Curriculum Map - ScienceYear 7
In Year 7, students are first introduced to the skills that underpin the whole of science and to the methodologies of working scientifically. They learn a range of key terminology and skills such as identifying variables, hazards, conducting risk assessments and using laboratory equipment accurately in order to explore and investigate topics they are learning. Students are introduced to these skills first to ensure they are able to design scientific enquiries to aid their understanding by analyzing theories and attempting to solve scientific problems. Students start with a variety of precursor topics such as matter, forces and organisms to allow students to build on their knowledge throughout the year with more challenging topics such as ecosystems, reactions and energy at the end.
Why?
The curriculum in Year 7 aims to help students to think critically whilst encouraging curiosity. Students carry out experiments and learn to communicate their ideas and findings by following a laboratory report structure (hypothesis, results, conclusion and evaluation) used by published scientific journals in the real world.
We aim to unravel misconceptions and link new topics to previous content to help build up the bigger picture, as well as further complexity, in their understanding of the various topics and disciplines. New vocabulary is introduced consistently throughout Year 7 to enable students to access the curriculum while building upon their knowledge gained in Key Stage 2 (KS2).
Year 8
As part of a spiral curriculum, we revisit topics areas covered in Year 7 to capitalize and expand on content they already have built a solid foundation on. Students cover the same scientific topics from Year 7, but tackle more abstract concepts such as waves and subatomic particles, as well as introducing them to real world issues such as climate change, extinction and energy. For example, students carry out projects using their knowledge from energy and waves to create sustainable solutions for climate change.
Why?
We focus on cognitive development on application based skills where students relate what they know to unfamiliar context and scenarios. Students further enhance laboratory skills through completion of more challenging experiments where students are required to work on their precision and accuracy whilst independently following a method. The aim of this is to enhance students’ independence and reasoning skills in their learning, whilst equipping them with the confidence and resilience to prove or disprove scientific theories.
Year 9
In Year 9, students continue to develop their understanding of Science and the world around them following the spiral curriculum from the previous years. Students are introduced to electronic structure in Year 8 and they then build their mental models further through topics such as types of bonding in Year 9. In addition, students use their knowledge from organ systems to study organs such as the heart. Other topics which build upon the knowledge from Year 8 are movement between cells and tissues, new technology and where do diseases come from.
Why?
Students are revisiting topics covered in Year 7 and 8 in an order to build on the complexity of their mental models. By Year 9, students have become familiar with the fundamental theories in Science. Each of the topics relates to a big idea, which allows numerous interactions with the concepts. We aim to further develop their inquisitiveness by introducing them to more detailed concepts and explanations to the topics covered previously. We use Blooms Taxonomy to structure the cognition skills from Years 7-9, allowing students to build on and apply their knowledge to wider areas of Science outside of the curriculum.