and terms.
In each academic year, teaching will cycle through each of the core fundamentals in science and build upon previously taught skills and content. Lessons are differentiated and individual and tailored intervention provided on to support each student needs. Lessons are related to real world context with links to future careers, recent discoveries and updates in the scientific field, and current affairs and problems that influence their daily lives thus brining science to life. Practical work is encouraged to provide students with hands on opportunities to deepen and develop their understanding, apply scientific theory and practice core scientific skills including managing risk and manipulating data.
At Key Stage 5, students follow the AQA specification for A levels in Biology and Chemistry where students delve deeper into the knowledge gained at GCSE alongside refining their practical and working scientifically skills through meeting Core Practical Assessment Criteria (CPACs) to conduct scientific research and apply the Scientific method principle independently.
An All-Through Curriculum
The secondary Science curriculum within Science builds upon the scientific skills gained in Key Stage 2, with students already having some understanding of the scientific method. Students continue to work on the types of variables by identifying these within their practical work and describing how they will measure and control them. Students continue to build on their collecting and processing of data skills, independently drawing tables and identifying the locations of variables within tables and graphs, calculating their means and plotting their data, developing their skills from bar charts to accurately plotting line graphs and identifying anomalous results such that they are able to form deeper conclusions of their data.
Students also build on their Key Stage 2 scientific knowledge by retrieving prior knowledge and building on core concepts including but not limited to the following:
- essential life processes and reproduction
- health and lifestyle
- inheritance
- states of matter
- materials and resources
- earth and the environment
- forces
- sound and light
- space
- electricity and magnetism
Diversity and Inclusion in the Science Curriculum
There are many works and developments to be celebrated within the field of science from people of a variety of different backgrounds. From students studying the works of Dmitri Mendeleev and his involvement in the modern periodic table, alongside studying Marie Curie and her Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics for her work on radiation - to watching science videos by Big Manny and Stephen Hawking. Within the Science department we aim to celebrate diversity and inclusion by promoting Science for all.
Cultural Capital and Enrichment in the Science Curriculum
Within Science we enrich our students through science club at Key Stage 3, taking an active part in science week, to engage and enthuse students. Students are also encouraged to take part in various competitions including the Biology, Chemistry and Physics challenge at Key Stage 4 as well as the Biology and Chemistry Olympiad in Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5. Students are also encouraged to take part in the Samsung Next Gen project to design a solution using their STEM knowledge to design technology for the benefit of a variety of differing demographics.
Literacy and Oracy in the Science Curriculum
Literacy and oracy are encouraged in the Science curriculum through explicit teaching of key words and linking to word origins and encouraging students to utilise key words in their verbal answers, whether this is during discussions with their peers or as a part if their answers verbalised to teachers. This encourages students to utilise and become more fluent in scientific language as well as communicate their scientific ideas clearly and effectively in their written work and within assessments. Students are encouraged to read in a variety of different manners in lesson whether reading aloud to the class, reading independently or reading to extract or correct information. Students are also exposed to extended response tasks as a part of lessons and in assessments from Key Stage 3 to help improve confidence in summative assessments at Key stage 4 and Key Stage 5.
