The school is continuing to have an internal End of Key Stage 3 Test in June and this provides a focus for the year. Terms 1 and 2 allow the coverage of the National Curriculum Key Stage 3 to be completed and provide opportunities for pupils to demonstrate their skills in performing scientific investigations. This is assessed by the pupil's teacher and reported to parents at the end of the year.
Course Description
Terms 1 and 2
Energy: The energy topic looks at thermal energy and the three ways in which heat can travel - conduction, convection and radiation.
Elements, Mixtures and Compounds: The work here covers the periodic table of the elements and the ways in which elements can be mixed or combined together to make new materials.
Sight and sound: Pupils study reflection, refraction and colour in the "sight" section of this topic, and musical instruments and ultrasound in the "sound" section.
The Active Body: In this topic pupils study the skeleton, muscles and movement reflexes and the role of the skin and kidneys in maintaining body temperature and fluid balance.
Rocks and Minerals: This is a short topic on rock types and weathering.
Terms 3 and 4
Forces: The main topics in this module are moments, levers, pressure and gravity. The latter leads into some simple astronomy.
Chemical Reactions: This topic is full of useful chemical practicals; making salts, making quicklime, neutralisations and making chemicals that give out, or take in, heat.
Matter: The kinetic theory is the main concept in this topic that covers areas such as diffusion, changes of state and dissolving.
Electricity and Magnetism: A review of the Year 7 and Year 8 work on circuit electricity leads into further work on electromagnets and their uses.
Variation: This topic examines the ways in which people differ and offers explanations and patterns for these differences. The basics of inheritance lead into a consideration of selective breeding and embryo transplants.
Terms 5 and 6
The start of this term is given over to a review of the work carried out during Key Stage 3. Pupils complete a series of revision exercises to ensure that their knowledge and understanding are as complete as possible, before they take the Internal End of Key Stage 3 Tests.
After the tests there are two main strands to the work.
1. A course designed to teach the formal components of the "How Science Works" area of the KS4 Science GCSEs. Pupils will carry out a practice Investigative Skills Assessment task, which is similar to the internally assessed coursework requirement for both their GCSE in Year 10 and in Year 11.
2. A Health Education course covering:-
(a) Fitness
(b) Alcohol
(c) Drugs and Solvent Abuse
(d) Healthy Living
(e) Contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.
Range of Activities
Each topic is divided into 7-9 spreads. Each spread covers a small amount of National Curriculum subject matter and at the same time develops one or more process skills. This could involve pupils in investigatory work or may require group discussion or presentation. Pupils may be asked to apply what they have learnt, evaluate or interpret their own or secondary sources of data or make predictions or hypotheses about more familiar situations.
Homework
There is one science homework each week. This may involve written follow up work from class or it could be a research exercise on the current theme. Occasionally pupils are asked to do small practical tasks at home, but none is likely to involve anything other than normal household materials.
Assessment Procedures
A formal test is held at the end of term 1 and term 2. These tests, which last approximately one hour, are designed to discover how much the pupils have learnt during the term and analysis of the results allows a continuous assessment of a pupil's progress to be maintained. Shorter, less formal tests are held at the end of each topic. Practice SATs tests are also carried out leading up to the formal Internal End of Key Stage Tests in June.