Assessment overview

End-of-item test and can-do tasks are set by OCR. The practical tasks are devised by the centre to allow their students to access all areas of the marking criteria by allowing their students to demonstration a scientific approach to investigation.

Content overview

There are 36 teaching items in total, 12 for each of biology, chemistry and physics. In all three sciences, students develop their understanding of how scientific principles and concepts help describe complex and diverse natural phenomena in terms of a small number of key ideas. They also develop relevant practical skills.

Biology

The 12 teaching items:

• ELB1: Dead or alive (cells) – the role of cells
• ELB2: Babies (reproduction) – human reproduction
• ELB3: Control systems – control systems of the human body
• ELB4: Fooling your senses – sight, smell, taste, touch and reflex reactions
• ELB5: Gasping for breath – human respiration and respiratory diseases
• ELB6: Casualty – human circulatory system
• ELB7: You can only have one life (look after it) – digestive system and drugs
• ELB8: Body wars – human immune system
• ELB9: Creepy crawlies – ecosystems and fieldwork
• ELB10 Extinction – fossils, evolution and biodiversity
• ELB11: My genes – DNA and genetics
• ELB12: Food factory – plants and food production

Chemistry

The 12 teaching items:

• ELC1: Physical or chemical change – using the particle model
• ELC2: Acids and alkalis – acidity and alkalinity in everyday science
• ELC3: Everything in its place – the periodic table
• ELC4: Clean air and water – environmental chemistry
• ELC5: Novel materials – alloys, composites and carbon compounds
• ELC6: Sorting out – purifying mixtures
• ELC7: Let’s get together – salts (NaCl), reactions and electrolysis
• ELC8: Heavy metal – reactivity and the extraction and recycling of metals
• ELC9: Fuels – hydrocarbons and polymers
• ELC10: Are you overreacting – using periodic table to predict rates of reaction
• ELC11: How fast? How slow? – practical laboratory skills and rates of reaction
• ELC12: CSI plus – forensic science

Physics

The 12 teaching items:

• ELP1: Getting the message – using waves to communicate
• ELP2: Full spectrum – electromagnetic waves
• ELP3: Medical rays – using waves in medicine
• ELP4: Hot stuff – heat, temperature and states of matter
• ELP5: Alternative energy – renewable and non-renewable energy sources
• ELP6: Nuclear power – atomic model and radioactivity
• ELP7: Our electricity supply – domestic electricity supply and Ohm’s law
• ELP8: Attractive forces – magnetic fields and electromagnetism
• ELP9: Pushes and pulls – forces and Newton’s laws of motion
• ELP10: Driving along – motion, forces and energy transfer
• ELP11: Fly me to the moon – rockets and the solar system
• ELP12: Final frontier – astronomy and astrophysics