The transition from Secondary 2 to Secondary 3 is a big one, especially in terms of the sciences. From the single catch-all lower secondary science, your child will now have to choose between three separate subjects: biology, chemistry and physics.
Depending on his or her particular subject combination and school’s practices, your child may have to study two or all three of these subjects.
He or she can expect a wider and deeper coverage of topics previously learned and mastered in lower secondary, as well as to see the connections between topics and the different sciences.
But what exactly is he or she in store for? How can you best advise your child based on his or her interests?
Not to fear, for we have broken down each of the subjects in further detail below. Our passionate team of secondary science curriculum specialists has also weighed in on what some of the most interesting topics in each subject are, all the better to pique your child’s interest in!
Biology is literally the science of life. Students of Biology look at the nitty-gritty of what makes all living organisms tick, from entire kingdoms down to individual cells.
Did you know that biology is the only science where multiplication means the same thing as division?
Explore new topics in cell biology like cell division, and examine the events in a cell cycle that lead to your own body’s growth, repair and reproduction!
You have learnt about how food travels through your body in the topic of digestion, so the science behind doing a “number two” shouldn’t be unfamiliar to you. However, have you wondered what causes you to do a “number one”?
Upper secondary biology includes the topic of excretion, which will take you through the processes that allow our bodies to get rid of metabolic wastes, including that liquid that you must relieve yourself of regularly!
Have you heard of the fight or flight response? When you are stressed, your body prepares you to confront the situation (fight), or to flee from it (flight)!
What’s more, this is controlled by the release of adrenaline, which is also the hormone that gives thrill-seekers the rush of free fall when bungee-jumping or sky-diving! Learn all about how this hormone tips you off the edge!
Chemistry is the study of the composition of matter and of how substances react with each other. It’s also the science behind everything from medicine to detergents and forensic crime scene investigation.
Did you know that the process of dissolving ionic compounds in water can either release or absorb heat?
This is the science that drives the idea of hot or cold packs used by athletes to minimise swelling in injuries such as muscle and joint sprains.
In the topic of energy changes and enthalpy of reactions, see for yourself how cool it is to learn about exothermic and endothermic processes, and perform calculations to help you predict whether heat will be released or absorbed in a chemical reaction. Might we add that it is going to be... lit!
What does a dead frog have to do with batteries?
In the late 1770s, Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani discovered that the muscles of a dead frog twitched when touched by two different metals – that of the dissection tray it lay on, as well as of the scalpel used in the dissection.
Galvani thought that the frog’s muscles were able to produce electricity, but this was quickly disproved by another physics professor, Alessandro Volta. Volta argued that the different metals the frog was in contact with produced an electric current that pulsed through the frog. This was the birth of the modern battery (ironically, through a dead frog) and you will get to study all about it in electrochemistry!
Is a mole that suspicious dark brown spot you just found on your arm? Or that vision-challenged mammal that spends its time underground in the safety of its burrow?
Or the undercover agent that was planted in a drug syndicate to pin down the crimes of the drug lord?
Yes... and no.
In chemistry, the mole is the SI unit (the International System of Units) for the amount of substance. If a dozen doughnuts are equivalent to twelve doughnuts, then a mole of doughnuts is a whopping 602 sextillion of them!
Take special care of this topic on mole concept, because while we are not using it to count doughnuts, we will be using them to count atoms, molecules, ions, electrons and everything at that scale.
More abstract than either biology or chemistry, yet with countless real-world applications, physics deals with energy, motion and the forces of gravity and magnetism, among others. If your child is an aspiring space cadet, he or she may gravitate towards this subject.
When Miley Cyrus came in with a wrecking ball, she was probably not calculating how much kinetic energy she would need to demolish a building. But you can.
The construction and demolition of buildings draw on the principles and equations that govern stability, the turning effects of forces and conservation of energy.
Who’s up for a literally dynamic and energetic time of learning?
Since energy can only be converted between forms and never created or destroyed, how hard and how many times would you have to punch a raw chicken to bring it up to a suitable cooking temperature?
In thermal physics, you can learn how to calculate the energy required to raise the temperature of a substance by 1o C.
According to a previous calculation, it would take an Olympic boxer delivering between 500 and 1000 Joules of energy per punch, and somewhere between 460-920 punches to reach a temperature where the chicken would be safe to eat. Now that’s really working for your dinner.
Have you heard of the archer fish that shoots small jets of water at high speeds to knock its unsuspecting prey out?
Learn how this physicist of a hunter considers the refraction of light to strike its prey with surgical precision!
As living, evolving disciplines, biology, chemistry and physics are not only closely related to each other, but also to the world around us.
The Learning Lab’s curriculum materials are designed to build strong content mastery through real-life examples and applications, helping students to see the link between what they learn in the classroom and the science that surrounds them on a daily basis.
With access to timely checkpoints such as mastery-building practice tests and mock papers, our students are able to monitor and enhance their own level of understanding, as well as gain accuracy in applying their knowledge and skills to actual questions.
And because some of the greatest scientific discoveries have been made in pairs or teams, all our students engage in classroom discussions with their peers, whether via tutorials, experiments or other in-class activities.
Our teachers place the utmost emphasis on building students’ confidence in and love for learning science, all the while helping them strengthen their analytical skills, application of concepts, and answering techniques.
To find out more about how we can support your child in making the leap from lower to upper secondary science, click here.
Find out more our Science programmes here.
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