112·Science · Key Stage 3
Year 9
Science
Six half-termly units across one academic year, forming the bridge to GCSE. The abstraction year: the particle becomes the atom, forces become quantities with equations, and variation becomes inheritance. Unit 1a explains the reactivity series Year 8 built from evidence.
- 1aAtomic Structure and the Periodic Table
- 1bInheritance, Variation and Evolution
- 2aMotion, Speed and Pressure
- 2bEarth, Atmosphere and Climate
- 3aSpace Physics and Energy Resources
- 3bHealth, Disease and the Immune System
Ten sections per unit, in the same order every time. Phases rather than single lessons, because science is timetabled at about three hours a week.
A pattern observed and then explained is science; a pattern explained and then observed is a lesson. Unit 1a is placed where it is for that reason — Year 8 built the reactivity series from its own evidence and could not say why, and this is the answer. Unit 2a is placed after the mathematics department teaches rearranging equations, and it uses their method: **formula triangles are not used in this department**, because they produce students who can find speed and cannot rearrange anything else.
Unit 2b carries the most transferable lesson in the key stage — telling measured, inferred and projected apart, on climate data, where students meet all three in public argument treated as equally certain.
Every duration, context and assessment word is a strong default rather than a fixed rule. Year 9 means ages 13–14, or S2–S3 in Scotland.
- Written to The statutory programme of study for key stage 3 science (DfE, 2013)
- Intended for For heads of science, subject leaders, technicians and every teacher who has to deliver it
- Extent 41 pages · 8 sections
—·Look inside
Real pages, straight from the PDF
Click any page to see it full size.
—·Contents
All 8 sections
Taken from the booklet’s own contents page, so the page numbers are the real ones.