# Ideas of science

A few years ago, leading Science educators from all parts of the world came together to formulate the Big Ideas in school-level Science (see www.ase.org.uk/resources/big-ideas). Here is what they came up with:

Ideas of science

- All material in the Universe is made of very small particles.
- Objects can affect other objects at a distance.
- Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.
- The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen.
- The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate.
- The solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the Universe.
- Organisms are organised on a cellular basis.
- Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
- Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they are often dependent on or in competition with other organisms.
- The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.
- Science assumes that for every effect there is one or more causes.
- Scientific explanations, theories and models are those that best fit the facts known  at a particular time.
- The knowledge produced by science is used in some technologies to create products to serve human ends.
- Applications of science often have ethical, social, economic and political implications.

[236 words quoted.] (Harlen, W. (ed.), 2010, Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education, Preface)

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike License 4.0