AC9S9H01 Year 9 Science

AC9S9H01 – Year 9 Science: Nature and development of science

Strand

Science as a human endeavour

Substrand

Nature and development of science

This Content Descriptor from Year 9 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

•
investigating the process of publishing a paper in a scientific journal such as Science, which receives about 12,000 submissions per year, and considering how editors evaluate submitted papers
• investigating how the publication of data and findings related to the reintroduction of First Nations Australians’ traditional fire regimes has informed more effective fire-reduction strategies and policies
• exploring why the work of Professor Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren related to the cause of peptic ulcers was first rejected for publication then later validated
• examining the scientific consensus supporting global warming
• researching how JJ Thomson’s discovery of the electron, Robert Millikan’s oil drop experiment, and Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment provide consistency of evidence for the particle model of electricity
• examining how Marie and Pierre Curie’s discovery of new elements was validated

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 9 ASSCIY9

Year 9 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 9 students explain how body systems provide a coordinated response to stimuli. They describe how the processes of sexual and asexual reproduction enable survival of the species. They explain how interactions within and between Earth’s spheres affect the carbon cycle. They analyse energy conservation in simple systems and apply wave and particle models to describe energy transfer. They explain observable chemical processes in terms of changes in atomic structure, atomic rearrangement and mass. Students explain the role of publication and peer review in the development of scientific knowledge and explain the relationship between science, technologies and engineering. They analyse the different ways in which science and society are interconnected. Students plan and conduct safe, reproducible investigations to test or identify relationships and models. They describe how they have addressed any ethical and intercultural considerations when generating or using primary and secondary data. They select and use equipment to generate and record replicable data with precision. They select and construct appropriate representations to organise, process and summarise data and information. They analyse and connect data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies. They analyse the impact of assumptions and sources of error in methods and evaluate the validity of conclusions and claims. They construct logical arguments based on 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 specific audiences.