Level 3 Science
13SCI Course DescriptionTeacher in Charge: Mrs S. Fairweather.
Recommended Prior LearningThe pre-requisites for this enrolling on this course are: any two of the Achievement Standards from Year 12 Science OR one Level 2 External Achievement Standard from Biology, Chemistry and/or Physics. Consideration will be given to students interested in enrolling on this Year 13(I) Science course in consultation with the Teacher in Charge (Mrs Fairweather) and the HOF (Mr Wood).
Year 13 Senior Science is an Achievement Standard course. It aims to provide students a wide range of Science based skills, which relate to environmental issues. With a variety of achievement standards on offer, including one unit standard on report writing, this course will help students develop an understanding of the issues affecting the world around them. Aspects of astronomy and problem solving are a major part of this course. Learning opportunities can be used in pursuing further education such as offered by tertiary courses at university and polytechnic. This is an internally assessed course, which provides students with a range of opportunities within the different branches of science: Earth and space science, biology, physics and senior sciences.
Should school calendar commitments coincide with learning and the teaching timeline, there is time built in to accommodate changes.
Course Overview
Term 1
Introduction to Level 3 Senior Science: Getting ready for report writing, referencing and bibliography, setting you up for the course and course content.
AS 91527:
New Zealand has been nuclear free for many decades. What are the reasons for this?; What is nuclear power, how is it generated and disposed of?; What are the pros and cons of this form of energy?; How does this relate to the principles of physics? Yo will be finding out about the main principles of nuclear physics (mātai ahupūngao karihi), and what it is used for, and potentially what can go wrong. How would it affect our taiao (environment), and what would we do as Kaitiaki?
Term 2
AS 91522:
If you designed an arawhata (bridge), what would it look like? How could you design it to withstand a tremendous amount of weight? What material would you use and how could you calculate the physics forces (tōpana taurite) related to help you with its shape and load bearing potential? Let’s make use of LEGO (poro kapiti) to help illustrate the physics principles.
AS 91415:
Matariki (The Pleiades) rises just before dawn. You can find the star cluster in this way. Look for Puanga (Rigel) or Tautora (Orion’s belt) in the Eastern sky. Look to the left (heading North-East) to find a bright orange star called Taumata-kuku (Aldebaran) and continue left to find Matariki. What influence does Matariki have and what is its significance? What is Matariki?
Term 3
AS 91602:
New Zealand has a unique ecosystem with many endemic species: species found nowhere else in the World! There are introduced species which have decimated our plant and animal species. Why is this? What is being done to change this and will NZ be predator free by 2050? As kaitiaki, what can we do to support our taiao and prevent introduced pests (riha rāwaho) such as possum, wallabies, rats and other non-endemic species from over-running Aotearoa?
Term 4
There will be time available to check that all of your assessments are up-to-date.
Contributions and Equipment/Stationery
2B5 OR 2B8
Pens (black and blue) - students must bring and be responsible for their own pens for the duration of this course.
Ruler
2 x HB pencils
Eraser
Highlighter