It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree – make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.
Elon Musk
Our Science Principles
Pupils should:
- Know that science is a subject that helps us understand the world around us.
- Understand that science revolves around asking questions and know that we can’t always find the answers.
- Know that scientists carry out enquiries to try and find out the answers to their questions.
- Know that science can be used to predict how things behave, explain what is happening and figure out why.
- Understand that scientific theory has changed over time and that it will continue to change in the future.
- Know the key knowledge identified in each unit, so that they have a firm knowledge base to continue studying.
- Our science curriculum is mapped across the year groups in three forms: substantive knowledge, disciplinary knowledge and vocabulary.
- Substantive knowledge includes scientific concepts. This is based on the knowledge specified in the National Curriculum.
- Disciplinary knowledge relates to how scientists work scientifically to construct their understanding of scientific concepts. Our aim is for pupils to learn more, do more and remember more.
- We teach vocabulary explicitly alongside the substantive and disciplinary concepts.