AC9S10H01 Year 10 Science

AC9S10H01 – Year 10 Science: Nature and development of science

Strand

Science as a human endeavour

Substrand

Nature and development of science

This Content Descriptor from Year 10 Science provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

explain how scientific knowledge is validated and refined, including the role of publication and peer review

Elaborations

• examining how the work of Rosalind Franklin was critical to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and her publications validated the findings of James Watson and Francis Crick
• exploring the role of large data sets and statistical analysis in validating scientific findings, such as Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants
• examining why there are different climate change models used by scientists when there is a climate change consensus among scientists
• exploring how astronomer Vera Rubin’s discovery of the existence of dark matter was validated
• examining how the discovery of gravity waves validated Einstein’s theory of general relativity and why this discovery did not occur until 100 years after the theory was proposed
• investigating how the development of the periodic table has been disputed and refined as science has progressed and new elements have been discovered

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 10 ASSCIY10

Year 10 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 10 students explain the processes that underpin heredity and genetic diversity and describe the evidence supporting the theory of evolution by natural selection. They sequence key events in the origin and evolution of the universe and describe the supporting evidence for the big bang theory. They describe trends in patterns of global climate change and identify causal factors. They explain how Newton’s laws describe motion and apply them to predict motion of objects in a system. They explain patterns and trends in the periodic table and predict the products of reactions and the effect of changing reactant and reaction conditions. Students analyse the importance of publication and peer review in the development of scientific knowledge and analyse the relationship between science, technologies and engineering. They analyse the key factors that influence interactions between science and society. Students plan and conduct safe, valid and reproducible investigations to test relationships or develop explanatory models. They explain how they have addressed any ethical and intercultural considerations when generating or using primary and secondary data. They select equipment and use it efficiently to generate and record appropriate sample sizes and replicable data with precision. They select and construct effective representations to organise, process and summarise data and information. They analyse and connect a variety of data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies. They evaluate the validity and reproducibility of methods, and the validity of conclusions and claims. They construct logical arguments based on analysis of a variety of evidence to support conclusions and evaluate claims. They select and use content, language and text features effectively to achieve their purpose when communicating their ideas, findings and arguments to diverse audiences.