Catalyst • Junior Secondary Curriculum • Handbook 2021
Core
Subject
Science
The Science curriculum has three interrelated
strands: Science Understanding, Science as a Human
Endeavour and Science Inquiry Skills. Together, the
three strands of the science curriculum provide
students with understanding, knowledge and skills
through which they can develop a scientific view of
the world.
Through a range of learning activities including
experimental testing, field work, conducting
surveys, scientific research and using modelling
and simulations, students will grow their interest in
Science as well as an ability to think critically and
apply their scientific understandings to real world
scenarios and issues.
The Science Understanding strand comprises four
sub-strands. The content is described below by year
level. These include: Biological Sciences, Chemical
Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth and Space
Sciences.
Year 7
Students study Science as a formal subject. Our
courses are designed to develop a student’s scientific
thinking skills and understanding of the sciences and
grow their interest for the subject.
In Year 7 the topics covered are:
• Diversity of life on Earth; the role of classification
in ordering and organising information
• Flow of energy and matter through ecosystems;
food chains, food webs and the water cycle
• Interaction between multiple forces when
explaining changes in an object’s motion
• Renewable and non-renewable resources
Year 8
In Year 8 the topics covered are:
• Cells as microscopic structures and macroscopic
properties of living systems
• Organisation and interrelationships between body
systems
• Changes in matter at a particle level; distinguish
between chemical and physical change
• Classifying different forms of energy and describe
the role of energy in causing change in systems
• Physical and chemical properties of rock and the
role of forces and energy in the formation of
different rock types.
Year 9
In Year 9 the topics covered are:
• Human body responses to its external
environment and the interdependencies between
biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems
• The notion of the atom as a system of protons,
electrons and neutrons, and how this system can
change through nuclear decay
• Rearrangement of matter through chemical
change
• Conservation of matter and energy transfer.
For additional details about the Core Science courses,
please contact:
Mr Gary Foster
Head of Science
(08) 9377 9259
[email protected]
• Investigating the relationships between the Earth,
sun and moon
• Mixtures and separation techniques.
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