SUBJECT AIM
We believe that science has something to offer every student. That’s why we have a suite of science qualifications for Key Stage 4 – to suit students of all abilities and all aspirations. You’ll see that our GCSE Physics, along with Chemistry and Biology, is a clear straightforward specification not just focusing on content but also skills, so all students can realise their potential not just at school but in their future careers. Students will also have the opportunity to explore big ideas and link this to the real world. This will allow students to become scholars who can use the knowledge of Scientific concepts to solve problems associated to their everyday life. This subject will entice curiosity in every subject to promote students to ask questions and establish an enquiry-based mindset.
WHAT YOU WILL STUDY
BIOLOGY | CHEMISTRY | PHYSICS |
1. Cell biology 2. Organisation 3. Infection and response 4. Bioenergetics 5. Homeostasis and response 6. Inheritance, variation and evolution 7. Ecology 8. Key ideas | 1. Atomic structure and the periodic table 2. Bonding, structure, and the properties of matter 3. Quantitative chemistry 4. Chemical changes 5. Energy changes 6. The rate and extent of chemical change 7. Organic chemistry 8. Chemical analysis 9. Chemistry of the atmosphere 10. Using resources 11. Key ideas | 1. Energy 2. Electricity 3. Particle model of matter 4. Atomic structure 5. Forces 6. Waves 7. Magnetism and electromagnetism 8. Space physics
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HOW WILL YOU BE ASSESSED
BIOLOGY | CHEMISTRY | PHYSICS |
Paper 1 • Topics 1-4 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE
Paper 2 • Topics 5-7 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE | Paper 1 • Topics 1-5 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE
Paper 2 • Topics 6-10 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE | Paper 1 • Topics 1-4 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE
Paper 2 • Topics 5-8 • Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes • Higher Tier • 100 marks • 50% of GCSE
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WHAT THIS SUBJECT CAN LEAD TO
- Medicine, Dentistry, Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy, Science teacher, Forensic Science, Civil Engineering, Astrophysics, Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Computer Science, Optometry, Occupational Therapy, Radiography, Research Science.
| THE LEARNING JOURNEY FOR PHYSICS | |||||||
| Big Idea | Unit / Block of work | Key Episodes / Questions | Additional Detail | Colour Code | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Energy is conserved | P1 Energy | Energy changes in a system | Students will descibe changes involved in the way energy is stored and use calculations to show how the overall energy in a system is redistributed when the system is changed. | 12 lessons (including assessment and review) | Globe with energy resources | Open minded | |
| Specific heat capacity Required Practical | Students will carry out an investigation to determine the specific heat capacity of one or more materials. | ||||||
| Conservation and dissipation of energy | Students should understand that, where there are energy transfers in a closed system, there is no net change to the total energy. Students should be able to describe how, in all system changes, energy is dissipated, so that it is stored in less useful ways. Students should be able to explain ways of reducing unwanted energy transfers. | ||||||
| Thermal insulators Required Practical | Students will investigate the effectiveness of different materials as thermal insulators and the factors that may affect the thermal insulation properties of a material. | ||||||
| National and global energy resources | Students should be able to describe and evaluate different types of energy resources and consider the environmental issues that may arise from the use of different energy resources. | ||||||
| Energy is conserved | P3 Particle model of matter | Changes of state and the particle model | Students should be able to describe how, when substances change state, mass is conserved. | 11 lessons (including assessment and review) | Snowman melting | Knowledgeable | |
| Density Required Practical | Students will use appropriate apparatus to make and record the measurements needed to determine the densities of regular and irregular solid objects and liquids. | ||||||
| Internal energy and energy transfers | Students should be able to interpret heating and cooling graphs that include changes of state and to distinguish between specific heat capacity and specific latent heat. | ||||||
| Particle motion in gases | Students should be able to explain how the motion of the molecules in a gas is related to both its temperature and its pressure and explain qualitatively the relation between the temperature of a gas and its pressure at constant volume. | ||||||
| Pressure in gases | Students should be able to calculate the change in the pressure of a gas or the volume of a gas when either the pressure or volume is increased or decreased. | ||||||
| Electricity transfers energy | P2 Electricity | Current, potential difference and resistance | Students should be able to draw and interpret circuit diagrams, and calculate charge, current, potential difference and resistance. | 20 hours (including assessment and review) | National grid | Inquirer | |
| Resistance of a wire Required Practical | Students will use circuit diagrams to set up and check appropriate circuits to investigate the factors affecting the resistance of electrical circuits. | ||||||
| IV Graphs Required Practical | Students will use circuit diagrams to construct appropriate circuits to investigate the I–V characteristics of a variety of circuit elements, including a resistor at constant temperature, a filament lamp and a diode. | ||||||
| Series and parallel circuits | Students should be able to describe and explain the difference between series and parallel circuits. | ||||||
| Domestic uses and safety | Students should be able to explain the difference between direct and alternating potential difference. | ||||||
| Energy transfers | Students should be able to explain how the power transfer in any circuit device is related to the potential difference across it and the current through it, and to the energy changes over time. Students should be able to explain why the National Grid system is an efficient way to transfer energy. | ||||||
| Static electricity | Students should be able to describe evidence that charged objects exert forces of attraction or repulsion on one another when not in contact. | ||||||
| Radiation transfers energy | P4 Atomic structure | Atoms and isotopes | Students should be able to describe why the new evidence from the scattering experiment led to a change in the atomic model and explain the difference between the plum pudding and the nuclear model of the atom. | 12 hours (including assessment and review) | Nuclear bomb explosion | Principled | |
| Atoms and nuclear radiation | Students should be able to apply their knowledge to the uses of radiation. Students should be able to write balanced equations that show single alpha (α) and beta (β) decay. Students should be able to determine the half-life of a radioactive isotope from given information, and compare the hazards associated with contamination and irradiation. | ||||||
| Hazards and uses | Students should be able to explain why the hazards associated with radioactive material differ according to the half-life involved. Students should be able to describe and evaluate the uses of nuclear radiations. | ||||||
| Nuclear fission and fusion | Students should be able to draw/interpret diagrams representing nuclear fission and explain how a chain reaction may occur. | ||||||
| THE LEARNING JOURNEY FOR BIOLOGY | ||||
| Unit / Block of work | Main Theme | Key Episodes / Questions | Colour Code | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Cells and Cell Processes | Call structure and transport | Microscopy | 10 | Inquiry |
| Animal and Plant cells | ||||
| Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic | ||||
| Specialisation in animal and plant cells | ||||
| Diffusion | ||||
| Osmosis | ||||
| Active Transport | ||||
| Exchaning Materials | ||||
| Cell Division | Cell division | 4 | Open minded | |
| Growth and differentiation | ||||
| Stem Cells and Stem cell dilemmas | ||||
| Enzymes and Digestion | Tissues and Organs | 8 | Thinker | |
| The human digestive system | ||||
| The chemistry of food | ||||
| Catalysts and enzymes | ||||
| Factors affecting enzyme action | ||||
| How the digestive system works | ||||
| Making digestion efficient | ||||
| Levels of Organisation | The blood and blood vessles | 9 | Knowledgeable | |
| The heart and helping the heart | ||||
| Breathing and gas exchange | ||||
| Tissues and organs in plants | ||||
| Transport systems in plants | ||||
| Evaporation and transpiration | ||||
| Factors affecting transpiration | ||||
| Health and Disease | Communicable Disease | Health and disease | 9 | |
| Pathogens | ||||
| Growing bacteria in the lab | ||||
| Preventing bacterial growth | ||||
| Preventing infections | ||||
| Viral, fungal, bacterial and protist diseases | ||||
| Human Defence Responses | ||||
| Plant disease and plant defence responses | ||||
| Preventing and treating disease | Vaccination | 6 | ||
| Antibiotics and painkillers | ||||
| Discovering and developing drugs | ||||
| Making and using monoclonal antibodies | ||||
| Non-Communicable diseases | Non-Communicable diseases | 4 | ||
| Cancer | ||||
| Smoking and disease | ||||
| Alcohol and other carcinogens | ||||
| THE LEARNING JOURNEY FOR PHYSICS | ||||||
| Big Idea | Unit / Block of work | Key Episodes / Questions | Additional Detail | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Forces predict motion | P5 Forces | Forces and their interactions | Students should be able to describe the interaction between pairs of objects which produce a force on each object. Students should be able to use free body diagrams to describe qualitatively examples where several forces lead to a resultant force on an object. | 24 hours (including assessment and review) | Rollercoaster | Communicator |
| Work done and energy transfers | Students should be able to describe the energy transfer involved when work is done. | |||||
| Forces and elasticity | Students should be able to explain why, to change the shape of a stationary object (by stretching, bending or compressing), more than one force has to be applied. Students should be able to describe the difference between elastic deformation and inelastic deformation caused by stretching forces. | |||||
| Hooke’s Law Required Practical | Students will investigate the relationship between force and extension for a spring. | |||||
| Moments, levers and gears | Students should be able to calculate the size of a force, or its distance from a pivot, acting on an object that is balanced. Students should be able to explain how levers and gears transmit the rotational effects of forces. | |||||
| Pressure and pressure differences in fluids | Students should be able to calculate the differences in pressure at different depths in a liquid and explain why atmospheric pressure varies with height above a surface. | |||||
| Forces and motion | Students should be able to make measurements of distance and time and then calculate speeds of objects. Students should be able to draw distance–time graphs from measurements and extract and interpret lines and slopes of distance–time graphs, translating information between graphical and numerical form. | |||||
| Acceleration Required Practical | Students will investigate the effect of varying the force on the acceleration of an object of constant mass, and the effect of varying the mass of an object on the acceleration produced by a constant force. | |||||
| Momentum | Students should be able to use the concept of momentum as a model to describe and explain examples of momentum in an event, such as a collision. | |||||
| Radiation transfers energy | P6 Waves | Waves in air, fluids and solids | Students should be able to describe the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves and describe wave motion in terms of amplitude, wavelength, frequency and period. Students should be able to describe, with examples, processes which convert wave disturbances between sound waves and vibrations in solids. Students should be able to explain in qualitative terms, how the differences in velocity, absorption and reflection between different types of wave in solids and liquids can be used both for detection and exploration of structures which are hidden from direct observation. | 19 hours (including assessment and review) | Beach with waves, the sun visible, a radio tower in the background and a mobile phone, suncream and sunglasses on a towel on the sand | Risk taker |
| Ripple tank Required Practical | Students will make observations to identify the suitability of apparatus to measure the frequency, wavelength and speed of waves in a ripple tank and waves in a solid and take appropriate measurements. | |||||
| Electromagnetic waves | Students should be able to give examples that illustrate the transfer of energy by electromagnetic waves. Students should be able to construct ray diagrams to illustrate the refraction of a wave at the boundary between two different media. Students should be able to draw conclusions from given data about the risks and consequences of exposure to radiation. Students should be able to construct ray diagrams to illustrate the similarities and differences between convex and concave lenses. Students should be able to explain how the colour of an object is related to the differential absorption, transmission and reflection of different wavelengths of light by the object. | |||||
| Reflection Required Practical | Students will investigate the reflection of light by different types of surface and the refraction of light by different substances. | |||||
| Infrared radiation Required Practical | Students will investigate how the amount of infrared radiation absorbed or radiated by a surface depends on the nature of that surface. | |||||
| Black body radiation | Students should be able to explain that all bodies (objects) emit radiation and that the intensity and wavelength distribution of any emission depends on the temperature of the body. | |||||
| Forces produce fields | P7 Electromagnetism | Permanent and induced magnetism, magnetic forces and fields | Students should be able to describe the attraction and repulsion between unlike and like poles for permanent magnets and explain the difference between permanent and induced magnets. Students should be able to draw and describe magnetic fields. | 12 hours (including assessment and review) | Maglev train | Thinker |
| The motor effect | Students should be able to show that Fleming’s left-hand rule represents the relative orientation of the force, the current in the conductor and the magnetic field. Students should be able to recall the factors that affect the size of the force on the conductor and explain how the force on a conductor in a magnetic field causes the rotation of the coil in an electric motor. Students should be able to explain how moving-coil loudspeakers and headphones work. | |||||
| Induced potential, transformers and the National Grid | Students should be able to apply the principles of the generator effect in a given context and explain how the generator effect is used in an alternator to generate ac and in a dynamo to generate dc. Students should be able to explain how the effect of an alternating current in one coil in inducing a current in another is used in transformers. | |||||
| Radiation transfers energy | P8 Space | Solar system | Students should be able to explain how, at the start of a star’s life cycle, the dust and gas drawn together by gravity causes fusion reactions and that fusion reactions lead to an equilibrium between the gravitational collapse of a star and the expansion of a star due to fusion energy. Students should be able to describe the life cycle of a star. Students should be able to describe the similarities and distinctions between the planets, their moons, and artificial satellites. | 8 hours (including assessment and review) | Solar system | Reflective |
| Red shift | Students should be able to explain how red-shift provides evidence for the Big Bang model. | |||||
| THE LEARNING JOURNEY FOR BIOLOGY | ||||
| Unit / Block of work | Main Theme | Key Episodes / Questions | Colur Code | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Cells and Cell Processes | Photosynthesis | Photosynthesis | 9 | Inquiry |
| Rates of photosynthesis | ||||
| How plants use glucose | ||||
| Making the most of photosynthesis | ||||
| Respiration | Aerobic respiration | |||
| The response to exercise | ||||
| Anaerobic respiration | ||||
| Metabolism and the liver | ||||
| Nervous system | Homeostasis | 6 | ||
| Structure and function of the nervous system | ||||
| Reflex actions | ||||
| The brain | ||||
| The eye | ||||
| Problems of the eye | ||||
| Hormonal coordination | Principles of hormonal control | 11 | ||
| Control of blood glucose | ||||
| Treating diabetes | ||||
| Negative Feedback | ||||
| Human reproduction | ||||
| Hormones and the menstrual cycle | ||||
| Artificial control of fertility | ||||
| Infertility treatments | ||||
| Plant hormones and responses | ||||
| Using plant hormones | ||||
| Hoemostasis in action | Control of body temperature | 6 | ||
| Removing waste products | ||||
| The human kidney | ||||
| Dialysis | ||||
| Kidney transplants | ||||
| Heredity and Life Cycles | Reproduction | Types of reproduction | 9 | |
| Meiosis | ||||
| The best of both worlds | ||||
| DNA and the genome | ||||
| DNA structure and protein synthesis | ||||
| Gene expression and mutation | ||||
| Inheritance in action | ||||
| Inherited disorders | ||||
| Screening for genetic disorders | ||||
| Variation, Adaptation and Evolution | Variation and Evolution | Variation | 7 | |
| Evolution and Natural selection | ||||
| Selective Breeding | ||||
| Genetic Engineering | ||||
| Cloning | ||||
| Adult Cell cloning | ||||
| Ethics of genetic technologies | ||||
| Genetics and evolution | The history of genetics | 11 | ||
| Theories of evolution | ||||
| Accepting Darwin’s ideas | ||||
| Evolution and speciation | ||||
| Evidence for Evolution | ||||
| Fossils and Extinction | ||||
| Antibiotic resistant bacteria | ||||
| Classification | ||||
| New Systems of classification | ||||
| Adaptations, interdependence and competiiton | The importance of communities | 6 | ||
| Organisms in the environment | ||||
| Distribution and abundance | ||||
| Competition in animals and plants | ||||
| Adapt and survive | ||||
| Adaptations in animals and plants | ||||
| Organisms and Their Environment | Organising an ecosystem | Feeding relationships | 4 | |
| Materials cycling | ||||
| The carbon cycle | ||||
| Rates of decomposition | ||||
| Biodiversity and ecosystems | The human population explosion | 11 | ||
| Land and water pollution | ||||
| Air pollution | ||||
| Deforestation and peat distruction | ||||
| Global warming | ||||
| The imapct of change | ||||
| Maintaining biodiversity | ||||
| Trophic Levels and biomass | ||||
| Biomass transfers | ||||
| Factors affecting food security | ||||
| Making food production efficient | ||||
| Sustainable food production. | ||||