Page 6 - Science - Grade 9, DE-STREAMED COURSE (SNC1W)

Concepts and skills related to environmental education1 appear throughout the curriculum, providing students with opportunities to investigate the world around them and to build the skills and knowledge that serve as the foundation for deep understanding about complex and interconnected issues such as dynamic equilibrium, biodiversity, sustainability, and climate change. Learning in all strands is enriched when students think critically about environmental issues when relating science to society, or when developing innovative solutions through a scientific or engineering design process.
As students progress through the course, they gain an appreciation for the broad range of STEM fields and sectors, including skilled trades. They also come to realize that, while they are all impacted in various ways by discoveries and innovations in these areas, they can one day become contributing members of these fields and sectors and shape the direction of future scientific and technological innovation, to help support a better future for all.
While embodying optimism and hope for the future, this course provides opportunities to investigate exciting innovations, discoveries, and concepts in science. The curriculum also provides opportunities for students to consider the intended and unintended consequences of scientific progress as they relate science to our changing world, and as they investigate important issues such as climate change and issues related to the impact of emerging technologies, which can include bias, accessibility, and ethical concerns.
Ensuring that all students see themselves as confident, effective science learners and practitioners is at the forefront of the program. Students analyse scientific discoveries and innovations made by people with diverse experiences and integrate their own scientific skills and knowledge to enhance their learning in the classroom. Students explore Indigenous knowledges, which can broaden their understanding of and appreciation for Indigenous cultures and practices, and also provide them with valuable ways in which to investigate how diverse perspectives enrich scientific practices.
Finally, the science curriculum helps students develop important scientific literacy skills that will enable them to thrive in their future professional and personal lives, and to become discerning, knowledgeable, and active problem solvers in their communities.
1 “Environmental education is education about the environment, for the environment, and in the environment that promotes an understanding of, rich and active experience in, and an appreciation for the dynamic interactions of:
• the Earth’s physical and biological systems;
• the dependency of our social and economic systems on these natural systems;
• the scientific and human dimensions of environmental issues;
• the positive and negative consequences, both intended and unintended, of the interactions
between human-created and natural systems.”
– Ontario Ministry of Education, Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future: Report of the Working
Group on Environmental Education (June 2007), p. 6 5