I recently look at science texts and syllabus as my daughter is in year 9. I start to see something is wrong as my daughter does not know many things that I learned long ago since year 6 and 7. She told me that these things were not taught at HS. I then checked with another friend whose son is in year 10, and she said that her son started to learn about stuff like simple machines, forces, Newtonian laws in a formal way at year 10. By looking at the textbooks I now realise that Stage 4-5 span year 7 - 10 but there is no clear idea what students should be learning at any specific year. So, in theory, teachers can pull any chapter in the 4 textbooks for year 7, 8, 9 and 10 and teach in any order that they like.
Typically in my time (35 years ago), I learned simple machines and forces at year 6 and 7. I would learn electricity at year 7 and 8. I would learn Newtonian laws, forces, gravitation, acceleration, work and formal calculations for these things and electricity by year 8-9 and later continue to go deeper into all these in year 10. In a sense, formal physics already started at year 7.
I finally got hold of copies of textbooks (Science focus 1, 2, 3) to see what are in the textbooks. I found all the needed stuff but my daughter claimed that teachers did not teach many of the chapters. So they skipped about 40% of their textbook each year and never really touch anything that requires calculation (forces, electricity, motion, ...) All she learned was about general science without going into any formal stuff that would require math skills and in depth thinking about the physical world, problem solving and formal calculations. Yet, the school get kids to do UNSW ICAS competition which touched on all these things. Top students at year 9 also get competition papers for year 9 and 10 combined which touched on formal calculations and problem solving for physics and chemistry. However I would say that these are no more than what I was doing at year 7-8 in my time in formal physics and chemistry.
I'd like to get comments from students out there if they find it a problem to cope with the way they do it now? What I feel is that my daughter is often given questions that were not covered by teachers and without the basics, it is impossible to get a good grasp. They skipped about 30%-40% of stuff in each textbook (Science focus 1-3). Perhaps they will come back one day at year 10 and cover the parts that they skipped from book 1-3 in year 7, 8 and 9.
Is this leaving kids vulnerable to the whims of the teachers and making it harder for students to systematically cover the basics before going to the advanced? When I look at UK and US science syllabuses, I could see a close map to what I did 35 years ago. They went into details of classical mechanics as early as year 5-6 at primary school level. I find it a horror that my daughter is lacking this knowledge at year 9.
An alternative way is to study the entire textbook at home to learn the stuff teachers do not cover at school. But this requires students to be very studious and they must like science a lot to do this much.
Typically in my time (35 years ago), I learned simple machines and forces at year 6 and 7. I would learn electricity at year 7 and 8. I would learn Newtonian laws, forces, gravitation, acceleration, work and formal calculations for these things and electricity by year 8-9 and later continue to go deeper into all these in year 10. In a sense, formal physics already started at year 7.
I finally got hold of copies of textbooks (Science focus 1, 2, 3) to see what are in the textbooks. I found all the needed stuff but my daughter claimed that teachers did not teach many of the chapters. So they skipped about 40% of their textbook each year and never really touch anything that requires calculation (forces, electricity, motion, ...) All she learned was about general science without going into any formal stuff that would require math skills and in depth thinking about the physical world, problem solving and formal calculations. Yet, the school get kids to do UNSW ICAS competition which touched on all these things. Top students at year 9 also get competition papers for year 9 and 10 combined which touched on formal calculations and problem solving for physics and chemistry. However I would say that these are no more than what I was doing at year 7-8 in my time in formal physics and chemistry.
I'd like to get comments from students out there if they find it a problem to cope with the way they do it now? What I feel is that my daughter is often given questions that were not covered by teachers and without the basics, it is impossible to get a good grasp. They skipped about 30%-40% of stuff in each textbook (Science focus 1-3). Perhaps they will come back one day at year 10 and cover the parts that they skipped from book 1-3 in year 7, 8 and 9.
Is this leaving kids vulnerable to the whims of the teachers and making it harder for students to systematically cover the basics before going to the advanced? When I look at UK and US science syllabuses, I could see a close map to what I did 35 years ago. They went into details of classical mechanics as early as year 5-6 at primary school level. I find it a horror that my daughter is lacking this knowledge at year 9.
An alternative way is to study the entire textbook at home to learn the stuff teachers do not cover at school. But this requires students to be very studious and they must like science a lot to do this much.
