Year 11 sample course: Science for everyday life
In this sample course students could be assessed against the literacy and numeracy unit standards.
Curriculum focus 1: Caring for our bodies
Focus question 1: How do our hearts and lungs work together?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Investigating in science:
- Develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models.
- Show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables.
- Begin to evaluate the suitability of the investigative methods chosen.
Possible learning activities
- Listen to different heartbeats with stethoscopes and gather data on different heart rates.
- Investigate the effect on heart rate and breathing rate of different forms of exercise, comparing heart and breathing rate data, processing data to produce means, and drawing conclusions.
- Look at or make models of the heart to demonstrate heart function.
- Dissect hearts to explore their chambers, valves, and musculature.
- Use displacement of water or inflation of the lungs to investigate how much air lungs can contain.
- Watch video clips or animations of how blood flows through the heart, then describe what was seen.
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- AS90949 Science 1.10: Investigate life processes and environmental factors that affect them (4 credits, internal)
- US26622: Write to communicate ideas for a purpose and an audience (4 credits)
- US26626: Interpret statistical information for a purpose (3 credits)
Focus question 2: How do our bones and muscles work together?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Investigating in science:
- Develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models.
- Show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables.
- NoS Communicating in science:
- Apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts (including visual and numerical literacy).
Possible learning activities
- Play basketball to focus on movement and the skeleton (the muscular system).
- Read “Shooting for her goal” to expand understanding of the mechanics and training involved.
- Construct models to show how the muscles operate as pairs.
- Dissect chicken feet and wings to appreciate how the muscles, tendons, and bones are connected.
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- AS90949 Science 1.10: Investigate life processes and environmental factors that affect them (4 credits, internal)
- US26624: Read texts with understanding (3 credits)
Focus question 3: Reproduction – how does life go on?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Investigating in science:
- Develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models.
- Show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables.
Possible learning activities
- Compare the male and female reproductive parts (after watching DVD on the human body).
- Study the effect of hormones on puberty and the menstrual cycle.
- Track embryo development by watching animations. Model by germinating and growing bean seeds.
- Write descriptive passages based on observations.
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- US26622: Write to communicate ideas for a purpose and an audience (4 credits)
- US26624: Read texts with understanding (3 credits)
Focus question 4: Staying well or getting sick – what are our unseen friends and foes?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Understanding about science:
- Understand that scientists’ investigations are informed by current scientific theories and aim to collect evidence that will be interpreted through processes of logical argument.
- NoS Investigating in science:
- Develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models.
- Show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables.
- NoS Communicating in science:
- Apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts (including visual and numerical literacy).
Possible learning activities
- Study the basic life processes of bacteria by:
- growing bacteria on agar plates
- making yoghurt or yoghurt or ginger beer – students could investigate factors that affect the quality of the final product
- talking about diseases and how they can be caught.
- Compare bacteria with viruses and/or fungi.
- Interpret the evidence that led Koch and Pasteur to formulate their theories.
- Develop a timeline of the milestones in the development of our understanding of microbes
- Explore the evidence that led John Snow to the source of a cholera outbreak in London in 1854.
- What are Māori views/stories on sources of disease? What are rahui?
- Invite a nurse or doctor to speak about how we recover from disease. Ask how antibodies, antibiotics, disinfectants, etc., work.
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- AS90950 Science 1.11: Investigate interactions between humans and micro-organisms (4 credits, internal)
- US26622: Write to communicate ideas for a purpose and an audience (4 credits)
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Curriculum focus 2: Living on Planet Earth
Focus question 1: What were the causes and effects of earthquakes?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Communicating in science:
- Apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts (including visual and numerical literacy).
- NoS Participating and contributing:
- Develop an understanding of socio-scientific issues by gathering relevant scientific information in order to draw evidence-based conclusions and to take action where appropriate.
Possible learning activities
- Research the Christchurch earthquakes and discuss their effect on the city’s inhabitants.
- Learn about the causes of earthquakes (such as fault line movement).
- Read the Māori myth of Ruaūmoko (god of volcanoes and earthquakes).
- Compare and contrast the effects of the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011 with the Tokyo earthquake of March 2011. Why was the result so different?
- Critique Moon’s comments on earthquake prediction.
- Field trip to observe local features caused by earthquakes.
- Compare and contrast the Richter and Mercalli scales.
- Research tsunamis, their causes, detection, and effects (for example, the 2009 tsunami in Samoa).
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- AS90955 Science 1.16: Investigate an astronomical or Earth science event (4 credits, internal)
- US26622: Write to communicate ideas for a purpose and an audience (4 credits)
- US26624: Read texts with understanding (3 credits)
Focus question 2: Why is carbon important?
Achievement objectives
- NoS Investigating in science:
- Develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models.
- Show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables.
- Begin to evaluate the suitability of the investigative methods chosen.
- NoS Communicating in science:
- Apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts (including visual and numerical literacy).
- NoS Participating and contributing:
- Develop an understanding of socio-scientific issues by gathering relevant scientific information in order to draw evidence-based conclusions and to take action where appropriate.
Possible learning activities
- Identify substances used as fuels.
- Find out how fuels are used in daily life.
- Collect data in a practical investigation to compare complete and incomplete combustion.
- Compare the disadvantages and advantages of various fuels.
- Compare and contrast different models of the carbon cycle.
- Collect evidence that show the implications of fossil fuel use and come to a conclusion on what we should do about it.
- Research the different ways that limestone forms. Conduct a practical investigation into the factors that speed up or slow down its formation.
- Visit local features such as dairy farms, a coal mine, or a limestone outcrop to develop a deeper understanding of the carbon cycle.
Possible assessments
Learning could be assessed using a variety of standards – for example:
- AS90945 Science 1.6: Investigate the implications of the use of carbon compounds as fuels (4 credits, internal)
- AS90953 Science 1.14: Demonstrate understanding of carbon cycling (4 credits, internal)
- US26622: Write to communicate ideas for a purpose and an audience (4 credits)
- US26627: Use measurement to solve problems (3 credits)
Last updated May 6, 2013
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