The science learning area is organised into two strands:
- The Nature of Science (NOS) and its 4 sub strands - Understanding about science, Investigating in science, Communicating in science, and Participating and contributing. The Nature of Science is the overarching core strand, and is required learning up to Year 10.
- Four contextual strands - Living World, Planet Earth and Beyond, Physical World, and Material World provide the contexts.
A school curriculum integrates the NOS and contextual strands. The science capabilities were designed as a weaving tool to help teachers do this.
The table shows how the science capabilities link to the Nature of Science achievement objectives.
Click on the links below to view examples of items in the test and how they embed the science capabilities.
- Understanding about science
- Investigating in science
- Communicating in science
- Participating and contributing
Understanding about science
The Understanding about science items in the test require students to reason “like scientists”. Students may be asked to:
- Identify the scientific method that answers a question.
- Decide what the evidence means.
- Select an inference that supports an action.
- Identify which statement is supported by the evidence.
- Select the best inference that is supported by an observation or from the evidence provided.
The example below shows an Understanding about science item from test JS1. Included with the example is a description of the item, the NOS focus, the science capability focus and an explanation of the item difficulty.
Investigating in science
Items in this test require students to recognise the key features of scientific investigations.
Students may be asked to:
- Identify variables in fair testing.
- Use observations to identify patterns.
- Select inferences that are supported by evidence.
- Identify questions that can be answered by the evidence presented, or identify questions for further investigation, or identify the question of an investigation.
- Identify the best method to investigate a question.
- Identify explanations that are supported by the evidence.
- Construct a causal explanation.
The example below shows an Investigating in science item from test JS2. Included with the example is a description of the item, the NOS focus, the science capability focus and an explanation of the item difficulty.
Communicating in science
Items in this test require students to read and correctly interpret scientific texts.
Students may be asked to:
- Interpret models.
- Read, interpret and/or order diagrams.
- Read and interpret tables.
- Read and interpret graphs.
- Read and interpret the strengths of different representations.
- Identify patterns in photographs and images.
- Construct a causal explanation.
- Construct a food chain.
The example below shows a Communicating in science item from test JS2. Included with the example is a description of the item, the NOS focus, the science capability focus and an explanation of the item difficulty.
Participating and contributing
Participating and contributing is about taking action.
Students may be asked to:
- Make judgements.
- Weigh up possible alternatives.
- Apply what is known in one context to a new context.
- Recognise which action to take and the reason for an action.
- Make predictions about possible consequences of an event or action.
The example below shows an Participating and contributing item from test JS 3. Included with the example is a description of the item, the NOS focus, the science capability focus and an explanation of the item difficulty.
Next page: Students' thinking in science