This paper is for teachers and other staff who provide learning, teaching and support as learners work towards
Science National 4.
Curriculum for Excellence is a unique opportunity to raise achievement and to ensure that all learners are better prepared than they have been in the past for learning, life and work. This is because the new curriculum gives real scope to build learning from 3 –18 in a joined-up, seamless way. As a result, progression in learning can be much stronger with a clear focus on attributes and capabilities, skills (including higher-order thinking skills), and knowledge and understanding. These are delivered through the experiences and outcomes of the 3 –15 Broad
General Education (BGE) and, at the senior phase, through programmes that build directly on the BGE leading to qualifications. Because of a strengthened focus on the nature and quality of learning experiences, self-motivation is likely to be increased and learners consequently more engaged and enthused. To ensure continuity and progression, qualifications at the senior phase have been designed to embrace this unambiguous focus on highquality learning.
Curriculum for Excellence has the flexibility to meet the needs of all learners in their local circumstances, enabling each to achieve their very best. For example, some centres may take the opportunity to offer qualifications over two years which might involve learners bypassing qualifications at a given level, whereas others may enable learners to work towards qualifications within one year. In both cases, the advice in this paper is relevant to the learning and teaching approaches that learners will encounter. This paper, then, is intended to stimulate professional reflection and dialogue about learning. It highlights important features of learning which are enhanced or different from previous arrangements at this SCQF level.
How will you plan for progression in learning and teaching, building on the BGE, to meet the needs of learners?
Science National 4 consists of four Units, providing learners with the opportunity to develop and apply skills, alongside increasing their depth of knowledge and understanding.

Fragile Earth

Human Health

Applications of Science

Added Value Unit
To achieve Science National 4, learners must pass all of the required Units, including the Added Value Unit.

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What are the key aspects of Science National 4?
Progression from the Broad General Education
This qualification has been designed to articulate with the BGE. Staff will find it useful to refer alongside this paper to the Science Progression Framework, as they plan learning which builds on the BGE into National 4.
Added Value Unit
The Added Value Unit offers scope for personalisation and choice. It pulls together the application of skills of scientific inquiry and related science knowledge and understanding, and the possible effects on the environment or society. It will allow scope for further development and application of the literacy and numeracy skills developed within the BGE.
Hierarchy of Units
From National 2 to National 4, the hierarchical nature of the Units allows for flexible learning and teaching in classes and groups as appropriate to circumstances, and enables learners to be given recognition for their best achievement. Learners may gain Unit awards at more than one level, based on their level of skills and knowledge and understanding of the key areas of science. The degree of choice within the Units further allows for new areas of study for learners who are able to progress from one level to another, while ensuring that learners are not required to repeat content from one level to the next. This approach has the potential to encourage all learners to aim high.
Fewer, broader outcomes
Staff will now be able to build learning programmes that suit local circumstances because Units are less prescriptive and more flexible with fewer, broader outcomes designed to encourage a more holistic and rounded approach to learning. There is no mandatory content at National 4; rather there are key areas of knowledge and understanding that learners should experience. These can be developed in contexts chosen locally in consideration of the needs and interests of learners.
What are the key features of learning in Science National 4?
Learning will be best when it applies a variety of creative and innovative approaches to the development of interest and enthusiasm for science. Science provides opportunities for active and collaborative learning in creative, relevant, inspiring and engaging contexts. Well-designed experiences in science will develop: learners’ curiosity and problem solving and analytical thinking skills; skills for collaborative learning and independent thinking; and interest and enthusiasm for learning. For example, the key area of health claims within the Human Health Unit would lend itself to learners identifying media coverage associated with health issues that are of interest or relevance to them. Applying numeracy and evaluative skills, learners could consider the extent to which the media coverage is based on scientific evidence. This is exemplifi ed through Education Scotland’s National 4 Science
Skills advice and guidance.
How will you promote enthusiasm for science through relevant, inspiring and engaging contexts?

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A blend of classroom approaches will involve hands-on practical tasks, such as experiments and open-ended investigations, together with whole-class plenary discussions and direct interactive teaching. The key area of energy within the Fragile Earth Unit offers rich opportunities for open-ended investigations of electricity generation and distribution, while engaging learners in whole-class, small group and one-to-one discussions on issues of sustainability, and the risks and benefits of different energy sources in a Scottish and global context. This is exemplified through Education Sc otland’s National 4 Energy Security advice and guidance.
Learning experiences can require independent learning and ensure learners develop the skills required to take responsibility for their own learning and, as appropriate, to draw on the support of their peers. For example, the key area of food within the Fragile Earth Unit provides opportunities for learners to make decisions, manage and take responsibility for their learning to explore the science which will allow them to express informed views. They may then express these views on reflective questions such as ‘How do you anticipate your life will be different by 2020 or 2050 as a result of the pressures relating to global and national food security?
’ and ‘What are the issues that might affect global food security if non-GM crops became contaminated with GM crops?
’. This is exemplified through Education Scotland’s National 4 Food Security advice and guidance.
Approaches that allow space for personalisation and choice should be built in at all stages, taking account of individual learner progress, how she/he learns and the contexts that each finds particularly interesting. The key area of materials within the Applications of Science Unit lends itself to the learner being able to explore an area of interest, appropriate to her/his individual progress. This might range from novel materials used to advance communication technologies to bioceramics for bone replacements or polymers for prosthetics.
How will you ensure a balanced overall blend of approaches in the classroom?
Effective partnerships have an important role to play. These could include drawing on relevant expertise among staff in other curriculum areas including, for example, social studies, technologies or RME, as well as links with employers and businesses developed independently or through organisations such as STEMNET. These links can also promote an understanding of potential careers, occupations, ways of learning and future training pathways.
Learning should develop high-quality scientific inquiry and investigation skills, building on skills developed within the BGE. This should involve scientific inquiry, which includes finding associations and investigating models in reallife and relevant contexts. Learning and teaching should provide opportunities to generate and use suitable questions for scientific inquiry and for practical investigation or research. Learners should continue to have opportunities to decide on a course of action, for example, what to observe or measure, or how to carry out observations or measurements. In addition, learners should be given opportunities to decide on an appropriate approach to determine or discover answers or solutions, building on their learning within the BGE.
Learning experiences may include the use of data loggers, and the collection and analysis of increasingly complex data, again progressing from the knowledge and skills gained earlier. Learners should continue to have opportunities to evaluate the inquiry or investigative process, and the adequacy or appropriateness of their approaches. Learning and teaching should offer opportunities for learners to make adjustments to investigations and experimental design as their work progresses.
How will you ensure that learners have opportunities to encounter a broad and challenging range of data and
sources of evidence?

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Learning and teaching will embed literacy at an appropriate level. This will include, for example, opportunities for learners to access and use information from a range of sources to inform their learning in science, selecting, summarising and inferring. These experiences can involve working independently or collaboratively to evaluate such sources, for example, considering the credibility and value of the sources, reliability of information, and techniques used to influence opinion, including persuasion and bias. They will also enable learners to engage in informed debate on science related and ethical issues. When presenting findings, learners could be given the opportunity to select the appropriate way to share their thinking with others, and to develop skills that persuade, evaluate, explore issues and express opinions, all based on scientific evidence.
Well-planned approaches to learning in science enable learners to develop numeracy skills, including applying and developing skills in: understanding the practical importance of accuracy and reliability; making choices about how to record and display data in a clear way from an extended range of tables, charts, diagrams and graphs; making effective use of technologies; interpreting data contained in a range of formats; evaluating and interpreting raw data, and data from tables and graphs, from their own work or other sources; and commenting on observed relationships within the data, and the extent to which that interpretation is realistic.
How will you ensure that learners develop and apply skills in literacy and numeracy?
Links with a range of curriculum areas such as other sciences, mathematics and social studies subjects, are essential to help learners apply and make connections in their learning. This will help to ensure their skills are reinforced and transferrable.
How can you ensure that learners can access opportunities to apply their learning in different curriculum areas?

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The SQA website provides you with the following documents:

Assessment Overview

Course Specification

Unit Specification

Support Notes

Course Assessment Specification

Unit Assessment Support Packages

Science Progression Framework
Full information on arrangements for this qualification is available at the SQA website:
Science National 4: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/47426.html

Sciences Principles and Practices


The Sciences 3 –18 Curriculum Area Impact Report

Science – Food Security

Physics – Energy Security

Science Skills
Support materials have been produced over the last year to support Curriculum for Excellence and further support materials and events are planned. This downloadable list is updated quarterly with the most up-to-date details available from the page below.
Published and planned support for Curriculum for Excellence: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/publishedandplannedsupport
T +44 (0)141 282 5000 E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk W www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Education Scotland, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA
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