Approximate % for foundation and higher papers

for foundation
c 88%, d 74%, e 50%, f 44%, g 29%.
for Higher

Summer GCSE exams

Ros has made all the entries for us for both additional and core science based on your January entries. If you want to change them after the January results there is a one week window that shuts on March 11th. All changes to PL please and I will give them to Ros. Please don't see Ros yourself.

More resources

http://www.nclark.net/

Applets for lessons

http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations

Want info or Java applets

http://www.educypedia.be/

How science works

How science works

This includes scientific method and the way scientific knowledge develops.

Developing ideas and theories lies at the heart of science. 'How science works' focuses on the evidence to support or refute these ideas and theories. The evidence comes from the collection and creative interpretation of data, both of which need to be considered.

Consequently, in order to understand how science works, learners need skills such as practical collection of data, working safely, presenting scientific information; they need to understand the power of science to explain phenomena, the way understanding of science changes over time and the applications of contemporary scientific developments.

http://www.qcda.gov.uk/9437.aspx

How Science Works key words

Accuracy An accurate measurement is close to the true value.
Reliability The trustworthiness of data collected.
Valid data Evidence that can be reproduced by others and answers the original question.
Precision Where your repeat results are very close to each other. This is related to the smallest scale division on the measuring instrument used.

Opinion Opinions are personal judgements. Opinions can be formed from scientific evidence or non-scientific ideas.
Hypothesis Using theory to suggest explanations for observations. E.g. ‘I think that the plants are smaller because they do not have enough water.’
Evidence Scientific evidence should be reliable and valid. It can take many forms. It could be an observation, a measurement or data that somebody else has obtained.
Conclusion A conclusion considers the results and states how those results match the hypothesis. The conclusion must not go beyond the data available.

Categoric variable These tell us the name of the variable e.g. copper, iron, magnesium.
Continuous variable A continuous variable can be any numerical value, e.g. your own weight.
Discrete variable These are numerical, but can only be whole numbers e.g. numbers of layers of insulation.
Ordered variable Variables that can be put into an order e.g. small, large, huge lumps of rock. These tell us more than categoric variables.

Control variable These are the variables that might affect your result and therefore must be kept the same for a valid investigation. E.g. volume of acid used.
Dependent variable The variable that you are measuring as a result of changing the independent variable. E.g. the volume of CO2 produced.
Independent variable The variable that you have decided to change in an investigation. E.g. temperature of the acid. These are the variables that might affect your result and therefore must be kept the same for a valid investigation. E.g. volume of acid used.

Thanks to http://10l1.blogspot.com/

Teaching today

http://www.teachers.tv/video/20592

What are the OCR grade boundaries in the GCSE courses?

As a rough guide you can say



The following site gives the information below
http://www.21stcenturyscience.org/faqs/what-are-the-ocr-grade-boundaries-in-the-gcse-science-course,207,FAQ.html

Here's the current information given by OCR the awarding body. They will also publish specific grade boundaries and raw scores for the January and June exams with the results.

As a rough guide, the Foundation tier papers are targeted at 70% of the marks at low demand (grades E, F, G, U) and 30% at standard demand (C and D). The Higher papers are targeted at 50% standard demand and 50% high demand (A*, A, B).

Anyone getting 75-80% on a Foundation paper should be on C level. On Higher papers 50% for C, and 75-80% for A is an again rough guide for attainment.

The exact boundaries will vary from paper to paper at awarding

SATIS

http://www.satisrevisited.co.uk/

Yr 11 Coursework lower half Marks to me by first week after half term

Please could I have all your coursework marks to me by the first day back after half term.
This just involves those in year 11 teaching the lower half.
Eg Alistair, Wayde, Julie and myself.
The list will be forwarded to David, Julie and Alistair and anyone who wants an overview of year 11 coursework.
Thanks
Peter

21 C Workbook answers and useful websites

http://www.twentyfirstcenturyscience.org/furtherguidance/index.htm

Also checkout useful websites

http://www.twentyfirstcenturyscience.org/usefulwebsites/index.htm

Home work letters for parents

21C investigation mark scheme

Yr 11 summer results

Well Done Everyone.

KS3 rotations for 2009-2010

These are the KS3 rotations. Julie will discuss them at one of the meetings on the first few days.

WIKID news

Anyone teaching WIKID next year please go to the upd8 website, and then to the specific section on WIKID and click on the link to see the evolving SOW!

Rotations for 2009/10

YEAR 10

YEAR 11

LAST YEAR BELOW THIS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Software Update

FLV player for videos downloaded from You Tube etc
http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/flv-player/

Almost there.

A few things to make sure you do before the end of the year.

• Set lists to me or Julie in year 10 indicating if you want a few pupils to go up or down a set. Once we have all the lists we can discuss any personality classes. Similar for years 7,8 and 9.
• Look at "My marksheets" on SIMs and enter your year 10 CASE study details. Please keep a copy yourself and let me know if you have any problems.
• Please give any year 7 and 8 test scores to Julie ASAP.
• See AM or CC for Wicked files if you are teaching year 7 next year.
• In year 10 complete B4 and the CASE studies.
• Enjoy the summer.
  

21C revision site

This is what resources should be!
http://funnyscience.co.uk/

Talking points in class > internal resistance

Story about a Sailor who measured his internal resistance. He intentionally pushed the sharpened probe tips through the skin to eliminate the rather high skin resistance and get only the "internal resistance". This killed him because the current was then too high from the 9V battery
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1999-50.html

21C resources

This is an excellent site for many resources including Ideas papers.
http://schools.northyorks.gov.uk/1279

Candidate authentication statement

Please ensure all your year 11 pupils have signed the candidate authentication statement. We do not need to send them off with the moderation sample but we do need to keep them if the board asks for them.

Coursework deadlines (more details)

Its almost over. Thank you all so much for working so hard for year 11 this year.
We need to do these few more items on the dates shown. I can't change these dates sorry.

• 22 April: Check that you have handed back to me your CASE study moderation sample. With updated marks.
• 24 April to 28 April: Collect all your the year 11 coursework from filing cabinet and check it. Please let me know when you have done this. Remember this is both year 10 CASE (plus I&E from year 11) and the year 11 investigation. Keep this coursework yourselves and check according to the current SIMs list. Ensure all cover sheets signed by students and I&E photocopied for year 11 section. Get all mark sheets complete ready to go to the board. Please ensure accuracy....(See PL or JRo if in doubt)
• 06 May: All coursework marks to PL to be put on the boards official sheets. If you can give me the completed, accurate sheet before hand this will be better. Keep the coursework safe. (It will not be stored separately.)
• 11 May: All lists sent to ROS before 9:00 am
  
• Early June?: Get sample list from board and staff hand those pupils coursework to PL to post.

Coursework deadlines

We are getting very close to the deadlines for coursework. It is essential that we stick to these dates.

• All moderated case study coursework to me by Wednesday 22nd April
• All up to date results for year 11 to me by Friday 24th April
• Remember the year 10 case study needs a photocopy of the year 11 investigation I & E sections
• Please fill in the cover sheets and get the pupils to sign the declaration sheets
• In order to do this all coursework needs to be marked and filed in central preproom by 5 may.
• Coursework entries to Ros 8 May. All completed and filed by this date.

Let me know when you have completed all marking and I can start to put your marks on the Grid.
Please give a final push your coursework should be at least in line with FFT and preferably better than FFT.

Useful links

http://www.practicalphysics.org/

Proposed revision sessions for year 11

These will take place for one hour after school on Wednesday.
Two rooms will be used U26 for the higher students and U33 for the foundation students
Please sign up in prep room.
Dates are

• B5 > 25 March
• C5 > 1 April
• P5 > 22 April
• B6 > 29 April
• C6 > 6 May
• P6 > 13 May

Coursework update

In the middle prep room I have put up lists of those pupils who are below there target grade according to MY records.
There are 3 empty columns with these headings

• CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES COURSEWORK
• CORRECTIONS CASE (This is from last year for those who are behind)
  
• TARGET LIST FOR CHASE UP (If you want Mark, Julie, Wayde or Myself to chase up these pupils.
  

Could you please correct and update these lists.

I am trying to get this put on SIMs for the future. (It may be on in time for us this year). So you can enter marks as you remark and I do not need to be updating lists all the time.
We only have a short time before the 20th.
Thanks

Science week Lunch rota

Science week rota

Mondays dept meeting

Mainly about the visit from Jan & Lynne and science week.
Also from me

• I want to put coursework grids and a set up of deadlines on the sims system
• Mock papers for those pupils who missed the mocks are in the preproom.
  
• 20 March is coursework moderation day. We need most of the coursework done by that day.
• Please check Rotas and dates.
• SMT inspection next week?
  

Yr 10 progress checks

These need to be done on assessment manager this week

Exam Office Memo

Free pdf software

PDF XChange Viewer
This is fast, you can annotate pdf files and its free
http://www.pdfxviewer.com/

Report writing

Maybe this piece of software will help

http://www.rayslearning.com/report.htm

Mondays dept meeting

• Coursework deadline 2 Feb.
• Lesson observations.
• RAISE and LEA intervention.
• 5 one hour INSETs > one on learning platform.
  

SMART Targets

S - specific, significant, stretching

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

---------------------------------------------

SMART Goals

Specific

• Well defined
• Clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project

Measurable

• Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is
• Know when it has been achieved

Agreed Upon

• Agreement with all the stakeholders what the goals should be

Realistic

• Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time

Time Based

• Enough time to achieve the goal
• Not too much time, which can affect project performance

Vocabulary for framing lesson objectives and outcomes

Feedback from investigation meetings (2007-2008)

I asked your questions when I was at these meetings. Here is a summary of the answers.

• You can get full marks but you should only expect an A* pupil to do that.
• You can give them the question. eg "How can I slow down the rate of descent of an object?". They need to come up with the ideas on how to do that.
• Pupils can take work home. You need to verify that it is all their own work.
• You can double count the I and E strands from the Additional science investigation and use this for the core data analysis.
• You can give any generic help you like but you should not give specific help for that particular investigation. eg you can say "to get 6 marks you need to list all the factors involved" but you can't tell them to "look at width, surface area, type of wire or length".
• The whole class can do the same investigation or case study. The approach should be different though.
• Any background material or help given should be sent to the moderator.
• You need to annotate the coursework. Minumum of saying C(c)6.
• There is less scientific knowledge required compared to Sc1. eg for resistance of a wire talk about lenghth being similar to resistors in series rather than free electron theory from A level.
  
• No prediction is required like Sc1. You may like to have an introduction though.
• Redrafting is NOT allowed. You can look at the coursework and point out missed items but once it is marked you cannot give it back.
  

teachers sites

UK Schools

Teachers' Search Engine

teachers-direct recruitment - for UK Supply Teaching Jobs

Topmarks Education: homework help, exam help, GCSE revision, A-Level revision, study notes, worksheets

samlearning.com

TDA - Training and Development Agency for Schools

Teachers TV | Thousands of education programmes on TV and online

TESconnect, TES connect, education recruitment, teaching jobs, teacher jobs, teaching vacancy, teaching vacancies, school jobs, school vacancies, education, teacher, teaching resources, teacher training, education jobs, school teacher, jobs in teaching, primary teacher, secondary teacher, teacher resources, resources for teachers, teacher forums, NQT, school leadership, head teacher, supply teacher.

TeacherTube - Teach the World | Teacher Videos | Lesson Plan Videos | Student Video Lessons | Online Teacher Made Videos | TeacherTube.com

TeacherNet: the education site for teachers and school managers

Teachers TV | Thousands of education programmes on TV and online

S-Cool! - Revision

Welcome to schoolscience.co.uk

UPD8

BBC - GCSE Bitesize - Homepage

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Quiz-Busters Plenary and Revision Quiz from teachers-direct

Have you checked your exam entries?

You can also do this by going into SIMS and then going into My Marksheet Entry.
Finding the class.
In my case
Sum 2009 Forecast 01/J630 : 10a/Ds7 08/09
and checking the entries are OK there.
For instance I have Y in the columns
OCR A213F Entry Summer 2009
and
OCR A214F Entry Summer 2009
ONLY
which is
B3,C3,P3 paper and the ideas in context paper.

Year 11 coursework marks

The deadline for coursework marks to me is the 2nd Feb. These need to be your final mark as they then need to be entered on the tracking system. I need investigations and CASE study marks.

Urgent check on exam entries

Could you please check your GCSE exam entries for the summer. Could you do this by Monday please. I have put lists in your pigeon holes in science. When you have checked them inform me or JR and we will amend a master list. Please do not inform Ros as was previously suggested.
Sorry about this.

tricks of the trade

To photocopy a past paper, get a guillotine and cut off the edge near the staples. You can then run the rest through the photocopier as you would normal sheets.

Yr 10 core weighting

yr 11 additional science weighting