IGCSE Science Double Award

In this unit, you’ll discover the true nature of being. Learn the characteristics and variety of living organisms. Identify how to categorise and describe different eukaryotic organisms: plants, animals, fungi and protoctists. You’ll explore life on a cellular level, learn their structure, composition and gain an understanding of key terminologies such as chloroplasts, cytoplasm, photosynthesis, hyphae, nuclei, and plasmids.

Building upon the introductory section you’ll explore the levels of organisation in organisms and delve deeper into organelles, cells, tissues, and systems. Investigate cell structures including the nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, cell wall, mitochondria, chloroplasts, ribosomes, and vacuole. You’ll be able to describe their functions whilst understanding the similarities and differences between plants and animals.

You’ll explore biological molecules and touch upon the movement of substances into and out of cells through processes like diffusion, osmosis, and active transport. Understand what factors affect the rate of movement and how nutrition plays an important role within the life cycle. We also touch upon some of an organism’s other important systems – excretion, respiration as well as nervous and endocrine.

In this section, you will learn all about reproduction and inheritance. We’ll help you understand the differences between sexual and asexual reproduction, observing both flowering plants and humans. You’ll understand key terms like zygote, oestrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. Next you’ll move onto inheritance, understanding how genes are passed from parent to child, and how these affect the characteristics of an individual.

This section focuses on core subtopics: organisms in the environment, feeding relationships, cycles within ecosystems and the human influences on the environment. Gain an understanding of key terms like population, community, habitat, and ecosystem. Be capable of explaining trophic levels alongside intricate food chains and further your knowledge of the carbon cycle. There will also be insights into the impact of humans on the environment, considering pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming.

In this final section, you’ll understand food production, selective breeding, and genetic modification (genetic engineering). When learning about food production, you’ll learn how glasshouses and polythene tunnels are used for yield, and the effects of carbon dioxide and climate change. It will also demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of using pesticides for biological control. You’ll discover the important role that microorganisms can play in the production of food. Also find out about the anaerobic respiration by yeast and how yoghurt is fermented using Lactobacillus on an industrial level.

In unit one, we’ll uncover the different states of matter and explore the arrangement, movement, and energy of particles in solids, liquids, and gases. This will also involve understanding dilution experiment results and the diffusion of gas, whilst grasping key terms such as solvent, solute, solution, and saturated solution.

After examining states of matter, we’ll move on to elements, compounds, and mixtures. This subsection will highlight the experimental techniques for the separation of mixtures, simple distillation, filtration, crystallisation and paper chromatography. You’ll learn how to distinguish pure substances, how to use calculations to identify components of a mixture and how chromatograms provide information about composition.

Moving onto the atomic structure, you’ll learn how to define and recognise atoms and molecules. We’ll also look at what is meant by key terms such as atomic number, mass number, isotopes, and relative atomic mass (Ar).

The next priority will be to observe chemical formulae, equations, and calculations. Here we’ll look at word equations and balanced chemical equations, how to calculate relative formula masses, and how to understand and compare theoretical and percentage yields. You’ll learn to derive reacting masses using experimental data and chemical equations whilst understanding how to use and work out different types of chemical formulae from experimental data.

Continuing from this you’ll gain insight into how ions are formed by electron loss or gain and be able to write formulae for compounds formed between specific ions.

This unit will look at covalent bonds and how they are formed. Learn the intricacies of electrostatic attractions, the best way to illustrate bonds and what is meant by intermolecular forces of attraction. You’ll also learn about the reasons why certain substances have low melting and boiling points.

Seen as the study of the remaining non-carbon compounds within a material. We’ll explore some of the key groups in the periodic table, starting here with the Group 1 alkali metals. We’ll examine the differences and similarities in the reactions of lithium, sodium, and potassium and explain some of the trends and patterns using chemical evidence.

You’ll then go on to learn about the halogens such as chlorine, bromine, and iodine. These elements form group 7 in the periodic table and we will explore how to identify these halogens through their colours and their physical states. We will compare their reactivities and explain other trends in the properties down the group.

Get to know the air you breathe with this subtopic. Find out the four most abundant gases in dry air, calculate the volume of oxygen in the air involving the reactions of metals/non-metals and describe the combustions of elements in oxygen, in particular magnesium, hydrogen, and sulphur. You’ll then understand the formation of carbon dioxide from metals which have thermally decomposed and understand the role of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

Metals can be arranged in a reactivity series based on their reactions with water and dilute hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. We’ll discover how we rank them by reactivity and explain the trend that emerges. We will also explore what brings about rust and the methods to prevent this. You’ll also be able to define key terminology such as oxidation, reduction, redox, oxidizing agent and reducing agents.

In this topic, you’ll learn the ins and outs of acids, alkalis, and titrations. Have confidence when describing the use of indicators like litmus, phenolphthalein, and methyl orange and in the ability to distinguish between acidic and alkaline solutions. You’ll understand how to use the pH scale, describe the use of a universal indicator and how to measure the approximate pH value. Uncover sources of hydrogen ions and alkalis in an aqueous solution.

Ever wondered how to predict solubility? Learn the general rules for predicting solubility of ionic compounds in water and understand acids and bases in terms of proton transfer. You’ll gain in-depth knowledge of acids, bases, and salt preparations. We’ll demonstrate that an acid is a proton donor and that a base is a proton acceptor. You’ll be able to effectively describe the reactions of hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric acid with metals. Know the difference between metal oxides, metal hydroxides and ammonia. You’ll also learn how to describe an experiment to prepare a pure, dry sample of soluble salt, starting from an insoluble reactant.

In this subsection, we’ll delve into the exciting world of experiments. You’ll learn the best way to explain tests for gases such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and chlorine. Describe how to carry out a flame test and what the colours of the flames indicate. You will also be able to describe tests for cations, anions, the presence of water and whether a sample is pure.

The study of energy is referred to as energetics. We’ll explore how chemical reactions produce heat the terms used in this process and how to describe calorimetry experiments for reactions such as combustion, displacement, dissolving and neutralisation. You’ll be able to calculate heat energy, molar enthalpy, and heat energy change. This subtopic will close with an investigation into temperature changes.

Within rates of reaction, familiarise yourself with experiments that investigate the effects of changes in a surface area of a solid, concentration of a solution, temperature, or catalyst. Establish your knowledge of catalysts whilst observing practical experiments involving changing surface areas and catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide solution.

We can go backwards! Did you know some reactions are reversible? We’ll teach you how to describe reversible reactions, using the dehydration of hydrated copper (II) sulfate as an example. We will also discover some of the factors that affect the position of equilibrium or the direction in which a reaction proceeds.

Here we’ll come to understand the structure, composition, properties, reactions, and preparation of carbon-containing compounds. We’ll specifically look at crude oil, alkanes, alkenes and synthetic polymers.

We’ll introduce you to the world of physics by informing you about units of measurement before swiftly moving on to the topics such as movement and position as well as forces, shape, and momentum. Uncover how to describe relationships between moving bodies and calculate their velocity and acceleration. You’ll gain an understanding of forces such as friction and gravity whilst being able to calculate relationships between unbalanced forces, mass, acceleration, weight, and gravitational field strength.

Next, we’ll move on to an electrifying subject! Find out all about electricity, the units used mains electricity, its relationship with energy and investigate voltage in circuits. Understand the definition of units used to measure energy, such as ampere (A), coulomb (C), joule (J) and ohm. We’ll touch upon how the use of insulation, double insulation, earthing fuses and circuit breakers work to protect the use of domestic appliances. You’ll learn key formulae which enable you to calculate the relationship between power, current, voltage, the energy transferred and time. When investigating circuits, you’ll be able to identify the presence of current, and the definition of current and voltage.

In this section, we’ll look at waves. You’ll initially learn a variety of units such as degrees and hertz before learning the properties of waves. Understand the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves. You’ll be able to explore amplitude, wavefront, frequency, wavelength, and wave period. We’ll also demonstrate the effect on wavelengths when the source is moving relative to the observer, this is referred to as the Doppler effect. Did you know radio, infrared and ultraviolet are waves? You’ll gain in-depth insight into the electromagnetic spectrum, exploring different radiations and the negative effects it can have when living organisms are exposed to them. We’ll also look at light and sound waves.

Ever wondered how energy transfers and gets stored? We’ll equip you with the knowledge to describe these transfers between energy stores: chemical, kinetic, gravitational, elastic, thermal, magnetic, electrostatic, nuclear and energy transfers: mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation. You’ll then discover the relationship between work and power. This will lead to understanding work done is equal to the energy transferred, the formulae used to calculate kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, and power.

Just like the previous units, we’ll begin this section by exploring different units, for example, degrees Celsius and Kelvin (K) before moving on to density and pressure. You’ll learn about the relationship between density, mass, volume, pressure, force, and area. We’ll help you understand the use of crucial formulae and the calculations associated with these. Then we’ll explore the concept of an ideal gas.

Enter the realm of electrons with this section dedicated to magnetism and electromagnetism. Learn how magnets can repel and attract one another whilst being able to do this with magnetic materials. You’ll be able to identify magnetically hard and soft materials, magnetic fields and how other materials can be influenced by magnetic fields. We’ll learn about electromagnetism, and electromagnetic induction and see how electric currents in a conductor produce a magnetic field.

In the radioactivity section, you’ll become proficient in describing nuclei and know key terms such as atomic number, mass number and isotope. You’ll learn about the nature and the effect of alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays. We’ll teach you about how to balance nuclear equations, photographic film/Geiger-Muller detectors, and the dangers of ionising radiation. You’ll even get to explore fission and fusion nuclear reactions. Does fusion hold the key to clean future energy?

Jump into the skies with astrophysics and become familiar with our solar system. Come to understand a collection of billions of stars constitutes a galaxy and why gravity varies throughout space. In this section, you’ll learn more about gravity, our planets, the sun, satellites (manmade/organic) and comets. We’ll even touch upon stellar evolution which distinguishes how stars can be classified according to their colour and how this is affected by temperature. We’ll take you on a journey of the evolution of stars.