bc_science_curriculum.txt

# BC Science Curriculum

## Physics 11

### Big Ideas

- An object’s motion can be predicted, analyzed, and described.
- Forces influence the motion of an object.
- Energy is found in different forms, is conserved, and has the ability to do work.
- Mechanical waves transfer energy but not matter.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Co-operatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- vector and scalar quantities
- horizontal uniform and accelerated motion
- projectile motion
- contact forces and the factors that affect magnitude and direction
- mass, force of gravity, and apparent weight
- Newton’s laws of motion and free-body diagrams
- balanced and unbalanced forces in systems
- conservation of energy; principle of work and energy
- power and efficiency
- simple machines and mechanical advantage
- applications of simple machines by First Peoples
- electric circuits (DC), Ohm’s law, and Kirchhoff’s laws
- thermal equilibrium and specific heat capacity
- generation and propagation of waves
- properties and behaviors of waves
- characteristics of sound
- resonance and frequency of sound
- graphical methods in physics

## Physics 12

### Big Ideas

- Measurement of motion depends on our frame of reference.
- Forces can cause linear and circular motion.
- Forces and energy interactions occur within fields.
- Momentum is conserved within a closed and isolated system.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including fieldwork and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Co-operatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- frames of reference
- relative motion within a stationary reference frame
- postulates of special relativity
- relativistic effects within a moving reference frame
- static equilibrium
- uniform circular motion:
  - centripetal force and acceleration
  - changes to apparent weight
- First Peoples knowledge and applications of forces in traditional technologies
- gravitational field and Newton’s law of universal gravitation
- gravitational potential energy
- gravitational dynamics and energy relationships
- electric field and Coulomb’s law
- electric potential energy, electric potential, and electric potential difference
- electrostatic dynamics and energy relationships
- magnetic field and magnetic force
- electromagnetic induction
- applications of electromagnetic induction
- impulse and momentum
- conservation of momentum and energy in collisions
- graphical methods in physics【43†source】.

## Chemistry 11

### Big Ideas

- Atoms and molecules are building blocks of matter.
- Organic chemistry and its applications have significant implications for human health, society, and the environment.
- The mole is a quantity used to make atoms and molecules measurable.
- Matter and energy are conserved in chemical reactions.
- Solubility within a solution is determined by the nature of the solute and the solvent.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including fieldwork and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- quantum mechanical model and electron configuration
- valence electrons and Lewis structures
- chemical bonding based on electronegativity
- bonds/forces
- organic compounds
- applications of organic chemistry
- the mole
- dimensional analysis
- reactions
- stoichiometric calculations using significant figures
- local and other chemical processes
- green chemistry
- solubility of molecular and ionic compounds
- stoichiometric calculations in aqueous solutions
- analysis techniques

## Chemistry 12

### Big Ideas

- Reactants must collide to react, and the reaction rate is dependent on the surrounding conditions.
- Dynamic equilibrium can be shifted by changes to the surrounding conditions.
- Saturated solutions are systems in equilibrium.
- Acid or base strength depends on the degree of ion dissociation.
- Oxidation and reduction are complementary processes that involve the gain or loss of electrons.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- reaction rate
- collision theory
- energy change during a chemical reaction
- reaction mechanism
- catalysts
- dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium
- Le Châtelier’s principle and equilibrium shift
- equilibrium constant (Keq)
- saturated solutions and solubility product (Ksp)
- relative strength of acids and bases in solution
- water as an equilibrium system
- weak acids and weak bases
- titration
- hydrolysis of ions in salt solutions
- applications of acid-base reactions
- the oxidation-reduction process
- electrochemical cells
- electrolytic cells
- quantitative relationships

## Life Sciences 11

### Big Ideas

- Life is a result of interactions at the molecular and cellular levels.
- Evolution occurs at the population level.
- Organisms are grouped based on common characteristics.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- levels of organization
- cell structure and function
- sexual and asexual reproduction
- energy transformations in cells
- viruses
- First Peoples understandings of interrelationships between organisms
- microevolution:
  - adaptation to changing environments
  - changes in DNA
  - natural selection
- macroevolution:
  - speciation
  - processes of macroevolution
  - evidence for macroevolution
- artificial selection and genetic modifications
- single-celled and multi-celled organisms
- trends in complexity among various life forms
- evidence for phylogenetic relationships
- taxonomic principles for classifying organisms
- binomial nomenclature
- First Peoples knowledge on classification
- similarities and differences between domains and kingdoms

## Anatomy and Physiology 12

### Big Ideas

- Homeostasis is maintained through physiological processes.
- Gene expression, through protein synthesis, is an interaction between genes and the environment.
- Organ systems have complex interrelationships to maintain homeostasis.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modelled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- biological molecules
- metabolism and enzymes
- feedback loops and regulation of the body’s internal environment
- transport across a cell membrane
- DNA:
  - the cell’s genetic information
  - replication
- gene expression
- proteins and their relationship to the structure and function of all cells
- genomics and biotechnology
- micro to macro organization
- organ systems:
  - structure and function
  - structural and functional interdependence
  - maintenance of homeostasis
- lifestyle differences and their effects on human health
- holistic approach to health
- disease as an imbalance in homeostasis

## Earth Sciences 11

### Big Ideas

- Earth materials are changed as they cycle through the geosphere and are used as resources, with economic and environmental implications.
- Plate tectonic theory explains the consequences of tectonic plate interactions.
- The transfer of energy through the atmosphere creates weather, and this transfer is affected by climate change.
- The distribution of water has a major influence on weather and climate.
- Astronomy seeks to explain the origin and interactions of Earth and its solar system.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including fieldwork and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and/or diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modeled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- properties of earth materials:
  - minerals
  - igneous rocks
  - sedimentary rocks
  - metamorphic rocks
  - geologic resources
- surface and internal processes of the rock cycle
- economic and environmental implications of geologic resources within B.C. and globally
- evidence that supports plate tectonic theory
- factors that affect plate motion
- First Peoples knowledge of local plate tectonic settings and geologic terrains
- the hydrologic cycle
- changes in the composition of the atmosphere due to natural and human causes
- weather as the interaction of water, air, and energy transfer
- solar radiation interactions and impacts on the energy budget
- evidence of climate change
- First Peoples knowledge of climate change and interconnectedness as related to environmental systems
- water as a unique resource
- First Peoples knowledge and perspectives of water resources and processes
- properties of the ocean and the ocean floor
- local and global ocean currents
- influences of large bodies of water on local and global climates
- effects of climate change on water sources
- the nebular hypothesis (explanation of the formation and properties of our solar system)
- Earth as a unique planet within its solar system
- stars as the center of a solar system
- impacts of the Earth-moon-sun system
- application of space technologies to the study of changes in Earth and its systems

## Environmental Science 12

### Big Ideas

- Human actions affect the quality of water and its ability to sustain life.
- Human activities cause changes in the global climate system.
- Sustainable land use is essential to meet the needs of a growing population.
- Living sustainably supports the well-being of self, community, and Earth.

### Curricular Competencies

Students are expected to be able to do the following:

#### Questioning and predicting

- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
- Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
- Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes

#### Planning and conducting

- Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
- Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
- Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
- Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
  - significant figures
  - uncertainty
  - scientific notation

#### Processing and analyzing data and information

- Experience and interpret the local environment
- Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
- Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
- Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models, and diagrams
- Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships

#### Evaluating

- Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
- Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
- Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modelled
- Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
- Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
- Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
- Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
- Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
- Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility

#### Applying and innovating

- Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
- Cooperatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
- Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
- Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation

#### Communicating

- Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
- Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
- Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place

### Curriculum Content

Students are expected to know the following:

- water quality parameters and bioindicators
- availability and water use impacts
- global water security:
  - laws and regulations
  - conservation of water
- changes to climate systems
- impacts of global warming
- mitigation and adaptations
- soil characteristics and ecosystem services
- land use and degradation
- land management
- personal choices and sustainable living
- global environmental ethics, policy, and law