AC9S9I06 Year 9 Science

AC9S9I06 – Year 9 Science: Evaluating

Strand

Science inquiry

Substrand

Evaluating

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

assess the validity and reproducibility of methods and evaluate the validity of conclusions and claims, including by identifying assumptions, conflicting evidence and areas of uncertainty

Elaborations

• discussing what is meant by ‘validity’ and how the validity of information in secondary sources can be evaluated
• identifying gaps or weaknesses in conclusions and relating these to the validity and reproducibility of the method
• identifying assumptions in methods and determining the impact these could have on the validity of the conclusion
• analysing methods and conclusions to identify facts or premises that are taken for granted to be true, and evaluating the reasonableness of those assumptions
• considering if areas of uncertainty could lead to a viable alternative conclusion
• considering how general practitioners manage conflicting evidence to diagnose illness

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.