Featured Pilot school
Sawston Village College, Cambridge
Experiment in science
CLONING, genetically-modified foods and mobile phones could soon be hot topics in British classrooms in a move to make science more appealing.
A new GCSE known as Twenty First Century Science will become available next year as an alternative to traditional exams. But pupils at Sawston Village College, New Road, Sawston, have already been taught the subject for the last two years and in August the first batch of Year 11 students to take the GCSE will receive their results. Traditionalists have criticised the course as an attempt to dumb down the curriculum, but Sawston Village College, one of 75 schools chosen to pilot the subject, says it is a positive move.
June Cannie, college principal, said: "It has been exciting. It has been extremely well received by the children. They love it." She said 50 to 60 pupils did triple award science - three separate qualifications in biology, chemistry and physics - while the others had taken Twenty First Century Science.
The GCSE was developed by York University and the OCR exam board, due to fears science lessons had become dull and old-fashioned. The new course covers topical issues and is more hands-on, with analysis of data and classroom discussions about anything from donor cards to Huntington's disease. It will be offered to all schools from September next year. All students take a core science course, which leads to one GCSE. They can then opt to take one of two additional science courses, one is applied, the other general, which leads to another GCSE.
Louise Newman, head of science at Sawston, said the new course taught students how to think for themselves about science.
She said: "It is designed to have a completely different approach. They want students to read newspapers and weigh up evidence without being told exactly what to believe but to be able to make a judgment for themselves. "We are very much fans of the course. It has done exactly what it is designed to do - to encourage children to feel science is more relevant to them." She said two of the students who were waiting for their GCSE results now wanted to take a science A-level, even though they had not been very interested in the subject before.
Dr Newman said a mother of one of her pupils had stopped her and told her how much her daughter enjoyed the subject.
She added: "I have never had a parent stop me and thank me for anything before. That child now wants to take A-level biology."
Year 9 pupils got a head start by starting their Twenty First Century Science lessons as soon as they finished their SATS in May. They have already completed two modules and will take their first exams in January.
Being involved in the pilot scheme has given Sawston the chance to have a say on how the course has developed.
Dr Newman said: "We're giving feedback which will make a difference to the rest of the country. We've had the chance to develop it for the best for our students." Terry Saunders, who teaches science at Sawston, said: "It is definitely best to be in it from the start. "It has been a brilliant challenge. It's a new way of thinking for me and a new way of getting children excited about science."
Cambridge Evening News. 22 July 2005