Lynfield College

Year 11 Science - Nature of Science

Course Description

Teacher in Charge: Mr R. Eyre.

Who would be interested in this course?

Any student wanting to understand how scientific knowledge has changed over time, and have an interest in how scientific discoveries of today are built on those of the past, and lead to the future.

Science is a process of discovery, using observations of the natural world to explain how things work. Over time, as our observations got better, we developed a better understanding. Sometimes this contradicted earlier explanations, sometimes it supported them.

Today, the world is undergoing rapid development, and many people feel scientific explanations are changing so fast they can’t keep up.

In this course we will look at current examples of scientific discovery, what the evidence for it is, how it fits in with our existing understanding, and how it may change our future thinking. We will showcase this process by analysing recent scientific media and reporting on what it means for us in Aotearoa. The goal will be to prepare you to understand the scientific discoveries of the future.

This course will work in partnership with your other semester course to prepare you to continue studying that science course in Year 12.

This is a half year course and counts as one of your two Science courses, or one of your additional option selections.

Although there are assessments to measure your progress, this course does not earn any credits.

Faculties:

Year 11 Options, Science

Assessment Information

Assessments will take a variety of forms, including but not limited to:
Investigation and report writing
Unpacking science articles in the media and reporting on their validity
Analysing data (e.g. census) to understand the evidence used to make decisions