Science Department

Introduction

Resources

The Science department is located in modern buildings comprising a suite of seven laboratories, three preparation rooms and offices. All seven laboratories have been completely refurbished to provide excellent facilities and are well-equipped with digital projectors and interactive whiteboards. Thirty lap-tops and computer linked sensors are also available so that students can collect data digitally, and research on CD-ROMs or the internet.

Teaching Staff

There are eight full-time science teachers, and four students on the Graduate Teacher Training Programme. The Science department, from September 2007, also has the support of three technicians, one full-time, one full-time term time and one part-time term time.

Stewards Science school has also funded the appointment of a Science Curriculum Development Co-ordinator whose role is to enrich the scheme of work for Key Stages 3 and 4 and to organise external lecturers to come in and talk to the students, trips, workshops amd Science Club activities.


Curriculum

Years 7, 8 and 9 follow the National Curriculum through schemes of work based on the Spectrum published scheme. All Science classes, from year 7 to 11, are taught in groups according to their ability.

Key Stage 3 students are taught four lessons of science per week. All students are assessed regularly, and changes between groups occur as a student progresses.

At Key Stage 4 in Year 10 students have the opportunity to study three separate sciences to GCSE, Gateway Biology, Gateway Chemistry and Gateway Physics. It is a challenge which requires extra work and commitment, but which brings a great sense of achievement and depth of knowledge to those who opt to do this. Instead of coursework these students complete Can-do Tasks and a research report based on Science in the News. These students have 9 science lessons per week.

In Year 10 the majority of the students study Gateway Core Science G.C.S.E. This is new and replaces the Science Double G.C.S.E Staged course. The students take their exams in the summer to obtain a Core Science G.C.S.E
Coursework has been replaced with Can-do Tasks and Science in the News articles.

In Year 11 these students study another G.C.S.E, Gateway Additional Science. Instead of course work they are expected to complete a Research Study, a Data Task and show that they have acquired Practical Skills. Again they sit their exams for this qualification in the following summer.

Some students will study a new course during Year 10 and 11 called Edexcel Level 2 BTEC First Certificate in Applied Science which is equivalent to two G.C.S.E.s A* to C .
The course consists of 3 core units:

• Chemistry Applications
• Physical Science Applications
• Biological Systems

This qualification is based solely on building a portfolio of assignments and evidence. There is no final exam.

Community Links - Primary Schools

Several of Stewards feeder primary schools have taken up the offer to have a set of six of their science lessons taught in a laboratory in Stewards School by a Science Teacher. The lessons are taught as part of the Key Stage 2 syllabus but they can use resources and expertise not always found in a Primary School. Sometimes a Science Teacher will visit the Primary School and teach the pupils in their own setting, bringing along resources to enhance the learning process.

Able, Gifted and Talented Workshops in Science

The Art of Science Workshop
Thursday 9th November 2006
Gibberd Gallery, Civic Centre, Harlow
12.30 – 3.00pm

Year 8, Science and Art, Able, Gifted and Talented students attended ‘The Art of Science Workshop’ at the Gibberd Gallery, Civic Centre, Harlow on Thursday 9th November 2006 from 12.30 – 3.00pm.
The format for the workshop was;

• An introduction to the Gibberd Gallery.
• An introductory presentation by Claire Stebbing and Hester Cannon from GSK on Genetics and DNA followed by a practical workshop where the students used a Bio-Rad kit to extract their own DNA from their cheek cells and take the DNA away in a locket.
• In the creative workshop led by Kathy Schicker, the students made DNA structures to help create a visual vocabulary of DNA and developed an appreciation of the role that creative thinking plays in science.

Ballantyne Seminar
Royal Aeronautical Society, London
Monday 12th March 2007
Science and Technology Week

Five Year 10 Able, Gifted and Talented Technology students were selected to attend the Ballantyne Seminar at the Royal Aeronautical Society, London on Monday 12th March 2007.
The Ballantyne Seminar was an annual event dedicated to providing young people aged 14 to 18 with an insight into the aerospace industry. This year’s theme explored how aerospace technology had inspired innovation in various other industries such as flight testing, racing cars, aviation and disaster relief and simulation, to name but a few. It was an invaluable opportunity for young people to recognise the varied and creative opportunities available to them within the aerospace industry.

Beautiful Music, Horrible Sound
By Prof Trevor Cox
Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 5th October 2006

A group of 15 Able, Gifted and Talented Science and Music Year 9 students were taken to the Royal Albert Hall in London by Ms T. O’Neill and Mr S. Springthorpe to see an exciting show called ’Beautiful Music, Horrible Sound’ and were asked the following questions:

• Why hasn't someone composed a symphony for badly played violins?
• How do mp3 players work?
• How do bands use science to make them sound better?
• How does science help us to find out what makes some sounds beautiful, and others horrible?

In this show Prof Trevor Cox explored what sound was and the ingenious ways humans manipulate sound through technology. He explored how humans listen to and interpret what they hear – why is the sound of finger nails scrapping down a blackboard so horrible?

Lego Robotics
Year 8 Able, Gifted and Talented Workshop
Presented by Roy Ham and Beryl Boaden
SETPOINT Hertfordshire
Tuesday 10th July 2007

A group of 14 Year 8 Able, Gifted and Talented Students took part in an all day Lego Robotics Workshop on Tuesday 10th July 2007 in the gym presented  Mr Roy Ham and Mrs Beryl Boaden from SETPOINT Hertfordshire. The students were divided into teams of three and asked to build and program their robot to complete several challenges on the ‘Mission to Mars’ mat. At the end of the workshop each team had two minutes to show what their robot could do.

Primary Feeder School Taster Days in the Science Department

Year 5: The One Minute Challenge
Year 6: Water

Science Club

We have been very lucky this year to have Mr Peter Gould, Science Consultant, to help plan and implement Stewards Science Club. As a result the sessions have been innovative, educational and exciting.

Stewards Science Club runs from 3.15 to 4.45pm on Tuesdays. The purpose of science club is the give students the opportunity to learn about areas of science that are not necessarily covered in the curriculum and to discover things in a fun atmosphere. This promotes their enjoyment of science.

The members have learned about and handled snakes, owls and a variety of bugs. They have been to the Observatory at the Science Learning Centre at Bayfordbury and viewed planets through telescopes. They have raced electric buggies, made robots walk, made hovercraft, made kites and flew them.
Dr Ilya Eigenbrot from Imperial College London came and talked to them about ‘Fuel Cells'; Dr Sarah Fielding from Portsmouth University ran a workshop called ‘Fossil Detectives’, a murder mystery which happened 67 million years ago; Dr Kevin Byron talked about ‘Lasers’ and Dr Avril Day-Jones talked about ‘Space’.
 They have looked at the dark side of sulphur, made chemical timers whose reaction lasted exactly one minute, made a Scientific Domino Rally, anodised badges and turned the lab into a Leonardo Da Vinci style pin–hole camera.
O.I. Manufacturing UK Ltd hosted a Science Club trip earlier in the year. The members watched glass bottles being made from melted recycled glass. They watched the whole process from the molten glass being blown into bottle shapes, through to the packaging and distribution of the finished product.


Awards and Competitions (2004-2005)

CREST Awards:

CREST—Celebrating CREativity in Science and Technology

BA CREST is a nationally recognized accreditation scheme for project work in the fields of science and technology. Aimed at students aged 11-19, BA CREST awards encourage students to develop their scientific curiosity, problem-solving and communication skills. 
The whole of Year 9 worked towards their Bronze  BA CREST Award on Friday 20th October 2006 during Curriculum Day.

They investigated one of the following:
What can you find out about ear trumpets?
What can you find out about tablets that fizz in water?
What can you find out about a burning candle?
What can you find out about ice pops?

They all worked really hard and had a really enjoyable day, even those who weren’t looking forward to science all day. After they had written up and submitted their results they all received a Crest Bronze Award certificate.

First Lego League Robotics Competition

For the first time, Stewards School is entering a team of Year 7 and Year 8 students to compete in the First Lego Robotics League competition in November at the Ford Research Centre, Dunton, Essex.

A few words of explanation from the web-site http://firsthandtechnology.org.uk
‘First Lego League (FLL) is a result of an exciting alliance between FIRST and the LEGO Company. Guided by adult mentors and their own imaginations, FLL students solve real-world engineering challenges, develop important life skills, and learn to make positive contributions to society’
The mission of the FIRST LEGO League program is to provide an inspirational learning experience for children celebrating science and technology, by combining educational context with hands-on challenges that empower children to discover their own theories and solutions.
Teams consist of up to 10 players with the focus on team building, problem solving, creativity, and analytical thinking. They face an annual challengeemulating a real world event or situation and must research, plan, build, program and test a fully autonomous robot capable of accomplishing the challenge. Teams have eight weeks to complete their robots before participating in a local regional competition.’
The competition is based on fulfilling the robot mission, Power Puzzle, presentation of results of a research project based on Renewable Energy (this year’s challenge), teamwork and a question and answer session on the technology involved in the building of the robot. All aspects have equal scoring values. The presentation could also involve their local community either in school or in the town.
The Robotic Kit is supplied for free and is paid for by Ford, BP and First Hand Technology. It normally costs £300. It is ours to keep as long as we enter the competition in November.
 The challenge changes every year. Last year’s Challenge was called Nanoquest and was about problems associated with nano-technology. This year it is called Power Puzzle and it is about renewable energy. Further details about the Challenge will be released in September 2007.
Stewards have bought last year’s Challenge Mat and Missions so that the Club Members can practice programming the robots until we receive the new challenge in September.
The First Lego League Club is open for Years 7 to 9 and is held in Lab 5 on Monday and Wednesday 3.15 to 4.30pm, and Thursday and Friday lunchtimes 1pm to 1.25pm.

• Jeans for Genes Day. Everyone who wears their jeans to school donates money which goes to research in genetically induced diseases.
  
  
• ‘Express Yourself’ at Hertfordshire University. A team of five Year 9 or Year 10 students choose and research a scientific topic and present their findings to other schools and scientists at Hertfordshire University. This year Stewards sent two teams from Year 9 who decided to research
  
  
• the science of bread
  
  
• What it is to be tall.
  
  

OCR Gateway Science Core GCSE Modules studied in Year 10

Biology

B1 Understanding Ourselves
B1a Fit for life
B1b What’s for lunch?
B1c Keeping healthy
B1d Keeping in touch.
B1e Drugs and you
B1f Staying in balance
B1g Who am I?
B1h New genes for old

B2 Understanding our Environment
B2a Ecology in our school grounds
B2b Grouping organisms
B2c The food factory
B2d Compete or die
B2e Adapt to fit
B2f Survival of the fittest
B2g Population out of control?
B2h Sustainability

Chemistry

C1 Carbon Chemistry
C1a Cooking
C1b Food additives
C1c Smells
C1d Making crude oil useful
C1e Making polymers
C1f Designer polymers
C1g Using carbon fuels
C1h Energy

C2 Rocks and Metals
C2a Paints and pigments
C2b Construction materials
C2c Does the Earth move?
C2d Metals and alloys
C2e Cars for scrap
C2f Clean air
C2g Faster or slower (1)
C2h Faster or slower (2)

Physics

P1 Energy for the Home
P1a Heating and cooling
P1b Keeping houses warm
P1c How insulation works
P1d Cooking with radiation
P1e Communicating with infra-red radiation
P1f A wireless world
P1g Light waves
P1h Earth waves

P2 Living for the Future
P2a Solar cell technology
P2b Generating electricity
P2c Fuels for power
P2d Nuclear radiations
P2e Magnetic Earth
P2f Exploring the solar system
P2g Threats to Earth
P2h Beginnings and endings

OCR Gateway Additional Science GCSE Modules studied in Year 11

Biology

B3 Living and Growing
B3a Molecules of life
B3b Diffusion
B3c Keep it moving
B3d Divide and rule
B3e Growing up
B3f Controlling plant growth
B3g New genes for old
B3h More of the same

B4 It’s a Green World
B4a Who planted that there
B4b Water, water everywhere
B4c Transport in plants
B4d Plants need minerals too
B4e Energy flow
B4f Farming
B4g Decay
B4h Recycling

Chemistry

C3 The Periodic Table
C3a What are atoms like?
C3b How atoms combine – Ionic bonding
C3c Covalent bonding and the structure of the Periodic Table
C3d The Group 1 elements
C3e The Group 7 elements
C3f Electrolysis
C3g Transition Elements
C3h Metal structure and properties

C4 Chemical Economics
C4a Acids and bases
C4b Reacting masses
C4c Fertilisers and crop yield
C4d Making ammonia – Haber process and costs
C4e Detergents
C4f Batch or continuous
C4g Nanochemistry
C4h How pure is our water?

Physics

P3 Forces for Transport
P3a Speed
P3b Changing speed
P3c Forces and motion
P3d Work and power
P3e Energy on the move
P3f Crumple zones
P3g Falling safely
P3h The energy game and theme rides

P4 Radiation for life
P4a Electrostatics – sparks
P4b Electrostatics 2 : uses of electrostatics
P4c Safe electricals
P4d Ultrasound
P4e Treatment
P4f What is radioactivity?
P4g Uses of radioisotopes
P4h Fission

Some Year 10 students opt to study three single science GCSEs in Gateway Biology, Gateway Physics and Gateway Chemistry. They study the first four units of each subject, B1 to B3, C1 to C3 and P1 to P3 in year 10 and then B4 to B6, C4 to C6 and P4 to P6 in Year 11.

OCR GCSE in Biology

B5 The Living body
B5a In good shape
B5b The vital pump
B5c Running repairs
B5d Breath of life
B5e Waste disposal
B5f Life goes on
B5g New for old
B5h Size matters

B6 Beyond the microscope
B6a Understanding bacteria
B6b Harmful micro-organisms
B6c Micro-organisms – factories for the future
B6d Biofuels
B6e Life in soil
B6f Microscopic life in water
B6g Enzymes in action
B6h Genetic engineering

OCR GCSE in Chemistry

C5 How much?
C5a Moles and empirical formulae
C5b Electrolysis
C5c Quantitative analysis
C5d Titrations
C5e Gas volumes
C5f Equilibria
C5g Strong and weak acids
C5h Ionic Equations

C6 Chemistry out there
C6a Energy transfers – Fuel cells
C6b Redox reactions
C6c Alcohols
C6d Chemistry of Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
C6e Depletion of the ozone layer
C6f Hardness of water
C6g Natural fats and oils
C6h Analgesics

OCR GCSE in Physics

P5 Space for Reflection
P5a Satellites, gravity and circular motion
P5b Vectors and equations of motion
P5c Projectile motion
P5d Momentum
P5e Satellite communication
P5f Nature of waves
P5g Refraction of waves
P5h Optics

P6 Electricity for Gadgets
P6a Resisting
P6b Sharing
P6c Motors
P6d Generating
P6e Transforming
P6f Charging
P6g It’s logical
P6h Even more logical

The World Wide Web is a fantastic place for learning, but for every perfect page there are a hundred dodgy ones. Watch out for the temptation to just copy stuff from a website – make sure your child writes their homework in their own words.

Students have access to a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) via this URL:
http://www.its-learning.com

http://www.planet-science.com
This website contains excellent resources for both students and parents, including games and activities that won’t seem like school work (although choc-full of curriculum links). There’s also a great section on science careers called Next Steps.

http://www.sciencenet.org.uk
This website contains answers to many science questions and the chance to get a personal response to a question not on the database.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize
For loads of easy-to-digest revision activities and tests for Key Stage 3.

http://insideout.rigb.org/insideout
Activities, quizzes, games and more on the Royal Institution of Great Britain’s ‘Science Inside Out’ site.


School Science: A Parent’s Guide

What children should learn at school is spelt out in the National Curriculum. These tests at Key Stage 3 in Science are held in the middle of May when the students are in Year 9. The National Curriculum divides science into three areas:

• Life and living things (Biology)

• Materials and their properties (Chemistry)

• Physical processes (Physics)

In all three areas students learn investigative skills through the ‘scientific enquiry’ parts of the course. That’s the basic method of how science is carried out. Scientific enquiry is mostly taught using experiments.
You can find out more about what your son or daughter should study in science at www.parentcentre.gov.uk

How parents can help their child with their science homework

• Think about buying a copy of their science textbook they use in class to help them do their homework
• Having a science dictionary or CD-ROM at home can be a great help.
• Stewards Science School has provided a revision textbook and workbook for all Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils free of charge. These guides concentrate on the key points for the tests/exams and can help to show where a bit more effort is required.
• You can also get practice tests, which can help beat the fear of the unknown and exam stress


Overview of the Science Curriculum at Key Stage 3