Science

Purpose of the BGE

The aim of our BGE is to create scientifically literate pupils who can make informed, evidence based decisions with a solid understanding of the basics of biology, chemistry and physics.

Our BGE is moving towards a more practical, skills based curriculum that is fully inclusive and accessible to all.  This has been backed up by the introduction of two new skills based  courses beginning in S3 and a skills for work based course in the senior phase.  At the moment our curriculum is mostly focused on knowledge retention.

Moving towards this new model will increase opportunities to improve on other important skills such as problem-solving, data analysis, and critical thinking, which are transferable across all subject areas and life in general.

What do we want our pupils to know, understand and experience?

We are in the early stages of streamlining our BGE to ensure we are focusing on building skills rather than focussing only on knowledge recall.  This requires pupils to:

• Have a solid understanding of essential concepts such as the periodic table, the cell and forces and these are taught in contexts familiar to pupils

• Distinguish between reliable peer reviewed science and misinformation, fake news and sensationalism encountered online and on social media

• Use scientific vocabulary correctly and in context

• Follow the scientific method to produce investigation reports.  This includes posing a suitable question, designing an experiment, gathering data and drawing conclusions

• Understand how discrete sciences are interlinked and how aspects from all three are combined to solve real world problems

• Handle, interpret and communicate data effectively

• Solve problems by using knowledge of scientific concepts to suggest solutions to real world problems