These activities from the BEST project can be used with primary pupils. The diagnostic question probes pupils' understanding of how biologists can sort organisms into groups based on their characteristics. The response activity helps to develop pupils' understanding of this further by allowing them to sort...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to understand that...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to understand how...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to explain what a...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to understand how scientists classify organisms into groups based on their observable characteristics. It targets any misunderstandings pupils may...

This diagnostic question is part of a series adapted for primary aged pupils from the Best Evidence Science Teaching project for ages 11 to 14.

It helps students to understand how...

Carried out by University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) this project was instigated to investigate the equivalence of standards set in national tests over a period of several years. The experimental...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Explain what humans need in their diet and why.
• Identify short-term and long-term effects of exercise on the human body.
• Predict the possible outcomes of eating too much...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Distinguish between the energy in the kinetic store of an object and the object’s speed.
• Describe how mass and speed affect the amount of energy in the kinetic store of the object...

The Nuffield Secondary Science guide to examining at CSE was aimed at teachers and examiners. It began the quest, still continuing today, to find appropriate ways to examine science across the whole ability range.

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This set of subject criteria were produced by the Ofqual, the Welsh Assembly and CEA (Northern Ireland) for Awarding Bodies to produce subject specifications for use in 2011 GCSE Science, GCSE Additional Science, GCSE Additional Applied Science, GCSE Biology, GCSE Chemistry, and GCSE Physics. GCSE specifications...

Students investigate the properties of materials used for cooking utensils in order to collect quantitative data.  For example, if testing for thermal conductivity they should gain a value for the rate at which heat flows through a cross-sectional area of material.  Students should also find out if...

This report from Ofsted describes how assessment in science is most effective where it is used as a teaching tool as well as a means of judging attainment. Similarly the assessment of practical coursework is not just a means of assigning students to levels but of giving them the information they need to improve...

Produced in 2011, this report describes the context and parameters of Ofqual’s research into the assessments taken by learners at senior secondary level in a number of key comparator jurisdictions and outlines the progress made up to February 2011.

The purpose of this research is to make comparative...