Professional Focus Paper
Course: Engineering Science
1.
Level: National 5
Who is this paper for and what is its purpose?
This paper is for teachers and other staff who provide learning, teaching and support as learners work towards
Engineering Science National 5. The paper is intended to stimulate professional reflection and dialogue about
learning. It highlights important features of learning that are enhanced or different from previous arrangements at
this SCQF level.
Curriculum for Excellence is a unique opportunity to raise achievement and to ensure that young people are better
prepared than they have been in the past for learning, life and work. The new curriculum gives real scope to build
learning 3–18 in a joined-up, seamless way, and as a result, progression in learning can be much stronger. There
is 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), possibly leading to qualifications at the senior phase. Because of a strengthened focus on the nature and
quality of learning experiences, young people are likely to be better motivated, engaged and enthused. To ensure
continuity and progression, qualifications at the senior phase have been designed to embrace this unambiguous
focus on high-quality learning.
Curriculum for Excellence has the flexibility to meet the needs of all young people in their local circumstances,
enabling each to achieve their very best. For example, some centres may offer qualifications over two years which
might involve learners bypassing qualifications at a given level. Other young people may work towards
qualifications within one year.
How will you plan for progression in learning and teaching, building on the BGE?
2.
What’s new and what are the implications for learning and teaching?
Engineering Science National 5 consists of three Units and a final course assessment, providing learners with the
opportunity to develop and apply skills, alongside increasing their depth of knowledge and understanding.
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Engineering Contexts and Challenges
Electronics and Control
Mechanisms and Structures
To achieve Engineering Science National 5, learners must pass all three Units and the final course assessment,
which is an assignment and question paper. The assignment covers a variety of engineering systems through
simulation, practical projects and investigative tasks in a range of contexts.
ENGINEERING SCIENCE
What are the key aspects of Engineering Science National 5?
Progression from the BGE
This qualification has been designed to articulate with the BGE. Staff will find it useful to refer alongside this paper
to the Technologies Progression Framework, as they plan learning that builds on the BGE.
Integrated approach to skills development
Learning experiences should emphasise the development of skills and techniques, and promote an understanding
and appreciation of the influences and practices of engineers. The course enables learners to acquire skills in
engineering, electronics, mechanisms and structures, against a background of issues of sustainability.
Engineering is a broad area of human endeavour that brings together elements of technology, science and
mathematics, and applies these to real world challenges. The course is flexible, giving more time to meet learners’
needs. The Units and course provide an increased focus on skills, applying learning and greater opportunity for
personalisation and choice. The Units can be taught and completed as freestanding components, or as part of the
National 5 course.
All assignment and practical work should, from the outset, be closely linked to the work of practicing engineers.
Learners should be encouraged to observe the methods professional practitioners use, and the contexts in which
they work. They should be better able to describe, respond and analyse the work of others, and evaluate and
develop their own practice.
This course has been designed articulate with Higher Engineering Science. This allows staff to choose areas of
study to support progression and allow themes to be continued into higher in greater depth or other areas of
studies.
Links with a range of curriculum areas, such as physics, mathematics and other technological subjects, are
essential to help learners apply and make connections in their learning. This will help to ensure their skills are
reinforced and transferable.
Wider range of evidence of learning
There is a focus on assessment as an integral part of teaching and learning. Assessment should be ongoing and in
dialogue with the learners. Staff can collate evidence of a number of different forms and media, for example, note
books, records of group discussions, presentations, reviews, test papers, videos and experiments. Assessment
evidence should be relevant and purposeful.
Course assessment
Careful planning should ensure that opportunities are offered for personalisation and choice, enabling learners to
develop skills, knowledge and understanding. The course assessment has two components: an assignment, which
will focus on breadth, challenge and application, and a question paper. The assignment will prompt the learner to
draw on, extend and apply the skills and knowledge they have developed through studying the Units.
What are the key features of learning in Engineering Science National 5?
Active learning
Learners are expected to demonstrate the technical skills and strategies they have developed and consolidated
throughout the course in the production of an item to meet the final course assessment brief. It is essential that
learners have opportunities to engage and challenge their own thinking and to develop
ENGINEERING SCIENCE
the higher-order thinking skills required to do so. By including active learning and teaching approaches, teachers
will provide opportunities to develop the essential skills of analysis, creativity and evaluation.
How will you encourage self-motivation and resilience in your group of learners?
Learning independently
Outcomes are less prescriptive, focus more on skills and applied learning, and offer greater scope for
personalisation and choice. Learners experience a wider range of learning and teaching approaches in different
contexts, helping to meet their needs and build on their experience and achievements in the BGE.
In order to develop independent thinking skills and learning, teachers will want to reduce the focus on teacher-led
activities and place a greater emphasis on learners’ experiences whereby choices are made, by the learner, based
on each individual’s expertise and skill level.
Approaches that promote personalisation and choice should be built in at all stages, for example, taking account of
individual learners’ progress, how they learn and the contexts that individuals find particularly interesting. For
example, learners could research a relevant and pertinent issue, such as advances in structural assembly
technologies.
Responsibility for learning
Practical tasks should encourage learners to take personal control of their own learning and opportunities for
learners to reflect on and discuss their own progress should be built routinely into all planned learning experiences.
To ensure that learners are able to take full responsibility for their own learning, learning intentions and success
criteria will need to be explicit. Learning and teaching approaches will also be developed that promote the
development of learners’ skills in self- and peer-group evaluation. For example, during group tasks learners can
explore and evaluate their understanding of engineering and industrial links.
How will you ensure that learners are making informed decisions about where they are in their learning and what
they need to do to progress?
Collaborative learning
Learning and teaching approaches should encourage and develop collaborative working. In the wider community,
links with electrical and engineering businesses can bring significant benefits, realism and an additional sense of
purpose to learning. These provide learners with the opportunity to apply their learning in a wide range of practical
contexts. In addition these links can also promote an understanding of potential careers, ways of learning and
future training pathways. By including an enterprising approach to the delivery of aspects of the course, teachers
will also ensure that learners can be challenged appropriately across the four contexts for learning.
How will you ensure that all learners take on roles and responsibilities, appropriate to their level of skill and abilities,
in group tasks?
Applying learning
The course enables learners to develop, consolidate and demonstrate engineering and electrical techniques in the
production of an assignment. Throughout the course there are opportunities for learners to develop higher-order
thinking skills. Aspects of numeracy, employability skills and the ability to work independently are similarly
ENGINEERING SCIENCE
developed. In all Units, learners will demonstrate specialist skills, techniques and processes, increasing their
awareness of the role and value of these in commercial practice.
How will you ensure that the added value aspect of the course assessment will reflect learners’ progress
throughout the course?
How are you developing skills for learning, life and work, as outlined in the course specification?
3.
Qualification information
The SQA website provides you with the following documents:
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Assessment Overview
Course Specification
Unit Specification
Support Notes
Course Assessment Specification
Unit Assessment Support Package
Full information on arrangements for this qualification is available at the SQA website:
Engineering Science National 5: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/47458.html
4.
What other materials are available on the Education Scotland website which staff
could use?
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningteachingandassessment/assessment/progressandachievement/what
weassess/curriculum/principlesandpractice/hwb/asp
Support materials have been produced over the last year to support Curriculum for Excellence and further support
materials and events planned for this year. 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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