Science Curriculum Department

Science Curriculum

Age Range: 4-18

Subject Vision Statement: To build and maintain all students’ natural curiosity about themselves and the world around them by empowering students to ask questions, gain knowledge and understanding of different phenomena in our universe.

Big Ideas:

Biology	Cells are fundamental units of living organisms which include adapted structures to support larger functions in the organism.
	Living organisms may form populations of single species, communities of many species and ecosystems, interacting with each other and/or with the environment.
	Life on Earth is dependent on photosynthesis in which green plants and algae trap light from the Sun to fix carbon dioxide and combine it with hydrogen.
	Organic compounds are used as fuels in cellular respiration to allow the other chemical reactions necessary for life.
	The chemicals in an ecosystem are continually cycling through the natural world.
	The characteristics of a living organism are influenced by its genome and its interaction with the environment.

Chemistry	Objects are made from materials that are made from one or more substances made from atoms.
	Substances are held together by electrostatic forces of attraction.
	When substances react, atoms are exchanged and new substances are made but mass is always conserved.
	Chemical reactions only occur when they increase the disorder of the Universe.
	Quantities in chemistry are expressed at both the macroscopic and submicroscopic scales using grams, volumes and moles.

Physics	Stores and transfer of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but transferred from one store to another.
	Particulate nature of matter. Understanding the states and properties that each state of matter exhibit.
	Forces and motion. Understanding the rules that govern how forces interact and their effects on motion.
	Waves and radiation.
	Electricity and magnetism.