Case Study

TWENTY FIRST CENTURY SCIENCE   TRAINING PACK 2

F Assessment

For subject leaders and teachers

Here are some items relating to assessment. However   assessment is an OCR responsibility and all queries about assessment should be referred to them.

Contents

F1   GCSE Science: an assessment rationale

F2   Guide to what’s available on the OCR website

F3   Ppt Linking teaching of GCSE Science to assessment (Blackpool ppt)

F4   Revision and exams (all courses)

F5   GCSE Science: Case Study guidance (Blackpool unit)

TWENTY FIRST CENTURY SCIENCE   TRAINING PACK 2
F1 GCSE Science: an assessment rationale

Here are some notes which should be useful. OCR are the ultimate authority here. See their guidance.

Each of the courses in the Twenty First Century Science suite is designed on the principle of ‘fitness-for-purpose’, to provide an appropriate learning experience for a particular group of students.

The objectives for each course are different, and this is reflected not only the content, but also in the approaches to teaching and assessment for each course.

For example, the internal assessment for GCSE Science is quite different from that of both GCSE Additional Science and GCSE Additional Applied Science.

“The GCSE Science course is designed to help students to:
• recognise the impact of science and technology on everyday life;
• make better informed decisions about issues and questions that involve science;
• understand and reflect on the information in media reports and other public sources of information.

To achieve this, candidates must have a broad understanding of the main scientific concepts that provide a framework for making sense of the world. These are referred to as ‘Science Explanations’. Candidates also need to be able to reflect on scientific knowledge itself, the practices that have produced it, the kinds of reasoning that are used in developing a scientific argument, and the issues that arise when scientific...