GCSE study in the sciences provides the foundation for understanding the material world. Scientific understanding is changing our lives and is vital to world’s future prosperity, and all learners should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, process and uses of science.
They should be helped to appreciate how the complex and diverse phenomena of the natural world can be described in terms of a small number of key ideas relating to the sciences which are both inter-linked, and are of universal application.
These key ideas include:
the use of conceptual models and theories to make sense of the observed diversity of natural phenomena
the assumption that every effect has one or more cause
that change is driven by differences between different objects and systems when they interact
that many such interactions occur over a distance and over time without direct contact
that science progresses through a cycle of hypothesis, practical experimentation, observation, theory development and review
that quantitative analysis is a central element both of many theories and of scientific methods of inquiry.
Qualification:
OCR Gateway Biology (GCSE)