Grade 10 Science Tutor
The science courses in the Grade 9 and 10 curriculum are offered in academic and applied. Academic courses develop students’ knowledge and skills through the study of theory and abstract problems. These courses focus on the essential concepts of a subject and explore related concepts as well. They incorporate practical applications as appropriate.
Applied courses focus on the essential concepts of a subject, and develop students’ knowledge and skills through practical applications and concrete examples. Familiar situations are used to illustrate ideas, and students are given more opportunities to experience hands-on applications of the concepts and theories they study.
Overall Expectations
- Demonstrate scientific investigation skills (related to both inquiry and research) in the four areas of skills (initiating and planning, performing and recording, analysing and interpreting, and communicating
- Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study, and identify scientists who have made contributions to those fields
- Evaluate the importance of medical and other technological developments related to systems biology, and analyze their societal and ethical implications
- Investigate cell division, cell specialization, organs, and systems in animals and plants, using research and inquiry skills, including various laboratory techniques
- Demonstrate an understanding of the hierarchical organization of cells, from tissues, to organs, to systems in animals and plants
- Analyse a variety of safety and environmental issues associated with chemical reactions, including the ways in which chemical reactions can be applied to address environmental challenges
- Investigate, through inquiry, the characteristics of chemical reactions
- Demonstrate an understanding of the general principles of chemical reactions, and various ways to represent them
- Analyse some of the effects of climate change around the world, and assess the effectiveness of initiatives that attempt to address the issue of climate change
- Investigate various natural and human factors that influence Earth’s climate and climate change
- Demonstrate an understanding of natural and human factors, including the greenhouse effect, that influence Earth’s climate and contribute to climate change
- Evaluate the effectiveness of technological devices and procedures designed to make use of light, and assess their social benefits
- Investigate, through inquiry, the properties of light, and predict its behavior, particularly with respect to reflection in plane and curved mirrors and refraction in converging lenses
- Demonstrate an understanding of various characteristics and properties of light, particularly with respect to reflection in mirrors and reflection and refraction in lenses
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Grade 10 Science Sample Curriculum
Scientific investigation skills and career exploration
- Formulate scientific questions about observed relationships, ideas, problems, and/or issues, make predictions, and/or formulate hypotheses to focus inquiries or research
- Identify and locate print, electronic, and human sources that are relevant to research questions
- Apply knowledge and understanding of safe practices and procedures when planning investigations, with the aid of appropriate support materials
- Conduct inquiries, controlling some variables, adapting or extending procedures as required, and using standard equipment and materials safely, accurately, and effectively, to collect observations and data
- Gather data from laboratory and other sources, and organize and record the data using appropriate formats, including tables, flow charts, graphs, and/or diagrams
- Select, organize, and record relevant information on research topics from various sources, including electronic, print, and/or human sources using recommended formats and an accepted form of academic documentation
- Analyse and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data to determine whether the evidence supports or refutes the initial prediction or hypothesis, identifying possible sources of error, bias, or uncertainty
- Analyse the information gathered from research sources for reliability and bias
- Draw conclusions based on inquiry results and research findings, and justify their conclusions
- Communicate ideas, plans, procedures, results, and conclusions orally, in writing, and/or in electronic presentations, using appropriate language and a variety of formats
- Use appropriate numeric, symbolic, and graphic modes of representation, and appropriate units of measurement
- Express the results of any calculations involving data accurately and precisely
- Identify and describe a variety of careers related to the fields of science under study and the education and training necessary for these careers
- Identify scientists who have made a contribution to the fields of science under study
Biology: Tissues, organs and systems of living things
- Analyse, on the basis of research, ethical issues related to a technological development in the field of systems biology and communicate their findings
- Assess the importance to human health and/or society of medical imaging technologies in diagnosing or treating abnormalities in tissues, organs, and systems
- Describe public health strategies related to systems biology, and assess their impact on society
- Use appropriate terminology related to cells, tissues, organs, and systems of living things: absorption, anaphase, capillaries, concentration, differentiation, diffusion, meristematic, mesophyll, phloem, prophase, red blood cells, regeneration, stomate, and xylem
- Examine cells under a microscope to identify the various stages of mitosis in plants and animals
- Examine different plant and animal cells under a microscope and draw labelled biological diagrams to show how the cells’ organelles differ
- Investigate, using a microscope, specialized cells in the human body or in plants, focusing on different types of cells and draw labelled biological diagrams to show the cells’ structural differences
- Investigate the rate of cell division in cancerous and non-cancerous cells, using pictures, videos, or images, and predict the impact of this rate of cell division on an organism
- Investigate, through a laboratory or computer simulated dissection, the interrelationships between organ systems of a plant or an animal
- Use a research process to investigate a disease or abnormality related to tissues, organs, or systems of humans or plants
- Describe the cell cycle in plants and animals, and explain the importance of mitosis for the growth of cells and repair of tissues
- Explain the importance of cell division and cell specialization in generating new tissues and organs
- Explain the links between specialized cells, tissues, organs, and systems in plants and animals
- Explain the primary functions of a variety of systems in animals
- Explain the interaction of different systems within an organism and why such interactions are necessary for the organism’s survival
Chemistry: Chemical Reactions
- Analyse, on the basis of research, various safety and environmental issues associated with chemical reactions and their reactants and product(s)
- Analyse how an understanding of the properties of chemical substances and their reactions can be applied to environmental challenges
- Use appropriate terminology related to chemical reactions: compounds, product, and reactant
- Construct molecular models to illustrate the structure of molecules in simple chemical reactions (e.g., C + O2 ➞ CO2 ; 2H2 + O2 ➞ 2H2 O), and produce diagrams of these models
- Investigate simple chemical reactions, including synthesis, decomposition, and displacement reactions, and represent them using a variety of formats
- Use an inquiry process to investigate the law of conservation of mass in a chemical reaction
- Plan and conduct an inquiry to identify the evidence of chemical change
- Plan and conduct an inquiry to classify some common substances as acidic, basic, or neutral
- Describe the relationships between chemical formulae, composition, and names of binary compounds
- Explain, using the law of conservation of mass and atomic theory, the rationale for balancing chemical equations
- Describe the types of evidence that indicate chemical change
- Write word equations and balanced chemical equations for simple chemical reactions
- Describe, on the basis of observation, the reactants in and products of a variety of chemical reactions, including synthesis, decomposition, and displacement reactions
- Describe the process of acid–base neutralization
- Describe how the pH scale is used to classify solutions as acidic, basic, or neutral
- Identify simple ionic compounds, simple compounds involving polyatomic ions, molecular compounds, and acids, using the periodic table and a list of the most common polyatomic ions, and write the formulae
Earth and Space Science: Climate Change
- Analyse current and potential effects of climate change on human activity and natural systems
- Assess the effectiveness of some current individual, regional, national, or international initiatives that address climate change and propose a further course of action
- Use appropriate terminology related to climate change: albedo, anthropogenic, atmosphere, cycles, heat sinks, and hydrosphere
- Design and build a model to illustrate the natural greenhouse effect, and use the model to explain the anthropogenic greenhouse effect
- Analyse different sources of scientific data for evidence of natural climate change and climate change influenced by human activity
- Investigate a popular hypothesis on a cause and-effect relationship having to do with climate change, using simulations and time-trend data that model climate profiles
- Investigate the effects of heat transfer within the hydrosphere and atmosphere
- Investigate how water in its various states influences climate patterns
- Investigate the influence of ocean currents on local and global heat transfer and precipitation patterns
- Compare different perspectives and biases evident in discussions of climate change in scientific and non scientific media
- Describe the principal components of Earth’s climate system and how the system works
- Describe and explain heat transfer in the hydrosphere and atmosphere and its effects on air and water currents
- Describe the natural greenhouse effect, explain its importance for life, and distinguish it from the anthropogenic greenhouse effect
- Identify natural phenomena and human activities known to affect climate, and describe the role of both in contributing to climate change
- Describe the principal sources and sinks, both natural and anthropogenic, of greenhouse gases
- Describe how different carbon and nitrogen compounds influence the trapping of heat in the atmosphere and hydrosphere
- Describe the causes and effects of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, the depletion of stratospheric and tropospheric ozone, and the formation of ground-level ozone and smog
- Identify and describe indicators of global climate change
Physics: Light and Geometric Optics
- Analyse a technological device or procedure related to human perception of and evaluate its effectiveness
- Analyse a technological device that uses the properties of light and explain how it has enhanced society
- Use appropriate terminology related to light and optics: angle of incidence, angle of reflection, angle of refraction, focal point, luminescence, magnification, mirage, and virtual image
- Investigate the laws of reflection, using plane and curved mirrors, and draw ray diagrams to summarize their findings
- Predict the qualitative characteristics of images formed by plane and curved mirrors, test their predictions through inquiry, and summarize their findings
- Use an inquiry process to investigate the refraction of light as it passes through media of different refractive indices, compile data on their findings, and analyze the data to determine if there is a trend
- Predict, using ray diagrams and algebraic equations, the position and characteristics of an image produced by a converging lens, and test their predictions through inquiry
- Calculate, using the indices of refraction, the velocity of light as it passes through a variety of media, and explain the angles of refraction with reference to the variations in velocity
- Describe and explain various types of light emissions
- Identify and label the visible and invisible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
- Describe, on the basis of observation, the characteristics and positions of images formed by plane and curved mirrors with the aid of ray diagrams and algebraic equations, where appropriate
- Explain the conditions required for partial reflection/refraction and for total internal reflection in lenses, and describe the reflection/ refraction using labelled ray diagrams
- Describe the characteristics and positions of images formed by converging lenses, with the aid of ray diagrams
- Identify ways in which the properties of mirrors and lenses (both converging and diverging) determine their use in optical instruments
- Identify the factors, in qualitative and quantitative terms, that affect the refraction of light as it passes from one medium to another
- Describe properties of light, and use them to explain naturally occurring optical phenomena
