Science

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Science” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator color=”juicy_pink”][vc_column_text]The Science Curriculum is the result of a sound amalgam of the Fieldwork Education and International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (G10-G11).

International bench marking at three stages guarantee international certification and international standards in our education.

Experimentation, practical work, essay writing, experiment design and critical thinking are central to the Science programme from the Early Years onwards and students are exposed to practical work from the Upper Primary until their last year of schooling. Outings and study trips further contribute to the active and meaningful learning of our students.

General Science is taught up to Grade 6; From Grade 7 to Grade 9, pupils follow the three sciences: Chemistry, Physics and Biology. In grades 10 and 11, as part of the IB Diploma Programme, students must take at least one science course out of the four offered by our Department: Environmental Systems and Societies, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, though we have a considerable number of students taking two IB sciences.[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”Early Years” tab_id=”1486269990800-73b5e226-2670″][vc_column_text]

The students are exposed to the concepts of science since the early years of their education, even before school years. The Nursery, Pre-K and Kinder grades are initial levels where they are presented with information about themselves and the world around them. Fieldwork education provides an innovative curriculum which promotes a learning process based on exploration, enquiry and thinking skills. The International Early Years curriculum encourage children to think and become motivated about the experiences that will follow with the use of basic tools of science: observation, description, comparison and analysis. Children use and develop their innate sense of curiosity to discover things around them, how they work and what they are made of. Students receive resources so they can learn about their surroundings experimenting with daily activities but from a scientific perspective.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Lower School : Grade 1 – 5″ tab_id=”1486269990829-606bf4a7-3215″][vc_column_text]In the Lower School children are provided with a motivating environment where they can develop the skills necessary to become “young scientists”. Exploration and communication are encouraged through hand on activities and science is related to everyday life situations to make it meaningful to our students. The school offers three main areas of study:

• Life and life processes.
• Earth sciences and the physical world.
• Matter and its properties and changes.

The most important objective for primary education in the area of Science is to stimulate curiosity, surprise and questions of the child .They develop ideas through research, contact with nature, sharing ideas or games and play. As they grow, children learn to develop curiosity and question based on their observations of the world around them.

In our science class students are encouraged to present ideas freely through questioning, observation, planning, collection, organisation and interpretation of information.

This approach is developed further with increased emphasis on hypothesising, planning, testing, finding results and recording. Children learn to think scientifically by using this process through a variety of explorations and investigations. For example, they explore how plants grow, why forces affect the motion of a toy car, what electricity is, how shadows and sounds are made, so that they build up concepts of principles behind all of these and more. Most importantly they learn through their experience of first hand experimentation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Middle School : Grade 6 – 9″ tab_id=”1486270075468-c2f6fc8f-3feb”][vc_column_text]In the Senior School Grade 6 students are taught General Science via a number of various themes related to life and living processes, forces, energy, the environment, chemical reactions, and materials. The curriculum of Grades 7, 8, and 9 is taught in the separate areas of Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

The focal point of this part of the Science curriculum is on establishing solid foundations in the three main areas of science through a coherent packet of contents, meaningful experimental work, expansion of subject-specific skills, consolidation of competences, development of critical thinking, team and independent work. Lots of emphasis is being put on co-operative class work together with student-centred learning.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Upper School : Grade 10 and 11″ tab_id=”1486270092181-822c1cf2-69da”][vc_column_text]

All Grade 10 and Grade 11 students at St George’s follow the IB Diploma Programme taking at least one science subject amongst Environmental Systems and Societies, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. During this programme our students acquire solid subject-specific foundations, skills and competences which are necessary, not only to obtain the IB Diploma, but most importantly to start university life making them confident young students with healthy habits making them effective independent and team workers, proficient users of technology, creative and critical thinkers and responsible time managers. All in all, this programme prepares our students to have a fruitful and meaningful transit in university and to become responsible citizens with a good sense of social and environmental responsibility within an international perspective.

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