Salters' Science

Salters' Science was a complete teaching programme to provide an applications-led approach to double award science at Key Stage Four. It was followed by 'Science Focus', a Key Stage Three programme to illustrate a similar approach to teaching and learning in science.

The Salters’ Science materials were developed by teams of science teachers working with the University of York Science Education Group. The work was supported by funding from the Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry and other agencies and involved industrial scientists and others experienced in curriculum development.

The course was topic based, with each topic finding its origin in materials, phenomena or ideas which would be familiar to students or of value in their everyday lives. These starting points illustrated scientific principles in action, creating an applications-led course of study.
By capturing class-room best practice, the course included many different types of teaching and learning activities, making the course materials a rich source of ideas for interesting and varied lessons. The resources available here are based on the first edition of the Key Stage Four course, supplemented by additional activities developed in later editions.

The course was originally published as a series of 23 separate teaching modules, each containing material for 10–12 lessons. Where later additions included extra activities, the relevant sheets have been incorporated into the module. This was designed as a balanced science course, rather than an integrated one, so each module can be described as “mainly” biology, chemistry, physics or earth science, but may introduce ideas from other areas of science as necessary for understanding of the contexts covered.

During 1992–93, additional modules were developed to provide the extension material needed to complete GCSE specifications for biology, chemistry and physics as separate subjects.

Year 10 modules:
The atmosphere
Balancing acts
Communicating information
Construction materials
Electricity in the home
Energy matters
Food for thought
Keeping healthy
Mining and minerals
Moving on
Restless Earth
Transporting chemicals

Year 11 modules:
Burning and bonding
Controlling change
The Earth in space
Electricity today and tomorrow
Evolution
Making use of oil
Seeing inside the body
Sound reproduction
Sports science
Staying alive
Waste not, want not

Biology Extension modules:
Growing crops
Industrious microbes
The ploughman’s lunch
Off the blocks

Chemistry extension modules:
Energy and chemical change
The chemistry of food
Water

Physics extension modules:
All systems go
When the chips are down
We have the technology