OCR GCSE 21st Century Additional Science

About this course

This is the NEW OCR Additional Science course which started in September 2011. Make sure you know which course you are following! If you’re following the old course, which is examined for the last time in summer 2012, go to the old Additional Science page.

There are two alternative routes to achieve Additional Science. They both cover the same material, but the exams are organised differently:
Route 1 uses separate science papers (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), while Route 2 each paper has a mixture of each of the sciences.

Exam dates in 2012

Route 1
Unit A162 (B4, B5, B6) – Wednesday, June 20th
Unit A172 (C4, C5, C6) – Monday, June 25th
Unit A182 (P4, P5, P6) – Monday, May 21st

Route 2
Unit A151 (B4,C4, P4) – Monday, May 21st
Unit A152 (B5, C5, P5) – Monday June 25th
Unit A153 (B6, C6, P6) – not listed yet

Exam papers

Specimen papers and other resources are on the OCR website. There are no  past papers as this is the first year of the course.

Course content

 B4 – The processes of Life
~ How do chemical reactions take place in living things?
~ How do plants make food?
~ How do living organisms obtain energy?
C4 – Chemical patters
~ What are the patterns in the properties of elements?
~ How do chemists explain the patterns in the properties of elements?
~ How do chemists explain the properties of compounds of Group 1 and Group 7 elements?
P4 – Explaining motion
~ How can we describe motion?
~ What are forces?
~ What is the connection between forces and motion?

B5 – Growth and development
~ How do organisms develop?
~ How does an organism produce new cells?
~ How do genes control growth and development within the cell?
C5 – Chemicals of the natural environment
~ What types of chemicals make up the atmosphere?
~ What reactions happen in the hydrosphere?
~ What types of chemicals make up the Earth’s Lithosphere?
~ How can we extract useful metals from minerals?
P5 – Electric circuits
~ Electric current – a flow of what?
~ What determines the size of the current in an electric circuit and the energy it transfers?
~ How do parallel and series circuits work?
~ How is mains electricity produced? How are voltages and currents induced?
~ How do electric motors work?

B6 – Brain and mind
~ How do animals respond to changes in their environment?
~ How is information passed through the nervous system?
~ can reflex responses be learned?
~ How do humans develop more complex behaviours?
C6 – Chemical systems
~ Chemicals and why we need them
~ Planning, carrying out and controlling a chemical synthesis
P6 – Radioactive materials
~ Why are some materials radioactive?
~ How can radioactive materials be used and handled safely, including wastes?

Study resources

Textbooks

Oxford University Press – OCR’s favoured publisher.
Collins Educational textbook from Amazon Collins is my favourite publisher of GCSE textbooks.

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