GCSE Science: Ideas about Science and Science Explanations

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• GCSE Science Ideas about Science and Science
  Explanations

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Equal assessment weighting

• Ideas about Science
• How science works

• Science explanations
• Breadth of study

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Implications

• GCSE Science equal assessment weighting of
  Science Explanations and Ideas about Science
• Links between modules
• within and across subject areas
• identifying links
• possibility of over-teaching
• implications for rotation teaching

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IaS3 Developing explanations

• P1 Earth in the Universe

B3 Life on Earth
Ideas about Science page 91 Activities AP1.5
to AP1.7, plus AP1.17, AP1.23, AP1.36 GCSE
Science book pages 66, 68-69, 80-81
Ideas about Science page 203 Activities
AB3.1, AB3.13, AB3.14, and AB3.26 to AB 3.28
GCSE Science book pages 184-187
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Exemplars of the links between Science
Explanations and Ideas about Science

• P2 Radiation and life
• B1 You and your genes

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P2 Radiation and life

• Ideas about Science
• Distinction between correlation and cause (IaS2)
  is introduced in Module C1 Air quality, e.g
  Activity AC1.20 When do hay fever symptoms
  appear? (the hay fever / ice cream activity).
• The big Idea about Science in Module P2 is risks
  and benefits, in the context of the
  electromagnetic spectrum.
• See for example Activity AP2.15 A safe place to
  live?
• Science Explanations
• Module P2 introduces the electromagnetic spectrum
  in terms of photons.
• The electromagnetic spectrum is taken up again in
  module P6 The wave model of radiation.

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B1 You and your genes

• Ideas about Science
• This module is the first introduction to ethical
  decision-making
• Big idea is outlining basic framework which can
  be used to discuss ethical decision-making
  throughout the course
• Decision-making throughout the course covers
  personal, socio-scientific and government policy
  examples.
• Science Explanations
• Inheritance is treated in terms of genes in B1
  You and your genes and DNA in the Additional
  Science module B5 Growth development

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C3 Food matters IaS6 Making decisions (personal,
cost/benefit analysis, government
regulation)
C2 Material choices IaS6 Making decisions
(cost/benefit analysis)
P2 Radiation and life IaS6 Making decisions
(personal ? society)
B5 Growth and development SE cell cycle,
mitosis/meiosis protein synthesis, stem
cells, meristems, gene switching plant growth
B1 You and your genes IaS6 Making decisions
(personal, frameworks)
B1 You and your genes SE variation,
fertilization, gene (dominant/recessive), gender,
asexual reproduction, cloning (stem cells)
B3 Life on Earth SE natural selection,
mutation, evolution
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Teaching and assessing Ideas about Science

• Put the information cards in order of
  persuasiveness.
• Be able to explain reasons for your order.
• Suggest other information you might like to have
  to increase your confidence in ranking a card.

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Teaching the nature of science

• If developing a scientifically literate
  populace, ... is to be an aim of science
  education, then teaching about the nature of
  science is not an indulgence but an
  essential act, fundamental to a contemporary
  science education.
• Osborne, J. (2002). In R. Boohan S. Amos
  (eds).
• Aspects of Teaching Secondary Science. p. 237.

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A view of scientific literacy?
Knowledge of Science Explanations
Knowledge of Ideas about Science
Skills critical thinking, development of
argument
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Teaching and assessment
Assessment of critical thinking, argument
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Case study - conclusions
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• Case study 20 24 marks
• Data analysis 13.3 16 marks

Damian Ainscough, Secondary Science Consultant
please send any ideas for addition/improvement
to damian.ainscough_at_blackpool.gov.uk With
thanks to Blackpool Science teachers and in
particular Katie Rawcliffe Bispham High School
an Arts College Mark Sergeant St Marys
Catholic College Doreen Chadwick Montgomery
High School a Language College
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A definition for Ideas about Science?

• The kinds of knowledge science produces.
• The methods used to get this knowledge and check
  its validity.
• The social processes of science that provide
  quality assurance of its outcomes.
• How science influences society and vice versa.

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Terminology
evidence
correlation
argument
outcome
cause
experimentation
creativity imagination
factor
observation
explanation
data
risk
ethics
reliability
model
scientific community
validity
decision making
variables
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A view of how science works?
REAL WORLD
Observation/ Experimentation
THEORY
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A view of how science works?
Confidence in explanation increases/decreases
REAL WORLD
EXPLANATION
Observation/ Experimentation
Reasoning/ Calculation
Negative / Positive evidence evidence
DATA
PREDICTION
Agree/Disagree
Adapted from Giere, R (1991). Understanding
Scientific Reasoning (3rd ed.). Fort Worth, TX
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
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evidence
model
correlation
cause
creativity imagination
argument
Confidence in explanation increases/decreases
REAL WORLD
EXPLANATION
Observation/ Experimentation
Reasoning/ Calculation
Negative / Positive evidence evidence
risk
scientific community
outcome
factor
DATA
PREDICTION
decision making
reliability
Agree/Disagree
validity
variables
ethics