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MAKING SENSE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD

ACHIEVEMENT AIMS

In their study of the physical world, students will use their developing scientific knowledge, skills, and attitudes to:
  1. gain an understanding of the nature of physical phenomena from practical investigation and the consideration of scientific models;
  2. establish scientific concepts of energy and investigate ways in which energy changes can be put to use;
  3. explore and establish trends, relationships, and patterns involving physical phenomena;
  4. explain how physical phenomena are used in everyday technology and how such technology affects people and their environment.

Physical phenomena to be studied include light, heat, sound, motion, electricity, and magnetism. A desired outcome of the study of these phenomena is an understanding of the interaction and close relationships between them in naturally occurring situations.

 

In their study of the physical world, students explore natural processes and physical phenomena associated with light, heat, sound, mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and other topics.

The learning emphasis is on a gradual progression of skills development. The emphasis in the first achievement levels is on students exploring and observing physical phenomena, developing the language skills to describe their experiences, and gaining increasing confidence in identifying and describing trends, relationships, and patterns. At later levels, these skills are extended to seeking and understanding more sophisticated explanations and more complex descriptions of relationships and patterns, including those found in measurements and graphs.

It is not expected that all topics will be covered in all classes. Topics chosen for development in primary classes should be those which immediately relate to the personal lives of the students (simple treatment of heat, movement, sound, and light phenomena) and widened for older students to include electricity as their interests extend beyond their personal lives.

It is important that individual schools' science schemes give an overall balanced coverage of the topics relevant to their students. It is not envisaged that all of the topics are covered at each particular level. It is through the content and contexts that the skills are developed.

 

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