10SCI - science

Welcome to Year 10 Science at Wellington College. We hope you find the course stimulating and inspiring! Science is a way of investigating, understanding and explaining our world and the wider universe. 

This course leads to Year 11 Science and Year 11 Biology, Space & Rocket Science and Physics.

Use and application of scientific knowledge; planning and carrying out experiments; interpretation of data; communication; scientific use of laboratory equipment; gathering information and science report writing.

Four topics each of between 8-10 weeks duration:

•  Zealandia

• Getting Around

• Humans - te tangata

• Future Challenges

Zealandia (Term 1)

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

ZEALANDIA (Term 1)

At the end of this unit students should be able to:

• Understand how plate tectonics causes features and changes over the earth’s surface

• Describe how the different types of rock are formed and describe the different features of the types of rocks

• Recognise and name significant constellations in the night sky over NZ, including: Mahutonga/the Southern Cross/Crux,  Matariki/ Pleiades, 

• Explain the practical uses of astronomical knowledge to Maori and Polynesian people - navigation, annual calendar, timing planting, etc

• Define endemism and give examples of groups with high levels of endemism.

• Describe features of NZ’s unique biota and explain the conditions that allowed these features to evolve

• Investigate/interpret data on bird species present in Aotearoa before humans, after Māori arrived and after Europeans arrived and understand causes of extinctions 

• Investigate when/ why/how specific pests were introduced and be able to explain why NZ birds were so vulnerable to extinction

• Explain how pests affect the life cycle/ survival of a named native species and methods to control pests

• Name a variety of manu (birds) found in Aotearoa New Zealand and know what features to look for in birds to correctly identify them. 

• Investigate the science associated with the use of native plants by Māori

Getting there (Term 2) 

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Share ideas about current transport methods, their advantages and disadvantages AND what kinds of transport should we be developing in the future?

• Be able to recognise metals from physical samples, observe physical properties and connect the physical properties of metals to their uses

• Understand the structure of the Periodic Table; Atomic structure and the periodic table; History of Atomic structure

• Observe, record relative reactivity of metals and write word equations for: chemical reactions – metals with air / O2; observe Chemical Reactions -  metals with acids

• Make connections between the reactions being seen and the suitability of the use of these metals in vehicle bodies, based on reactivity as well as physical properties

• The Cause of Rusting and how to prevent it

• To understand why electric cars are being encouraged; what is the difference between Electric/Hybrid in terms of their energy source.

• To understand what reaction time means and how this can affect the stopping distance for a cars

• Investigate aspects of motion; forces and how they affect motion.

• Understand the difference between Mass and Weight;  Force= Mass X Acceleration; Friction and Aerodynamics

• Understand  concepts associated with flight - wings and lift; How do birds fly; how do aeroplanes fly.

Humans - te tangata (Term 3)

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• understand that all organisms require a supply of energy and materials.

• describe the main food groups and explain how the main food groups are used in the body.

• learn how to read food packaging nutritional information and make a fact based decision on the nutritional quality of a food based on available data

• investigate the number of people that can be fed from one hectare of a plant based crop compared to one hectare of beef farming.

• draw an evidence based inference on the best future direction for food production to sustain a population of 9 billion

• investigate the science behind one possible food source of the future and how this application of science may have ethical, social or economic implications.

• investigate the human digestive system, including mechanical and chemical digestion

• investigate the human reproductive system

• investigate techniques used in cloning animals and consider the social and ethical issues around cloning

• investigate techniques used in invitro fertilization.

• understand how X and Y chromosomes determine biological sex and consider the technical, social and ethical issues around selecting the sex of a baby or modifying an embryo select for or against certain phenotypes.

• investigate the biology and physics of how muscles and bones work together.

• investigate the physics behind the use of a spear-thrower

Future Challenges (Term 4)

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Understand how the ozone hole forms and how scientists came together to solve the problem

• Understand some specific impacts of climate change that are a threat to NZ

• Measure how fast electricity can be generated by a solar panel depending on the angle relative to the sun

• Understand the challenge of extracting metals for use in batteries for phones, e-bikes, eVs and also turbine blades for jet aircraft

• Investigate how we can make fresh water, in a world where water becomes harder to access.

• Investigate the value of exploring the use of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.

• Understand why Aotearoa’s native biodiversity is at risk and why possums, rats and stoats are in NZ even though they are not native species.

• Analyse Makara Peak trap data (or Mt Vic) and look for patterns in catching rats and stoats and suggest reasons for these patterns

• Understand why plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem

• Research project: Space Junk

• Research project: Asteroids

• Investigate photo electric effect and static electricity

• Investigate series Circuit and addition of multiple batteries and lamps 

Homework

Homework will be set regularly from a variety of sources, which may include online tasks via Google Classroom or Education perfect, or from the SciPAD Books 1 and 2 which you have purchased as part of your stationary pack when you started at Wellington College in Year 9. For additional reading, students are welcome to borrow from the library on long term loan, a copy of ‘Year 10 Pathfinder Science’. The library has multiple copies of this textbook available.

Trips

Trips may be made to the: Carter Observatory, Te Papa, VUW Open Day at the discretion of your teacher. There may also be an opportunity to help with ongoing tree planting work in the town belt above the College.

Extra-Curricular STEM opportunities

Your son will be given the opportunity to complete a Science Fair project (this may be completed in groups of up to 3 students); other opportunities will include an inter-college ePro8 competition.

A range of STEM opportunities available to students can be found at the following site: 

https://sites.google.com/wc.school.nz/wc-science-extracurricular/home

Year 9 Science

This course is assessed using our WC Learning Progression Framework.