Teaching syllabus
This course is unusual. Unlike other GCSE science courses, it is focussed on practices and skills and not subject content, since it’s about project work and meeting the requirements of Project Qualifications HPQ and EPQ. Why does the course need a coherent teaching syllabus?
'Technical skills'
Carrying out a project in science is more challenging than doing the kind of project often done for HPQ, which is basically internet research and essay writing. The PQ specifications call these subject-specific skills ‘technical skills’. In the case of science, these are science and engineering practices, aka scientific enquiry or Working Scientifically. But the specifications do not give guidance on how to develop the skills. The Practising Science teaching syllabus will specify in detail:
- the knowledge required for each scientific practice
- how it relates to the requirements of HPQ
- how it relates to the requirements of EPQ
However, isolated skills are not enough for students to investigate. Our syllabus embeds the skills within a set of competences to show teachers and students how to integrate skills into competences which students can carry out fairly independently in their project work.
Scientific competences
Most science courses like Combined Science GCSE focuss on the competences of explaining, and doing simple practical investigations. Practising Science has more ambitious competences related to actually ‘doing’ science and engineering.
Mastery Science has embedded 3 kinds within all our work, which reflect the things that professionals and citizens need to do in the world beyond school, and are consistent with the latest PISA science framework:
- Investigations: Construct enquiries and interpret data through scientific enquiry.
- Design: Solve real-world problems through an engineering design process
- Research: come to an informed judgement, decision or action on a socio-scientific issue.
3 dimensional curriculum
These competences require integration of at least 3 dimensions of learning. These are:
- Scientific ideas
- Science and engineering practices
- Transferable (21st century) skills
Since the standard science curriculum gives students more than enough knowledge of scientific ideas, the focus of the Practising Science syllabus is on the practices, and skills dimensions. We have defined these in detail below, and they will be taught through our scheme of work, and applied in students' projects.
Science and engineering practices
There are many frameworks which define these. We have adopted the one from the KS3 Science Syllabus, which we developed for AQA, mainly because of the way it sets out a progression from novices to independent investigators, in 16 areas of scientific enquiry:
- Novices (KS3) it defines individual skills taught and practiced
- Experts: (GCSE) how the skills are integrated strategies for students to use in their own investigations
| Practice | Objectives (strategies) |
| Devise questions | - Write an observation enquiry question. - Write a fair test enquiry question. - Write a pattern seeking enquiry question. - Explain which type of enquiry is best for answering a given scientific question. - Explain whether a given question can be investigated scientifically. |
| Analyse patterns | - Select relevant data and do calculations. - Identify patterns in data. - Suggest relationships between variables. - Describe how anomalous data affects how easily you can identify a pattern. - Interpret a sloping line on a graph to suggest the relationship between variables. |
| Collect data | - Choose range, interval, readings. - Test suitability of measuring instrument. - Gather data, minimising errors. - Explain why having a large range or many readings leads to accurate data. - Describe the factors that influence the choice of range and interval for the variables. |
| Communication | - Summarise material with ideas and facts - Identify and interpret main ideas in a text - Synthesise ideas and information - Write with a cohesive structure - Write or present for specific audiences and purposes" |
| Construct explanations | - Develop an explanation. - Communicate your idea, evidence and reasoning. - Explain why an explanation is more believable when supported by data from an experiment. |
| Critique claims | - Check the claim. - Check the evidence. - Check the reasoning. - Explain how believable you think the claim is, by presenting all your evidence and reasoning. |
| Discuss limitations | - Analyse strengths and weaknesses in your inquiry. - Suggest improvements and developments. - Describe how the size of the error in an investigation affects the strength of the evidence. - Explain why having someone else repeat the experiment could increase confidence in the conclusion. - Identify potential sources of random and systematic error. |
| Draw conclusions | - Make conclusion and explain it. - Judge whether the conclusion is supported by the data. - Make a conclusion and explain it. - Judge whether the conclusion is supported by the data. - Explain how in an investigation in which not all variables could be controlled that a conclusion could still be drawn. - Identify further questions arising from the investigation. |
| Estimate risks | - Identify risks and hazards. - Identify control measures. - Decide overall risk - Suggest how the question being investigated can be safely explored in a school science laboratory. |
| Examine consequences | - Consider people. - Consider the environment. - Consider money. - Explain why different groups of people might reach different decisions. - Explain whether you think personal or group consequences should take priority. - Select the choice which maximises the benefits and minimises the harm. - List relevant ‘we should, or should not’ rules that everyone should follow. |
| Interrogate sources | - Judge the reliability of the source. - Check for bias. - Evaluate the evidence for the claim. - Explain possible causes of bias from an experimenter or journalist. - Explain how peer review makes a finding more believable. |
| Justify opinions | - State your opinion. - Present your evidence. - Explain your reasoning. - Explain how you could defend your opinion if someone criticises it. - Identify ways in which a different opinion may be valid. |
| Maths | Use numbers - Use data - Use algebra - Use geometry |
| Plan variables | - Plan method. - Identify control variables. - Control the variables. - Explain why some variables are difficult to control. - Describe how controlling variables is important in providing evidence for a conclusion. |
| Present data | - Select a good way to display data. - Draw line graphs to display relationships - Explain why different kinds of data are better displayed on different kinds of graphs. - Explain the choice of starting point for axes, zero or non-zero. - Explain the choice of a straight line or curve of best fit. - Explain the choice of type of graph. |
| Techniques | Use GCSE required practical techniques |
| Test hypotheses | - Think up a hypothesis. - Make an experimental prediction. - Conclude if hypothesis is correct. - Explain why a hypothesis may become stronger after it is tested. - Describe what to do if the conclusion does not agree with your prediction. |
Transferable skills
These are the skills often referred to as 21st century skills, because the world of work requires students to be prepared for complex, innovative, multidisciplinary problems, and working in teams. The skills are taught 'just-in-time' at the appropriate stage of students' project work, so they can be immediately applied.
| Problem-solving | - Define a problem clearly - Break it down into manageable parts - Evaluate pros and cons of solutions - Make a Plan including tools and methods - Evaluate the effectiveness of the approach |
| Critical thinking | Use inductive reasoning - Use deductive reasoning - Analyse possible approaches - Overcome fallacies and personal biases - Evaluate alternatives - Recognise multiple perspectives |
| Collaboration | - Make and follow agreements - Persuade and negotiate with others - Understanding other’s point of view - Give constructive feedback - Resolve disagreements |
| Creativity | Generate diverse ideas - Generate creative ideas - Evaluate and improve ideas |
| Independent learning |
- Set goals and choose appropriate strategies - Use metacognition in planning, monitoring and reflection - Managing timelines, resources and actions - Show resilience in dealing with setbacks |