St Columbanus College

The Science Department in St. Columbanus’ College wants to bring a SMILE to your face!

At present there are three teachers and one laboratory technician in the Science Department.

Gerard Byrne B.Ed, B.Sc (Head of Department)

Kieran Debbadi B.Sc Hons, PGCE

Michael Linden B.Sc Hons, PGCE

Jayne Adair (Laboratory Technician)

All pupils in the junior school follow a balanced science course.  For the purposes of practical subjects, all Key Stage 3 classes are split into 5 groups.  Pupils in years 8 and 9 have 4 periods of science per week and year 10 pupils have 6 periods.

As Science is a practical subject, the class sizes are reduced to ensure that all pupils can safely take an active approach to learning.

The Key Stage 3 Science course is based around 17 units of work produced by the department which cover the 3 disciplines of Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Depending upon their results at Key Stage 3, pupils may choose 1 of 3 options at Key Stage 4.

• CCEA GCSE Double Award Science (modular)
• CCEA GCSE Biology
• Edexcel BTEC Applied Science

GCSE Information Sheet

Sixth Year pupils have the opportunity to study A-Level Applied Science.

AQA Applied Science Specification and key material
Applied Science Infomation Sheet

 

Can you tell the difference between an acid and an alkali? We can. Here’s a Year 8 class making their own home made indicator to tell the difference.

The Sentinus Energy challenge for Year 10, March 15th 2010 gave us an opportunity to look at Alternative Energy.

The Yr 13 A- Level Course includes an annual Case Study Visit to Belfast Zoo.

There was a visit to Armagh Planetarium as part of 9T’s Science and Mathematics STEM Project in April 2010.

We had a Forensic Science Day entitled, ‘a case of Identity’ delivered by Education Interactive on May 10 2010. (None of our teachers are capable of murder, really!)