The Government is to introduce a new science curriculum later this year. In a move away from more ‘traditional’ science, teaching will be ‘issue led’. Critics claim this is further evidence of dumbing-down and that concentrating on ‘soft science’ will leave gaps in pupils learning. Here, Timandra Harkness speaks to John Noel of the GCSE awarding body, OCR and Sandy Starr, journalist and ‘hard science’ advocate to hear both sides of the argument.
School science has a problem, everyone’s agreed on that. Fewer and fewer students carry on with science subjects beyond 16, with University numbers falling so fast that whole departments are closing for lack of students. So what’s the best way to turn kids back on to science?
The new Twenty-First Century Science curriculum hopes to turn the situation around by making dry topics like the periodic table or homeostasis feel more relevant. OCR, one of the major awarding bodies setting and assessing courses for GCSE, has been designing the new courses which will start running in schools from September 2006.
Everyone will take GCSE Science, a course aiming for scientific literacy or ‘science for the citizen’. Topics include Air Quality and What are vaccines and how do they work? Students planning to pursue scientific study beyond 16 can take a second course in Additional Science, which is more focussed on preparing future scientists. The two courses together replace the old double award GCSE in science – so some students will only do half as much science as before.
But the new course has been accused of abandoning hard science for a softer approach. Is it selling science to a sceptical generation, or selling out a subject that is, and should be, hard work?
John Noel of OCR explains the thinking behind the new curriculum:
“Current courses are seen by students as unrelated to everyday life. The question, ‘Why do we have to learn this?’ is asked frequently, and, particularly for students not intending to study science post-16, it is difficult to answer except by referring to the need to pass examinations.”
“Scientifically literate citizens in the twenty first century should be able to engage with science-based issues: to understand the impact of science and technology on everyday life; to make informed personal decisions about questions that involve science; and to understand and make judgements about media reports involving science.”