The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades
Upon the completion of fourth grade, following the MOE curriculum, students in public schools are expected to develop the following competencies:
- Earth and Space Sciences—Earth and human activity (weather conditions and the scarcity of pure water); Earth’s place in the universe (the rotation of Earth and the Moon and the effects of their rotation); and Earth’s systems (the water cycle and the distribution of water on Earth)
- Life Sciences (Biology)—From molecules to organisms (structure and functions); major organ systems in the human body (musculoskeletal system, digestive system, nervous system, circulatory system); nutrition and digestion; common diseases and their effects on human body systems; maintaining health; biological evolution (unity and diversity, genetic variation, harmful and useful environmental changes); heredity (inheritance, diversity, and variation of genetic traits); and ecosystems (interactions, energy, and dynamism)
- Physical Sciences—Matter and its transformations (changes in the states of matter, physical and chemical changes); forces and motion; velocity and acceleration of objects; graphing the movement of objects (position-time); energy (forms of energy, heat energy resources in the environment, methods of heat transfer, electrical energy, static electricity, electric circuits, series and parallel circuits); and waves (properties of waves, properties of light, luminous and dark objects, how people see objects, reflection and refraction of light)
Upon the completion of eighth grade, following the MOE curriculum, students in public schools are expected to develop the following competencies:
- Earth and Space Sciences—Earth and human activity; Earth’s resources; natural risks; Earth’s place in the universe; the geological time scale and Earth’s history; the relationship of activities on Earth’s surface and the motion of Earth’s plates; and Earth’s systems (the distribution of rocks and minerals and their relationship to the movement of the plates, the distribution of fossils and the shape of the continents, Earth’s solid composition)
- Life Sciences (Biology)—From molecules to organisms (structure and function); components of animal and plant cells; using a microscope; the interaction of different systems within an organism; the relationship among specialized cells, tissues, organs, and systems in plants and animals; genetics and reproduction; the food pyramid; sensory receptors; and heredity (inheritance, variation of traits, and genetics)
- Physical Sciences—Matter and its transformations (components of the periodic table, properties of the elements of the periodic table, chemical formulas of certain compounds, chemical bonds, common chemical reactions, balancing chemical equations, properties of acids and bases); motion and forces (ions, methods of charging, laws of electric charge, conductors and insulators, types of magnets such as electromagnets, magnetic and nonmagnetic materials, and the magnetic field); and energy (electric current, electric circuits, voltage, electrical resistance, series and parallel circuits, equivalent resistance, electric generators, conversion of everyday energy, temperature, methods of heat transfer, heat, specific heat capacity, and thermal equilibrium)