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- %OP%IRY
- %CO:A,12,72%Attainment target 17: The nature of science
-
- Pupils should develop their knowledge and understanding of the ways in
- which scientific ideas change through time and how the nature of these
- ideas and the uses to which they are put are affected by the social,
- moral, spiritual and cultural contexts in which they are developed; in
- doing so, they should begin to recognise that while science is an
- important way of thinking about experience, it is not the only way.
-
- Level 4 * be able to give an account of some scientific advance, for
- example, in the context of medicine, agriculture, industry
- or engineering, describing the new ideas and investigation
- or invention and the life and times of the principal
- scientist involved.
-
- Level 5 * be able to discuss clearly with others their way of thinking
- about some experiment which is new to them.
-
- * be able to demonstrate that different interpretations of
- experimental evidence they have collected are possible.
-
- Level 6 * be able to use one or two explanatory models from their own
- learning in science to demonstrate how predictions have been
- made which stimulate new experiments.
-
- * be able to describe and explain one incident from the
- history of science where successful predictions were made to
- establish a new model, for example the work of scientists
- on:
-
- x air-borne organisms (Pasteur)
- x the evidence for atmospheric pressure (Pascal)
-
-
- Level 7 * be able to give an historical account of a change in
- accepted theory or explanation, and demonstrate an
- understanding of its effects on people's lives - physically,
- socially, spiritually and morally, for example,
- understanding the ecological balance and the greater concern
- for our environment; the observations of the motion of
- Jupiter's moons and Galileo's dispute with the church.
-
- * be able to demonstrate an appreciation of differing
- functions of scientific evidence and imaginative thought in
- carrying forward scientific understanding. for example,
- discovery of the structure of DNA - the different approach
- of Franklin from that of Watson and Crick.
-
- Level 8 * be able to explain how a scientific explanation from a
- different culture or a different time contributes to our
- present understanding.
-
- * understand the uses of evidence and the tentative nature of
- proof.
-
- Level 9 * be able to distinguish between generalisations and
- predictive theories and give examples of each. For example,
- such pairs might be:
-
- 'all metals conduct electricity' and 'the theory of free
- electron gas which predicts this property', OR 'a clear sky
- in winter always means frost at night' and the absence of
- clouds to reflect back the Earth's radiation is the basis
- of such a prediction'.
-
- Level 10 * be able to demonstrate an understanding of the differences
- in scientific opinion on some topic, either from the past or
- present, drawn from studying the relevant literature, for
- example, plate tectonics and the wrinkling of a shrinking
- Earth OR living things reproduce their own kind and the
- spontaneous generation of species.
-
- * be able to relate differences of scientific opinion to the
- uncertain nature of scientific evidence, for example, 'what
- is the cause of cot deaths' OR what is responsible for the
- death of trees in European forests?
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