Science 10 Academic (SCI421A)

Unit 1: Working Like a Scientist

The nature of science and the inquiry practices used throughout Science 10 Academic: evaluating claims and the factors behind unreasonable ones, synthesizing sources, arguing in writing, designing and evaluating investigations, building energy-transfer machines, performing investigations, analysing data, and weighing developments and STEM career pathways.

• Evaluating whether a claim is reasonable
• Why people accept unreasonable claims

• Synthesizing information from sources
• Writing a scientific argument
• Designing and evaluating an investigation
• Building an energy-transfer machine
• Performing investigations
• Analysing data for patterns

• Arguing for or against a development
• Skills for STEM career pathways

Unit 2: Cells and Infectious Disease

The cell as a living system and the biology of infectious disease: cell theory, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, why viruses are non-living; germ theory, antibiotics and vaccines, transmission and prevention, herd immunity, and the classification and impact of pandemics, epidemics, and endemics.

• Cell vocabulary and living vs non-living
• Cell types and why viruses are non-living

• Germ theory, antibiotics, and vaccines
• Transmission, prevention, and herd immunity
• Pandemics, epidemics, endemics, and society

Unit 3: Chemical Reactions and Reactivity

The academic chemistry of reactions: balanced chemical equations and the conservation of mass, identifying reactants and products, IUPAC formula conventions, recognizing reactions from evidence, predicting products, and analysing patterns of chemical reactivity (synthesis, decomposition, single and double displacement).

• Balanced equations and conservation of mass
• Recognizing reactions from evidence
• Classifying reactions by type

• Analysing real-world reactions

Unit 4: Forces, Motion, and Energy

Newtonian mechanics for the academic stream: contact and non-contact forces, mass versus weight, inertia, calculating net force, Newton's second law (F = ma); and energy - kinetic and potential energy, energy transformations, and quantitative energy calculations using KE = 1/2mv2 and PE = mgh.

• Forces, mass, weight, and inertia
• Net force and Newton's second law

• Kinetic, potential energy, and transformations
• Calculating energy: KE and PE