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There is a demand for learners to have a solid foundation in science to meet the needs of our modern lives and contribute to rational decision-making. Science is multi-faceted, including knowing, doing, thinking and communicating. Scientific curiosity begins early in life, and as parents and teachers nurture this curiosity across the primary curriculum, they help shape and develop children’s skills to enable them to inquire in more sophisticated ways into the world in which they live. Teachers need to be able to demonstrate that scientific ideas are connected across different fields and to everyday life at all ages.

Pre-service teachers require a deeper focus in a particular subject, in addition to the general knowledge and teaching skills that are required across the range of the Primary curriculum areas. This course supports the development of additional depth of understanding in Science as a curriculum specialisation that is taught from Foundation to Year 6. The focus of this course is designed to assess the Science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge which is required for generalist primary teachers to be equipped with a curriculum specialisation in Science.

On completion of this course students should be able to:

1. demonstrate a complex understanding about how students learn science and the opportunities for implementing teaching strategies that improve knowledge and practice (APST 1.2, 3.3);
2. demonstrate a complex understanding of the concepts, substance, and structure of science enabling content selection, organisation, and use of a wide range of teaching assessment strategies appropriate to facilitate student learning at different ages (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST 2.1);
3. demonstrate the ability to use knowledge of student learning, content and strategies to set appropriate challenging learning goals for diverse students, and selecting from a range of resources including Literacy, Numeracy and ICT, (APST 2.5, 2.6);
4. select and embed a range of resources that engage students in science with other primary learning (APST 3.4);
5. demonstrate advanced cognitive, literacy and communication skills, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and referencing.