The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades

Science, together with history and geography, is part of Social, Environmental, and Scientific Education (SESE) in the Primary School Curriculum in Ireland.⁹ The current curriculum was officially implemented in schools in 2003–2004, following appropriate professional development for teachers in the previous school year. The science curriculum aims to help children develop basic scientific ideas and understanding about the biological and physical aspects of the world, and the processes through which they develop this knowledge and understanding. The curriculum also aims to foster positive attitudes toward science, and to encourage children to examine and appreciate how science and technology affect their lives and the environment.

The Primary School Science Curriculum is presented as four levels, each of which covers two years of primary school. Level 3, comprising third and fourth grade science, is the relevant level for fourth grade TIMSS participants. The curriculum has a skills section and a content section.

The curriculum is designed to provide students with two key types of skill—working scientifically, and designing and making—and reflects a constructivist and collaborative approach. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of starting with children’s own ideas and learning through interactions with objects and materials, and their classmates. Children “create” new knowledge and learn about scientific concepts. Working scientifically involves:

Observing and constructing hypotheses
Predicting
Planning and carrying out investigations, with an emphasis on fair testing
Recording and analyzing results
Sharing and discussing findings
Extending thinking to accommodate new findings

Designing and making involves looking for practical solutions to problems by exploring and assessing everyday objects in terms of their functionality, their component materials, and their design, and then using this information to plan, design, make, and evaluate artifacts or models. These activities are intended to harness and nurture children’s creative and imaginative capacities.

The curriculum content is composed of four strands: Living Things, Materials, Energy and Forces, and Environmental Awareness and Care. These strands, which are subdivided into strand units, outline the concepts and ideas to be explored by children as they work scientifically, and are involved in designing and making. Children are expected to experience all Level 3 strand units over the course of the third and fourth grades. Exhibit 2 shows the strands and strand units for Level 3, and provides some examples of what children are expected to learn within each strand unit.

Exhibit 2: Summary of Science Curriculum for Level 3 (Grades 3–4), and Sample Skills

Strand	Strand Unit	Scientific Learning Objectives
Living Things	Human life	Be aware of names and structures of some internal and external body organs and the importance of food for energy and growth Understand physical changes in males and females to adulthood
Living Things	Plant and animal life	Investigate plants and animals in local environments; be aware of those in wider environments Discuss simple food chains
Energy and Forces	Light	Understand that light is a form of energy, comes from natural and artificial sources, and can be broken into different colors Be aware of the dangers of looking at the sun
	Sound	Understand that sound is a form of energy, how it is made, and that it travels through materials Identify a variety of sounds in the environment
	Heat	Understand that the sun is Earth’s most important heat source, and that heat can be transferred Know what temperature is, and use a thermometer
	Magnetism and electricity	Classify materials as magnetic and nonmagnetic, and as conductors and insulators Be aware of the dangers of electricity
	Forces	Explore how objects move and are slowed down Explore how levers can help lift objects
Materials	Properties and characteristics	Recognize that materials can be solid, liquid, or gaseous Distinguish between raw and manufactured materials Compare and group materials Investigate the use of materials in construction
Materials	Materials and change	Explore the effects of heating and cooling on solids, liquids, and gases Explore ways to separate materials
Environmental Awareness and Care	Environmental awareness	Identify positive aspects of natural and built environments Recognize the interrelationship of living and nonliving elements Recognize how people’s actions affect their environment
	Science and the environment	Explore the application and positive contribution of science and technology to society Investigate positive and negative effects of human activities on environments
	Caring for the environment	Look at ways to improve the local environment Nurture a sense of responsibility toward the Earth

A revised syllabus for Junior Certificate Science¹⁰ (lower secondary level) was introduced in September 2003. The course is a practical, investigative one emphasizing hands-on student involvement in learning. Students are expected to develop not only knowledge and understanding of content areas, but also core scientific skills as well as an awareness and appreciation of science. Teachers are encouraged to use a variety of teaching methodologies that enable students to work scientifically and apply their scientific knowledge. The lower secondary science curriculum contains three main syllabus sections, each of which is further divided into three more detailed topic areas, as shown in Exhibit 3. Although not compulsory, approximately 90 percent of lower secondary students take science as a subject. The curriculum provides suitable preparation, but is not a requirement for the study of one or more science subjects at the upper secondary level. Topics are accompanied by learning outcomes that reflect an investigative and practical approach. All students must study the three syllabus sections at either the higher or ordinary level.

Exhibit 3: Main Topic Areas for Lower Secondary Science Syllabus

Science Subject	Topic Area
Biology	Human Biology—Food, digestion, and associated body systems
	Human Biology—The skeletal muscular system, the senses, and human reproduction
	Animals, plants, and micro-organisms
Chemistry	Classification of substances
	Air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water
	Atomic structure, reactions, and compounds
Physics	Force and energy
	Heat, light, and sound
	Magnetism, electricity, and electronics

In lower secondary science, students learn to do the following:

Use scientific knowledge to turn ideas into an investigable form and to plan accordingly
Decide the extent and range of data to be collected and the techniques, equipment, and materials to be used
Consider factors that need to be taken into account when collecting evidence
Make observations and measurements, logging data where appropriate
Critically consider, evaluate, and interpret data
Organize and present information clearly and logically, using appropriate scientific terms and conventions, and using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) where appropriate

Many of the objectives of the syllabus are achieved by methodologies that support discovery through investigation. Students are allowed ample time to engage actively in learning in order to develop scientific processing skills, a better understanding of underlying science concepts, and higher order skills associated with problem solving and the application of knowledge in new contexts. The science syllabus provides opportunities for learners to develop thinking and decision making skills that can be used in problem solving. Such skills can be developed through the systematic approach to investigation, which is a feature of science, and can be transferred easily to other nonscientific situations and contexts.

Teachers are encouraged to use a Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach in their science instruction to facilitate student understanding of science and to link learning to everyday contexts and issues. While there is no explicitly prescribed STS content in the syllabus, many of the subtopics and associated learning outcomes require appropriate links to everyday experiences (in areas such as health, diet, human development, and ecology) and to everyday examples of applications of science, as in biotechnology, industry, medicine, energy conservation, and electronics. Appropriate references to the work of prominent scientists and to modern scientific developments provide points of transference from school-based learning to general experience, making scientific phenomena more meaningful for students.

Note: As part of the ongoing reform of junior cycle (lower secondary) education, a new science curriculum and assessment specification is being developed for implementation in schools in September 2016. The proposed specification for junior cycle science focuses on the development of students’ knowledge of and about science through a unifying strand, the Nature of Science, and four contextual strands: the Physical World, the Chemical World, the Biological World, and Earth and Space.