AC9S9U06 Year 9 Science

AC9S9U06 – Year 9 Science: Chemical sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Chemical sciences

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 the model of the atom changed following the discovery of electrons, protons and neutrons and describe how natural radioactive decay results in stable atoms

Elaborations

• comparing the mass and charge of protons, neutrons and electrons
• examining how the discovery of electrons, protons and neutrons resulted from experimental evidence and answered questions related to properties and behaviours of atoms
• explaining that differences in the number of neutrons in atoms of the same element results in isotopes and that naturally occurring isotopes of some elements are unstable
• describing in simple terms how different unstable isotopes decay such as radon-222 releasing an alpha particle, iodine-131 releasing a beta particle and cobalt-60 releasing gamma radiation to form stable atoms
• defining half-life, examining the timescales of decay of different elements such as carbon-14 and uranium-238 and simulating or using digital simulations to examine radioactive decay including half-life
• investigating how radiocarbon and other dating methods have been used to establish that First Peoples of Australia have been present on the Australian continent for more than 60,000 years
• identifying where applications of radioactivity are used in medicine and industry such as diagnosing and treating cancer and checking for faults in materials used in aircraft and spacecraft

Show 1 more elaboration

• discussing how mass and energy are connected at all scales and energy conversion processes within atomic nuclei

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.