From the forces that dictate nature, to the planets and stars shining above us, science has the power to inspire young minds! To help your bright young thinkers develop their science skills, we have created new series in line with Cambridge Assessment International Education’s primary and lower secondary curriculum frameworks.
Here, we will look at some of the changes to the new resources and curriculum frameworks in more detail.
Are you teaching other subjects? We’ve also outlined the changes to our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Mathematics and English/ English as a second language series.
1. New content strand: Earth and Space covered throughout series
The Earth and Space content is now split out rather than being contained within other content strands. Which is why we have made sure to cover the subject in greater detail in our resources. So whether you are using our Primary Stage 1 Learner’s Book, or teaching Lower Secondary Stage 8, you’ll find topics, activities and questions centred around unlocking the mysteries of earth and space.
To recap, there are now four content strands for Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Science:
- Biology – living things and how they interact
- Chemistry – the study of matter
- Physics – the interaction of matter and energy
- NEW Earth and Space – planet Earth, the wider solar system and beyond
2. Clearer progression between stages
For a complete overview, background knowledge sections within our teacher’s resources support you by showing the knowledge and understanding that learners will encounter in earlier and later stages.
This change comes in line with the new curriculum framework, which has been updated to provide a smooth progression from stage to stage.
3. Thinking and Working Scientifically explained
The new Thinking and Working Scientifically strand takes a broader approach to developing learners’ scientific skills. It builds on the scientific enquiry strand found in the previous curriculum framework to include understanding scientific models and representations, as well as developing learners’ practical skills.
In our resources, we’ve covered all of these. Look out for the ‘think like a scientist’ feature in the learner’s books, which focuses on developing science skills in practice.
4. Projects to help with new context strand: Science in Context
This strand helps you make science real for your learners. It allows you to teach what’s around you, so that learners recognise how science relates to them and the world outside their door. We’ve included projects at the end of each unit to help you do this.
We’ve summarised these changes to our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Science series in this handy infographic. Click on the image below to download for quick reference.
If you would like to know more about how our resources can help you adjust to the curriculum framework changes, click on the individual subjects on our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary hub page.
