Science in the National Curriculum 1999

The National Curriculum for science, published in 1999. Compared with the 1995 version of the National Curriculum, the main changes are:
• There is a statement about the ‘Importance of Science’.
• The ‘Experimental and investigative science’ sections are renamed ‘Scientific enquiry’, with an emphasis on a wider range of enquiry skills; and the inclusion of ‘Ideas and evidence in science’.
• Some content is moved between Key Stages, removed or added. As a result of these changes, there were changes to the wording of the illustrative examples provided in the Attainment Targets (AT).

Components
The overarching themes of the 1995 version become the ‘Breadth of study’ and are placed at the end of the Programme of Study (PoS) section. The ‘Breadth of study’ indicates that pupils should be taught: the knowledge, skills and understanding through a range of (different) contexts; applications of technological developments; benefits and drawbacks of scientific and technological developments; using a range of sources of information including ICT; using first and second-hand data using quantitative approaches; and to use scientific language, conventions and symbols, recognise hazards and reduce risks and so on.

Sc1 Scientific Enquiry
• Ideas and evidence in science
• Investigative skills: Planning
• Investigative skills: Obtaining and presenting
• Investigative skills: Considering evidence and evaluating (Key Stage One/Two) - Investigative skills: Considering evidence and Investigative skills: Evaluating (Key Stage Three/Four)

Sc2 Life and living processes
• Life processes (Key Stage One/Two) - Cells and cell functions (Key Stage Three) - Cell activity (Key Stage Four)
• Humans and other animals (Key Stage One/Two) - Humans as organisms (Key Stage Three/Four)
• Green plants (Key Stage One/Two) - Green plants as organisms (Key Stage Three/Four)
• Variation and classification (Key Stage One/Two) - Variation, classification and inheritance (Key Stage Three) - Variation, classification and evolution (Key Stage Four)
• Living things in their environment

Sc3 Materials and their properties
• Grouping materials (Key Stage One/Two) - Classifying materials (Key Stage Three/Four)
• Changing materials
• Separating mixtures and materials (Key Stage Two) - Patterns of behaviour (Key Stage Three/Four)

Sc4 Physical processes
• Electricity (Key Stage One/Two) - Electricity and magnetism (Key Stage Three) - Electricity (Key Stage Four)
• Forces and motion
• Light and sound (Key Stage One to Three) – Waves (Key Stage Four)
• The Earth and beyond (Key Stage Two to Four only)
• Energy resources and energy transfer (Key Stage Three to Four only)
• Radioactivity (Key Stage Four only)

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx4uy