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Digestion & Enzymes
Organisms & Life Processes
Describe the organs of the human digestive system and how food is physically and chemically digested, including the role of enzymes as biological catalysts
Dinosaur-to-Bird Transition
Dinosaurs & Paleontology
Trace the evidence for the dinosaur-to-bird transition in depth: feathered theropods from the Liaoning Formation (China), the mix of dinosaur and bird features in Archaeopteryx, and the competing ground-up versus trees-down hypotheses for the origin of flight
Energy can't be created or destroyed
Energy
Explain the principle of conservation of energy (energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred between stores), and describe how energy is dissipated as thermal energy to the surroundings in all real processes
Energy Loss Between Levels
Ecosystems & Habitats
Explain how energy is transferred between trophic levels in a food chain, why energy is lost at each stage, and use pyramids of biomass/numbers to represent this
Energy stores and transfers
Energy
Identify the main energy stores (kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, thermal, chemical, nuclear, electromagnetic) and the pathways by which energy is transferred between stores (mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation)
Finding Exoplanets
Space Exploration
Describe how astronomers detect planets around other stars using transit photometry (dip in starlight as a planet crosses) and radial velocity (Doppler wobble of the star), explain the habitable zone concept, and discuss what atmospheric biosignatures — such as oxygen, methane, and water vapour detected together — would suggest about a planet
Food Webs & Interdependence
Ecosystems & Habitats
Construct and interpret food webs showing the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, explaining how a change in one population affects others
Global Wind Patterns
Weather & Climate
Explain that unequal solar heating drives large-scale atmospheric circulation: Hadley cells (0-30°), Ferrel cells (30-60°), and polar cells (60-90°) produce the trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies; describe how the Coriolis effect from Earth's rotation deflects winds rightward in the Northern Hemisphere; explain the jet stream as a fast high-altitude wind that steers weather systems; connect jet stream waviness and Arctic amplification to prolonged extreme weather
Greenhouse Gas Science
Weather & Climate
Describe the electromagnetic spectrum and distinguish between short-wave solar radiation and long-wave infrared radiation emitted by Earth; explain how greenhouse gas molecules (CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O) absorb and re-emit infrared through molecular vibration while O2 and N2 do not; distinguish the natural greenhouse effect (which makes Earth habitable) from the enhanced greenhouse effect driven by human emissions; evaluate the relative potency of different greenhouse gases
How Materials Change State
Matter & Materials
Explain melting, freezing, boiling, condensing, and sublimation using the particle model, interpreting heating and cooling curves to identify melting and boiling points
How Sound Waves Travel
Waves, Light & Sound
Explain that sound is produced by vibrating objects and travels as a longitudinal pressure wave through solids, liquids, and gases; describe reflection of sound (echoes) and absorption; explain why sound cannot travel through a vacuum
How Tectonic Plates Move
Volcanoes & Earthquakes
Understand that convection currents in the molten mantle drive the movement of rigid tectonic plates; distinguish between convergent (collision/subduction), divergent (spreading ridges), and transform (sliding) plate boundaries; explain why volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain chains cluster at boundaries; introduce the Wilson cycle of supercontinent assembly and breakup
Immunity & Vaccines
The Human Body
Distinguish innate (non-specific, immediate) from adaptive (specific, memory-forming) immunity; explain how B cells produce antibodies that recognise specific antigens, how T cells destroy infected cells, and why immunological memory makes vaccines work; and describe the gut microbiome as a community of trillions of microbes that significantly influences immune function
Joints, Tendons & Ligaments
Organisms & Life Processes
Explain biomechanics — the interaction between skeleton and muscles at joints, including the roles of tendons (attach muscle to bone) and ligaments (attach bone to bone)
Magnetic Fields
Forces & Motion
Describe magnetic poles (north and south), explain attraction and repulsion between poles, describe magnetic field lines plotted using a compass, and explain the Earth's magnetic field and its practical uses
Mass vs Weight
Forces & Motion
Distinguish between mass (amount of matter, measured in kg) and weight (gravitational force, measured in N), use the equation weight = mass × gravitational field strength, and explain why g differs on other planets and stars
Metals vs Non-Metals
Matter & Materials
Compare the physical and chemical properties of metals and non-metals, explaining metallic properties (malleability, lustre, conductivity) and how position in the periodic table predicts reactivity
Muscles Work in Pairs
Organisms & Life Processes
Explain that muscles work in antagonistic pairs — one contracts while the other relaxes — to produce movement, using the bicep and tricep as a key example
Neurons & Brain Structure
The Human Body
Explain how neurons transmit signals as electrochemical impulses across synapses, describe how the brain is organised (lobes and functions, limbic system for emotion), and explain neuroplasticity — why learning and practice physically change brain structure — connecting to optical illusions as evidence that the brain constructs reality rather than passively recording it
Nutrients in a Healthy Diet
Organisms & Life Processes
Identify the seven components of a healthy diet — carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, and water — and explain the role of each in the body
Observing with Light Waves
Space Exploration
Explain how the electromagnetic spectrum is the primary tool of modern astronomy — different wavelengths (radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma-ray) reveal different phenomena, why some telescopes must be in space, and what specific discoveries each wavelength range has enabled (e.g. CMB in microwave, black hole jets in X-ray, cold gas clouds in radio)
Ocean Currents and Global Heat
Ocean Life
Explain thermohaline circulation (the global conveyor belt) as driven by temperature and salinity differences that cause dense water to sink; describe how the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) transfers heat from the tropics toward Europe; explain that oceans absorb more than 90% of excess heat and ~25% of CO2 from human emissions; explore what would happen to Northern European climates if circulation weakened
Parts of Plant and Animal Cells
Organisms & Life Processes
Describe the functions of the main components of plant and animal cells: cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, vacuole, mitochondria, ribosomes, and chloroplasts
Phases of the Moon
Space Systems & Earth's History
Explain the phases of the Moon as the changing angle of sunlight on the lunar surface as seen from Earth, and describe how solar and lunar eclipses occur