Key Stage 4 · ages 14 to 16
Key Stage 4 science: what your child learns
Science in Years 10 and 11 leads to GCSEs, taken at the end of Year 11 and graded 9 to 1, and builds on Key Stage 3 with more calculation. Students study cell biology, enzymes, disease, hormones and genetics; bonding, electrolysis, rates of reaction and the atmosphere; and energy, forces, waves, electricity, radioactivity and space. Practical skills and the ethics and evidence behind science run through all three.
Guides for parents
Key Stage 4 science
Acids, pH, electrolysis and redox
What GCSE chemistry teaches about acid reactions, the pH scale, electrolysis of molten and dissolved compounds, and oxidation and reduction, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
Analysis and evaluation
How GCSE students present, analyse and evaluate experimental data: graphs, means, uncertainty, accuracy versus precision, errors and conclusions, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
The atmosphere and climate change
How GCSE chemistry explains how Earth’s atmosphere has changed, the greenhouse effect, the evidence and uncertainties for human-caused climate change, and mitigation.
Key Stage 4 science
Atomic structure, isotopes and moles
What GCSE chemistry teaches about protons, neutrons, electrons, isotopes, relative atomic mass and the mole, with a worked calculation and tips for parents.
Key Stage 4 science
Biodiversity and human impact
How GCSE biology explains interdependence, biodiversity, sampling with quadrats and the good and bad ways humans affect ecosystems, with a worked example and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Bonding and properties of matter
How GCSE chemistry links ionic, covalent and metallic bonding to melting points, conductivity and states of matter, with a worked model answer and common misconceptions.
Key Stage 4 science
Carbon chemistry and carbon structures
Why carbon forms so many compounds, and why diamond, graphite, fullerenes and graphene differ so much in GCSE chemistry, with a worked model answer.
Key Stage 4 science
Cells, stem cells and biological molecules
GCSE biology guide to animal, plant and bacterial cells, specialised cells, stem cells and meristems, and carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids.
Key Stage 4 science
Purity, separation and reacting masses
What GCSE chemistry teaches about pure and impure substances, filtration, crystallisation, chromatography and distillation, reacting masses and concentration.
Key Stage 4 science
Current, resistance, charge and circuits
GCSE physics on measuring resistance, current-voltage graphs, charge as current × time and resistors in series, with a worked circuit calculation and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Communicable disease and immunity
How bacteria, viruses and fungi cause disease, how the body defends itself, why vaccines work and how infections are controlled in people, animals and plants at GCSE.
Key Stage 4 science
The development of scientific thinking
How GCSE science teaches models, theories, peer review, ethics and risk, with a worked example of judging a science claim and ways to talk about it at home.
Key Stage 4 science
Ecosystems and material cycles
Levels of organisation in an ecosystem, abiotic and biotic factors, how carbon and water cycle through living and non-living things, and the role of decomposers at GCSE.
Key Stage 4 science
Efficiency and energy resources
How GCSE physics treats energy efficiency calculations and the renewable and non-renewable energy resources used on Earth, with a worked efficiency example.
Key Stage 4 science
The electromagnetic spectrum
GCSE physics on the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays: how the waves are made and detected, what they are used for and why some are hazardous.
Key Stage 4 science
Energy changes and reaction profiles
How GCSE chemistry explains exothermic and endothermic reactions, bond breaking and making, activation energy and reaction profile diagrams, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
Energy stores, transfers and power
How GCSE physics handles energy stores, work done, power as a rate of energy transfer and conservation of energy, with a worked stair-climbing calculation.
Key Stage 4 science
Enzymes and respiration
What GCSE students learn about enzymes, what changes their speed, and aerobic and anaerobic respiration, with a worked answer, common mistakes and ways to help.
Key Stage 4 science
Experimental skills and strategies
How GCSE students form hypotheses, plan fair tests and fieldwork, choose apparatus, sample properly, take accurate measurements and suggest improvements.
Key Stage 4 science
Motion, acceleration and road safety
GCSE physics on speed, distance-time graphs, acceleration, Newton’s first law, weight and stopping distances, with a worked braking example and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Forces, fields, work done and pressure
What GCSE physics covers on gravitational, magnetic and electrostatic fields, forces as vectors, work done, stretching springs and fluid pressure, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
Formulae, equations and gas tests
What GCSE chemistry teaches about empirical formulae, balanced and ionic equations, state symbols and tests for common gases, with a worked example and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Crude oil, cracking and metal extraction
How GCSE chemistry covers crude oil as fuel and feedstock, fractional distillation, cracking and extracting metals using the reactivity series, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
The genome and inheritance
What GCSE biology teaches about the genome, alleles, genetic crosses with dominant and recessive traits, sex determination and how genomics is changing medicine.
Key Stage 4 science
Hormones and homeostasis
What GCSE students learn about hormones, the menstrual cycle, contraception and homeostasis, including blood glucose and body temperature control by negative feedback.
Key Stage 4 science
Life cycle assessment and recycling
How GCSE chemistry compares the environmental impact of products from raw materials to disposal, and weighs up whether recycling is worthwhile, with a model answer.
Key Stage 4 science
Magnetic fields and transformers
What GCSE students learn about magnetic fields, compasses, electromagnets, solenoids and transformers in the national grid, with a worked example and ways to help.
Key Stage 4 science
Mains electricity and power
What GCSE students learn about the mains supply, live, neutral and earth wires, fuses and electrical power, with a worked calculation, common mistakes and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Nervous system and reflexes
How the nervous system coordinates the body at GCSE: receptors, neurones, synapses, the brain and spinal cord, and how a reflex arc gives a fast automatic response.
Key Stage 4 science
Lifestyle disease and medicines
What GCSE students learn about non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, lifestyle risk factors, and how new medicines are tested.
Key Stage 4 science
The nuclear model and isotopes
What GCSE students learn about how the model of the atom changed, protons, neutrons, isotopes and ionisation, with a worked example, common mistakes and ways to help.
Key Stage 4 science
The Periodic Table and group trends
How GCSE chemistry links the Periodic Table to electrons and explains trends in the alkali metals, halogens and noble gases, with a worked model answer.
Key Stage 4 science
Photosynthesis and its rate
How photosynthesis makes glucose and oxygen, why it underpins life on Earth, and how light, carbon dioxide and temperature limit its rate, with a GCSE worked answer.
Key Stage 4 science
Air pollutants and potable water
What GCSE chemistry teaches about sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates, and how drinking water is obtained, with a worked model answer and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Properties of waves
GCSE physics on amplitude, wavelength, frequency and wave speed, transverse and longitudinal waves, and reflection, absorption and refraction, with a worked example.
Key Stage 4 science
Radioactivity, half-life, fission and fusion
What GCSE students learn about alpha, beta and gamma radiation, half-life, contamination, nuclear waste, fission and fusion, with a worked example and ways to help.
Key Stage 4 science
Rates of reaction and reversible reactions
How GCSE chemistry explains what speeds reactions up, from temperature and concentration to surface area and catalysts, plus reversible reactions and equilibrium.
Key Stage 4 science
Selective breeding and biotechnology
How GCSE biology covers selective breeding in farming, genetic engineering and cloning, and the practical and ethical questions students must discuss.
Key Stage 4 science
The solar system and orbits
What GCSE students learn about the main features of the solar system, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and orbits, with a worked scale example and ways to help.
Key Stage 4 science
Density, changes of state and specific heat
What GCSE students learn about density, the particle model, melting and evaporation, specific heat capacity and latent heat, with a worked calculation and home ideas.
Key Stage 4 science
Transport systems
Why large organisms need transport systems, how the heart, blood vessels and blood work, and how xylem and phloem move water and sugars in plants: a GCSE parent guide.
Key Stage 4 science
Variation, natural selection and classification
How GCSE biology explains genetic variation, natural selection, the evidence for evolution and modern classification, with a worked example and common misconceptions.
Key Stage 4 science
Units, symbols and nomenclature
What GCSE science expects with SI units, prefixes from nano to tera, converting units, significant figures and chemical names, with a worked example for parents.
Everything in the Key Stage 4 science curriculum
The National Curriculum topics for Key Stage 4, in the order the National Curriculum lists them.