Introduction
Rationale
Learning area structure
Course structure
Teaching and learning
- Syllabus objectives
- Underpinning factors
- Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
- Pedagogical and conceptual frameworks
- Subject matter
21st century skills — attributes and skills students need to prepare for higher education, work and participation in a complex and rapidly changing world. This expectation can be seen, for example, in the inclusion of compulsory exercises, student experiments and research studies. It is the teacher's prerogative to decide how to develop scientific research skills.
Assessment — general information
Formative assessments — Units 1 and 2
Summative assessments — Units 3 and 4
Assessment evidence of student performance in each criterion is linked to a performance level descriptor, which describes the typical characteristics of student work. Where a performance level has a range of two points, it must be determined whether the best fit is the highest or lowest point of the range. Schools and teachers should have strategies in place to ensure that work submitted for internal summative assessment is the student's own.
Reporting standards
The student uses his understanding of scientific concepts, theories, models, and systems within their limitations to explain phenomena and predict outcomes, behaviors, and consequences. The student analyzes evidence by identifying essential elements, characteristics, or components of qualitative data. Understanding the structure and function of cells is essential to understanding the processes that are essential for survival.
Unit objectives
In Chapter 1, students explore the ways biology is used to describe and explain how the structure and function of cells and their components relate to the need to exchange matter and energy with their immediate environment. Participating in a variety of experiments and investigations will allow students to progressively develop their suite of scientific research skills while gaining an enhanced appreciation of the relationship between the structure and function of cells and multicellular organisms. They use these skills to build and use models to describe and interpret data about the functions of cells and organisms and to explain cellular processes.
Topic 1: Cells as the basis of life
Learn that glycolysis is the first stage of cellular respiration that takes place in the cytoplasm and the second stage in the mitochondria. Photosynthesis and Productivity: Engineering or improving photosynthesis has the potential to improve food and fuel production, which could lead to reduced dependence on fossil fuels and improvements. Development of the cell membrane model: Ongoing research continues to refine Singer's work and Nicolson's fluid mosaic model, such as investigating the structure of channel proteins in the membrane.
Topic 2: Multicellular organisms
The function of the loop of Henle should be discussed in terms of the countercurrent system for the production of concentrated urine. Manipulative skill: remove the epidermis from the leaf, cut both cross-sections and vertical sections of the stem, make wet mounts with the prepared tissue, and use the microscope to view mounts. These situations can involve human rights violations and exploitation of the poor, and can give rise to many ethical concerns.
Assessment guidance
In Unit 2, students explore the ways biology is used to describe and explain the responses of homeostatic mechanisms to stimuli and the human immune system. Participation in a series of experiments and investigations allows students to gradually develop their range of scientific research skills while gaining a greater appreciation for mastering the internal environment. These skills enable them to describe and explain relationships between external and internal stimuli in controlling the internal environment.
Unit objectives
An understanding of personal and community responses is essential to appreciating personal lifestyle choices and community health. They examine geographic and population data to analyze strategies that may have personal and communal consequences. Throughout the unit, students develop skills in the application of technology, scientific practices and investigations, analysis and evaluation.
Topic 1: Homeostasis
Compulsory practical: Compare the distribution of stomata and guard cells in plants adapted to different environments (aquatic, terrestrial) as an adaptation to osmoregulation in plant tissues. The SHE topic will not be assessed on the external exam, but can be used in the development of claims and research questions for a research study. Modeling human thermoregulation: Models of human thermoregulatory responses can be used in the design of clothing, environments, and safety regulations.
Use of hormones in the dairy industry (rBST): Growth hormones and other hormones are used in the livestock industry to increase productivity (while reducing production costs and increasing food affordability), but further evidence is needed to determine associated risks. Snake antivenom production: Production of antivenoms, using synthetic DNA to produce an antibody response, could replace conventional methods of 'milking' venomous animals.
Topic 2: Infectious disease
SHE: Long-term and short-term immunity can be contextualized with current vaccination practices and controversies. SHE: Extension of long-term immunity could include comparison of individual and population immunities for different geographic and demographic populations. HUN: Analyze longitudinal heath programs for the prevention and eradication of infectious diseases (e.g. smallpox, influenza).
SHE: Discuss the factors influencing organ donor suitability, organ transplantation, immunosuppression and rejection focusing on the physiological immune responses and evaluating individual, social and cultural considerations. Analysis of the spread and control of diseases may include hand hygiene, quarantine, biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of polio, smallpox, influenza, Ebola, cholera, bird flu, malaria. Modeling disease outbreaks and spread: Mass vaccination programs are more successful when informed by disease outbreak models.
Controlling Pandemics in the Asia Region: Asia is said to be more susceptible to epidemics and pandemics of infectious diseases due to increasing migration and global travel, high population density in urban areas, and underdeveloped healthcare systems in some countries.
Assessment guidance
In Chapter 3, students explore the ways biology is used to describe and explain: biodiversity within ecosystems; a variety of biotic and abiotic components; species interactions; adaptations of organisms to their environment; principles of population dynamics; and how to classify. Students investigate interactions within and between species, and interactions between abiotic and biotic components of ecosystems. They also investigate how measurements of abiotic factors, population size, species diversity and descriptions of interactions between species can form the basis for spatial and temporal comparisons between ecosystems.
They examine and analyze data collected from fieldwork to understand the relationship between organisms, the physical environment, and the impact of human activity. By examining these connections, students can explore the impact of human activity on biodiversity and sustainability of practices. Participating in a range of experiments and investigations will allow students to gradually develop their range of scientific inquiry skills, whilst gaining an increased understanding of how scientific knowledge is used to offer valid explanations and reliable predictions, and the ways in which scientific knowledge interacts with social, economic, cultural and ethical factors.
Throughout the unit, students develop skills in sampling ecological systems, organizing and analyzing data, and developing ecological models to describe and explain the diversity and interconnectedness of life on Earth.
Unit objectives
Topic 1: Describing biodiversity
Use the process of stratified sampling to collect and analyze primary biotic and abiotic field data to classify an ecosystem. genetic testing) should be linked to the subject understanding in Unit 4. Ecosystem classification may be based on the Holdridge life zone classification system, the Specht classification system, the ANAE classification system or the EUNIS habitat classification system. Advances in remote sensing radar imagery and real-time satellite tracking have enabled scientists to measure and track populations, and play an important role in surveying and monitoring large or inaccessible ecosystems.
International biodiversity protection: International agreements on biodiversity protection, such as the World Heritage Convention, are based on the premise that local, regional and international biodiversity represents a global. Biodiversity targets: The setting of agreed biodiversity targets is necessary to achieve positive international action regarding biodiversity conservation by reducing the rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels.
Topic 2: Ecosystem dynamics
Predictions of succession could be based on r-selected species versus K-selected species, biodiversity, biomass, or changes in biotic and abiotic interactions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge of ecosystem interactions and change: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have knowledge of environmental change and interactions between abiotic and biotic elements of ecosystems in their local contexts. Marine reserves: Scientific knowledge based on local data collection and analysis, computer simulation of future scenarios and analysis of analogue scenarios is required to analyze the unique factors affecting marine ecosystems to classify areas and predict the likelihood that the reserve will successfully protect the marine biodiversity.
Keystone species and conservation: Keystone species may be more effective as a conservation strategy to maintain complex ecosystem dynamics compared to other strategies such as the conservation of flagship and umbrella species.
Assessment
Summative internal assessment 1 (IA1): Data test (10%)
Students categorize, classify, contrast, differentiate, organize, or sequence evidence to identify trends, patterns, relationships, limitations, or uncertainties in data sets. Students compare, infer, extrapolate, infer, justify, or predict using evidence to make inferences based on the analysis of data sets. The following table summarizes the criteria, assessment objectives and mark allocation for the data test.
Summative internal assessment 2 (IA2): Student experiment (20%)
Summative external assessment (EA): Examination (50%)
Unit description
Unit objectives
Topic 1: DNA, genes and the continuity of life
When identifying transcription factors in the regulation of gene expression, reference to operators, promoters, regulators, enhancers, silencers, insulators, TATA boxes, polyadenylation and DNA methylation is not required. Examples of inheritance patterns are hemophilia (sex-linked) and ABO blood groups (multiple), grain color in wheat (polygenic). Data for assessment can come from DNA banding, frequency of DNA fragments, effectiveness of restriction enzymes, location of a gene, or gene expression.
The SHE course will not be assessed in an external examination, but may be used in the development of claims and research questions for a research inquiry. Bioinformatics: Bioinformatics can be used to analyze relationships in biological data such as amino acid sequences or nucleotide sequences (eg the Human Genome Project). The $1,000 genome: Inexpensive genome sequencing can be used to determine whether people have gene variants associated with genetic diseases.
Topic 2: Continuity of life on Earth
Evidence for evolution: Technological developments in the fields of comparative genomics, comparative biochemistry, and bioinformatics enable the identification of further evidence for evolutionary relationships.
Assessment
Summative internal assessment 3 (IA3): Research investigation
The following table of the criteria, assessment goals and grading for the research study together.
Summative external assessment (EA): Examination (50%)
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2009, Australian Curriculum Form: Science, National Curriculum Board, Commonwealth of Australia, http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/Australian_Curriculum_-_Science.pdf. Hackling, M 2005, Science work: Implementing and evaluating open inquiry work in science, Western Australia Department of Education and Training, Perth. Krajcik, J, Blumenfeld, P, Marx, R & Soloway, E 2000, 'Instructional, curricular and technological supports for inquiry in science classrooms', in J Minstrell, & E van Zee (eds), Inquiring into Inquiry Learning and Teaching in Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, p.
