Twenty-First Century Science is a new GCSE that has is being piloted in 76 schools across England and Wales. In this programme, Twenty-First Century Science is being taught at Haggerston School in Hackney, a comprehensive community school for 900 girls aged 11-16 years. The pilot has three GCSE courses designed to meet the interests of different students - core, applied and general. Core is taken by all students, applied and general are alternative additional subjects. The programme follows the pilot in action and discovers that the most innovative part of the project is the core course, which covers major scientific explanations and the skills required to make judgments about science. In applied, the students look at a much narrower field of science but from the point of view of a practitioner. The general course is aimed at students who are interested in science as an academic pursuit.

Video Series: KS4 Science
Release Date 2005