KS3 & KS4 science curriculum

This unit builds on pupils’ prior learning from Biodiversity, where they explored the variety of life forms and their roles in ecosystems. It deepens their understanding by examining how living organisms interact with their environments, focusing on biotic and abiotic factors that influence species distribution and survival. This prepares pupils for the next unit, Maintaining biodiversity and human impacts, where they will apply their knowledge to explore the effects of human activity on biodiversity and the importance of conservation efforts.

1. Components of an ecosystem
2. Measuring the size and distribution of populations of organisms
3. Estimating population size using quadrats: practical
4. Estimating population size and distribution using transects: practical
5. Competition and adaptations in ecosystems
6. The role of microorganisms in decomposition
7. Factors affecting the rate of decomposition
8. The effect of temperature on the rate of decomposition by an enzyme: practical
9. The effect of temperature on the rate of decomposition by an enzyme: data analysis and evaluation
10. Material cycles: the carbon cycle
11. Material cycles: the water cycle

• Food chains show the transfer of biomass from producers to consumers, and from prey to predators.
• Food web diagrams represent several interconnected food chains within a community of organisms.
• A change in the size of a population will affect other populations in the same community.
• Habitats are where plants and animals live and they contain living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts.
• Organisms interact with the environment in which they live.
• All species have features which make them suited to their environment.
• Changes to the environment may make it harder for organisms to survive in a particular habitat.
• Plants undergo both photosynthesis and respiration.
• Carbon is stored in fossil fuels such as coal, oil and peat.
• The size of populations of organisms can be estimated using sampling techniques.