What you’ll learn

Cells

Content Covered

• Using microscopes, animal and plant cells, specialised cells, Unicellular organisms

Skills to develop in this topic

• How to use a microscope and to observe a cell; how to identify and compare the differences between plant and animal cells; how to identify the specialised plant and animal cells

Structure and function of body systems

Content Covered

• Levels of organisation, gas exchange, breathing, the skeleton, muscles and joints

Skills to develop in this topic

• Explain the hierarchy of organisation in a multicellular organism; learn the practical skills of how a bell jar can be used to model what happens during breathing; explain how to measure lung volume; explain how to measure the force exerted by different muscles

Reproduction

Content Covered

• Reproductive systems, fertilisation, development of a foetus, the menstrual cycle, plant reproduction: flowers and pollination, fertilisation and germination

Skills to develop in this topic

• Interpret observations given, to categorise and explain physical and emotional changes during adolescence; extract information from text to explain structures and functions of the key parts of the reproductive system; Present information in the form of a scaled timeline; make and record observations in a table with clear headings and units, using data to calculate percentage germination; plan and design an experiment to test a hypothesis about seed dispersal, clearly explaining all the variables involved

Ecosystems

Content Covered

• Photosynthesis, adaptations of leaves, aerobic and anaerobic respiration, food chains and webs, disruption in food chain and webs and ecosystems

Skills to develop in this topic

• How to explain the distribution of chloroplasts in a leaf; How the chemosynthesis takes place; How to use the word equation for anaerobic respiration; How to describe the toxic materials can accumulate in a food web; How different organism co- exist within an ecosystem

Adaptation and Inheritance

Content Covered

• Competition and adaptation, variation, inheritance and natural selection, extinction

Skills to develop in this topic

• How variation in the species occurs; how to represent variation within a species using graphs; how characteristics are inherited; how scientists worked together to develop the DNA model

Health and lifestyles

Content Covered

• Balanced diet, digestive system, enzymes, alcohol, smoking, and drugs

Skills to develop in this topic

• Explain how to test food for starch, lipids, sugar, and protein; calculate energy requirement for different people; explain and interpret data on graphs on smoking/ alcohol/ drugs