Ascension : From Two Boats School
Submitted by The Islander (Gavin Yon) 01.12.2005 (Article Archived on 15.12.2005)

Many of you will have been bombarded with questionnaires from year 11 students in the last few weeks and you will probably find this continues for a while.

WHAT IS COURSEWORK?

Many of you will have been bombarded with questionnaires from year 11 students in the last few weeks and you will probably find this continues for a while.  The reason behind this is COURSEWORK – a vital part of almost every GCSE course.  Apart from studying subject content for two years and then writing the final exams, students get to contribute towards their final grade through assignments carried out during the two year course. 

Members of Year 11 have explained what the coursework element of each subject is about.

ART

For my art coursework I have to produce 20 A2 sheets of preliminary drawings along with evaluations.  These drawings have to include different medias such as pencil, pastels, charcoal, paint etc.  At the end of producing the 20 sheets I have to produce a final composition using 3 of the objects I drew for my preliminaries. The advantage of doing this coursework is so that when it comes to sitting the actually exam I will only have to do one paper whereas the others will have to do two.  These exams last for 10 hours. This coursework is worth 50% of the final grade.

CHILD-DEVELOPMENT

For child-development coursework we have to do three pieces of work and they are two resource tasks and one individual task. The resource tasks require us to make items and the individual task is to do a child study. These assignments allow us to gain 50% of the final grade.

TECHNOLOGY

The entire aim of technology coursework is to show off your skills, that you have learnt over the years to the examiner. Technology coursework contributes 60%, out of the overall total (coursework and test). Technology coursework consists of paperwork, based upon a certain item, depending on the task given, due to be made after doing some research. E.g. Coursework task could be Garden furniture.

This paperwork consists of:

Cover, Analysis, Specification, Questionnaires, Graphs and charts, Conclusion of graphs, Ideas, Final ideas

GEOGRAPHY

This coursework involves each student choosing a Statement or Hypothesis to test based on any area of study covered by the course.  We then carry out various research including gathering information from the public and analyse our finding to either prove or disprove our original hypothesis / statement.  It is important for Geography course work to contain primary data that we gather ourselves.  The investigation is worth 25 % of the final grade.

ENGLISH

For English coursework we have to write a narrative piece, argumentative piece, and a diary entry. These pieces will include researching by using the Internet, books and questionnaires. The course work is worth 50% of the final grade

FOOD AND NUTRITION

For the Food and Nutrition course, we are expected to complete three pieces of coursework. Two Resource Tasks incorporates practical planning and cooking of a simple dish that is prepared and made in 1 hour. The planning and evaluation of these tasks are to be completed in 1-2 hours. The two Resources Tasks contributes to 40% of the total marks.

The major piece of coursework is the Individual Task. This has to be completed in 14 hours and requires us to investigate a topic, sending out questionnaire to the public related to the topic and to communicate with the individuals via letters or interviews. Having completing this research, we present our results using graphs, pie charts, etc. These are then evaluated and  we are then able to produce practical work where we prepare,make and serve a selection of dishes or course meals to show how we have applied our knowledge.  Once this is completed we are then required to evaluate our entire project.  30% is awarded to this task.

HISTORY

History course work is worth 25% of the final grade and it is an opportunity to achieve the best results without the pressures of revision and exam conditions.

For the course work all the texts available are needed, including reading from novels, extracting information from CD-ROMs, watching television programmes, and surfing the internet to gain the relevant background information.

We are then required to carry out two assignments, one source based and the other extended writing.

The source based assignment requires us to read and analyse 10 sources through answering 6 set questions. The extended writing task involves writing three essays.

ICT

ICT course work requires us to do projects. Project 1a is broken into 1a and 1b. We do this in Year 10.

It is promotional package and 1b is a spreadsheet assignment. These are each worth 15% of the final GCSE grade.  In Year 11 we do Project 2. This involves designing a solution to a real life problem. We build a system that could be used in a real business. This is worth 30% of the final GCSE grade.

MATHS

Maths coursework consists of two projects. One will be a statistics based investigation; the other will be numeric/algebraic investigation. We will carry out these tasks in class and they are timed. These investigations are worth 10% each of the final grade.

SCIENCE

There are two projects for science coursework.  They could either be based around biology, physics or chemistry.  Normally the chosen areas are physics and chemistry.  Coursework in science is worth 20% of the overall exam.  In science the outline of the projects is: P, O, A & E.  Planning, obtaining, evidence, analysing, considering evidence and evaluating.  We do science coursework because it means that these marks will contribute to our overall grade.  Each paper is worth 26.7%.

Having read these briefs on what coursework is all about we hope that you will continue to give your support and not find us too annoying!