Edexcel Science (Biology)
Aims
• to develop students’ understanding of the science around them that affects them in their everyday life• to develop students’ questioning, analytical and evaluative approach to scientific problems and issues• to develop students’ practical skills in science and an understanding of how science works• to encourage enthusiasm about science leading to continued study.
Key features...
• Encourages an understanding of scientific concepts rather than recall of detailed facts....• Gives teachers an opportunity to discuss real science issues, including the science behind stories in the media, with their students.
How Science Works
How Science Works is a new requirement in the Criteria for GCSE Science. The specification identifies opportunities to make How Science Works accessible to all students. How Science Works is primarily about helping students to engage with and challenge the science they meet in everyday life. Students need to adopt a critical, questioning frame of mind, going ‘behind the scenes’ to understand the workings of science and how it impacts on society and their lives. It will help students to:• identify questions that science can, and cannot address, and how scientists look for the answers• evaluate scientific claims by judging the reliability and validity of the evidence appropriately• question the scientific reports they see in the media, and to communicate their own findings• consider scientific findings in a wider context – recognising their tentative nature• make informed judgements about science and technology, including any ethical issues that may arise.
The specification highlights a range of contemporary and historical science contexts through which to explore How Science Works. Students need, also, to build on their own experience – planning, carrying out and reflecting upon their own scientific investigations.
TiS: We welcome this emphasis on a critical approach to scientific evidence, which is essential for scientist and citizen alike. We hope that this critical approach to be applied to theories of origins.
Biology (2105)
Unit B1 a Topic 1 — Environment
...Organisms are classified according to how closely they are related and students will learn to appreciate that ‘rules’ change as new evidence emerges. It is a competitive world, all organisms compete for resources and only those that are best adapted will survive in a changing environment; specific adaptations of organisms to extreme environments will be investigated.
There is an opportunity to study populations using computer models and also to use secondary data to explore how human activity affects populations and the environment. Students will also discuss the evidence for natural selection, examining how Darwin’s ideas were received by his contemporaries and comparing this with how current scientific theory is received by today’s scientific community.
Guidance for students - Have you ever wondered?
...Is evolution still taking place?
...How does natural selection ‘know’ how to create a new species?
...Why did a cartoon of Charles Darwin drawn as an ape appear in a national newspaper when he proposed his theory of evolution?
Learning objectives
• Animals and plants depend on each other.
• All organisms are adapted to their environment.
• There is often competition between organisms for resources.
• Natural selection is a long process over many generations.
(page 20)
Information for teachersTiS: Darwin was opposed by numerous scientists and academics at the time for good reasons. Individuals such as Richard Owen, founder of the Natural History Museum (London) wrote a reasoned review of Darwin's Origin in the Edinburgh Review of 1860, pointing out many inadequacies in his theory.
...Students will be assessed on their ability to...• demonstrate an understanding of how computer models can be used to study populations, and show an awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of these models compared with the real data.• compare natural selection, selective breeding and genetic engineering in terms of changing the characteristics of a species
• explain that fossils provide evidence for evolution
• explain the principles of natural selection, to include:
– how individuals within a species can have characteristics that promote more successful reproduction
– how, over generations, the effects of natural selection result in changes within species and new species from variants that are better adapted to their environment
– how species that are less well-adapted to a changing environment can become extinct
• discuss why Charles Darwin experienced difficulty in getting his theory of evolution through natural selection accepted by the scientific community in the 19th century
(page 21)
We regret that this specification does not explicitly mention current objections to Darwin's theory. We believe that pupils should be aware of present day debate, not just debates from the nineteenth century.
To review the fossil evidence for evolution, see our article on the Fossil Record
TiS: We welcome this discussion of artificial selection, and the limits to biological change which it reveals.Topic 2 — Genes
Guidance for students - Have you ever wondered?
Why can we not just breed a racehorse that will win every race?...
Is it possible that Old English Sheepdogs and Yorkshire Terriers both came originally from wolves?
(page 23)
GCSE Biology extension unit: Unit B3
Topic 2 — Behaviour in Humans and Other Animals
Learning objectives
• Animals have evolved instinctive behaviours, through natural selection, which increase their chances of survival....
• Reproductive behaviours maximise animals’ chances of successfully passing on their genes.
Information for teachers
Learning outcomes
Students will be assessed on their ability to:
• distinguish between and use primary and/or secondary data
• discuss and evaluate evidence and data
• consider the ethical, contemporary and social issues.
Social behaviour and communication• ...humans have developed highly complex ways of communicating -- transmitting knowledge of past events, emotions and complex ideas to other humans• humans are conscious of the outcomes of their actions, and as a result are more self-aware than other animals.Feeding behaviours
• ...vertebrate herbivores may feed in large groups or herds, and they may do so for protection in numbers. This is a successful evolutionary strategy, even though some members of the herd may be killed
Reproductive behaviours• ...some animals mate for life, others select several different mates during the mating season
• ...parental care is a successful evolutionary strategy; although it involves risk to the parents, it can increase the chances of survival of the parental genes
Human behaviour in relation to other animals
• humans are one of the great apes, and have developed from small family groups of hunter-gatherers, closely related to bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees), to complex societies capable of gross modification of their own environment
• humans have exploited other animals; originally hunters, they domesticated animals that helped them hunt; as humans developed agriculture, humans exploited herd animals to provide a constant and dependable source of food• ...some consider that animals have rights comparable or identical to humans, others consider that such beliefs are not tenable•it is a mistake to interpret behaviour observed in other animals as showing human characteristics (anthropomorphism)• it is also a mistake to assume that human and animal behaviours have nothing in common
(pages 123-127)
TiS: We consider that this GCSE Specification illustrates the something of the moral implications of believing that humans have evolved from ape-like creatures. The title of Topic 2, and its contents, clearly imply that humans are merely animals, and even suggest that they have no greater 'rights'.
Pupils may begin to question this claim if they are permitted to rigorously examine the evidence for and against the evolution of humans from ape-like creatures.
The syllabus notes that candidates should be taught the moral and ethical aspects of sensitive issues.
Quote
The presence or absence of a creative super-intelligence is unequivocally a scientific question...
Richard Dawkins (2006)
Extras
Syndicate
© Truth in Science 2005-10. Privacy policy.