Report from St Paul’s Girls School
Kate Lee Head of Physics, writes ...
We selected C21 Science for our dual award GCSE after very careful and protracted discussion in our Science Dept. We thought the alternatives (especially the IGCSE) very dry.
Previous GCSE Science courses appealed to the minority who were going to carry on with Science anyway. Previously I would start my Year 10 teaching, and after 3 weeks of speed = distance / time and 50 motion graphs later, two-thirds of them had switched off and had decided that physics was (a) boring and (b) too difficult. This year I started with module P1 “How old is the Universe? How do we know?” and their eyes lit up. The big thing about C21 is that it appeals to many more students than traditional courses.
The first half of C21 courses (GCSE Science) is a bit ‘touchy-feely’, if you like, but there is HUGE scope for some serious and rigorous discussion (which suits my pupils down to the ground; they love arguing).
The course gets more traditional in the Additional Science half and there is a LOT of good physics content (this is where one can detect echoes of the old Nuffield course). For example, I revel in being able to teach Newton's 2nd law as force = rate of change of momentum, and not mass x acceleration. Momentum - the "oomph" of something moving - is a far more intuitive concept than acceleration, which is a rate of change of a rate of change!
Our choice has proved very popular with the girls - and these are highly intelligent, motivated, academically selected girls. As a school, we are very happy with our choice.
