Which GCSE science involves the least maths?

[Octocat]

DD is choosing options soon. We are in NI and she has to take a minimum of one science.
She’s thinking of choosing chemistry and biology, am I right in thinking physics is the most maths-y of the three sciences? She hates maths and finds it difficult.

I'd stick to biology if she hates maths.

Biology has the least, but still a fair amount, including reading graphs etc.
I'd agree physics has lots of maths, but would argue it is more straightforward maths than chemistry, assuming she'd take the foundation paper.
I am surprised combined science trilogy (all sciences, 6 papers, 2 GCSEs) isn't offered, but I know nothing about the N.I. system or exam boards.

You can do Double Award Science (that’s all 3, resulting in 2 GCSEs) but from what I can gather, anyone who might consider doing an A level in a science is discouraged from doing that. It’s a bit early to know what her ideal choices will be for A level but it looks sensible to stick with single subjects.
Her favourite subject is geography.

Can you explain what the foundation paper is please?

Chemistry is quite mathsy.
If she is really not interested in continuing with science, biology is the safest bet. A lot of content and a lot of learning, but no GCSE is "easy".

Can she do just one science? in England you cna do double or triple science-it’s very unusual to be able to do one science only. Double science will teach all the maths she needs to do. Foundation means the easier two levels-you have foundation or higher.

Biology probably has more statistics type maths, physics more "general" maths for want of a better description.

What about maths is more of an issue?

Well, she’d like to do something related to the natural world, she loves physical geography.
She’s not terrible at maths, we’re expecting that she’ll pass it, she just finds it much harder than everything else.

There are no statistics type stuff at gcse level biology. You need to make sure she can actually do just one science.

And, honestly, the maths at foundation acience level isnt that tricky. I tell my students if they have absolutely no idea what to do, a 2 mark is usually multiply numbers together, 3 or 4 divide numbers.

I agree with this. At GCSE and A level, there's virtually no maths in biology. Chemistry is what I'd describe as 'safe' maths as it's just a×b stuff (moles, molecular weights etc). Physics is generally moderate maths.

When you progress to uni, it all explodes with maths!

Chemistry remains still relatively 'stick it in a formula' maths. Physics is highly complex equations. Biology is very unintuitive statistics.

To answer your question, I'd say Biology is least mathsy of the sciences, certainly at GCSE. But if she is interested in geography longer term it might be worth looking at what sits with that best. I know it's hard at this age, but if she has any idea what she wants to do after school I would try to work backwards from that and ensure that her GCSE choices at least don't shut the door on anything she may be interested in.
One of my neices is a geography graduate and her job uses a lot of maths and physics - she works in an environmental protection type role and it all seems very science based to me. Obviously that's not the only thing that geography can lead to but it's probably worth thinking about possible career ideas at this stage even if they are only vague. I don't think you need to have a detailed life plan at this age, but you do need to be sure you are keeping as many options open as you can.

For the exam board I know, the state that:
Biology minimium 10% of marks are maths
Chemistry minimium 20%
Physics minimium 30%

I think, if she wants to continue with geography, that combined science may be useful. Combined Chemistry curriculum includes things like water treatment, chemistry of the atmosphere etc.
Combined science doesn't close any doors - absolutely possible to do science A-levels in it. Most 6th forms would want a 6+ though, so she'd need to sit the Higher paper.

Higher paper: a few more topics, harder questions, grades range from 4-9 with a few 3's offered each year for those who just miss the 4.
Foundation paper: simpler questions, easier equations, more multiple choice, grades 1-5 available.

I think it's now unusual to take one single science.

There’s never been any mention of foundation level in the options paperwork the school have issued. Maybe it’s not something that we have here?
they do say at her school to take a science A-level when you’ve only studied combined science prior requires a certain level of achievement so they’re not saying it’s a definite now, but it very clearly suggests that single sciences are better then combined to progress onto A level.
It’s difficult, isn’t it? Finding the balance between working backwards from what she hopes to do and where her strengths lie.

Sorry, couple of typos in there, hope you get the gist.

Interesting to hear that careers in geography can be quite maths and physics heavy, I had suspected that.

In England you have to study all three sciences, either at combined (2 GCSEs) or triple science (3 GCSEs 1 per subject)

You have to take all 3.

I'm assuming NI is different.

It is possible to take A level sciences from the combined course but there is some missing content that the school/college teaching the A level either will or won't teach depending on whether the students mostly did combined or not.

It is much easier to transition to biology A-level having done biology gcse.

However, the biology A level contains quite a lot of biochemistry and I'm not sure how easy she would find it without chemistry gcse.

She will struggle to do any kind of science, environmental or otherwise at university without maths.

At options choice time Foundation and higher is not something you need to know about so school will not have put it in the paperwork.

To explain, in maths for example there are two GCSE maths papers. They are sat at the same time on the same day. One is easy (foundation) and the grades you can get from that paper are from 1 to 5. The other is hard (Higher) and that paper starts with the last few questions on the easy paper and then gets harder. The grades you can get from that paper in practice are 4 to 9.

Some subjects just have one paper for everyone eg English,

Science also has higher and foundation papers.

Which students sit which papers is usually decided by the school as it is obvious (a student on track for a 9 should not sit the foundation paper for example) except where a student is on the borderline in which case there may be discussion with parents and student.

The decision for foundation/higher does not need to be made until January of year 11

It’s definitely different in NI. The minimum requirement at her school is to do one science, she is thinking of doing two.

She would like to do geography at university, from looking at a few uni websites it seems that is possible without A-level maths. I’m sure she’ll pass GCSE maths, but she definitely doesn’t want to do A-level.

Thanks for that explanation, @Octavia64 , that’s very helpful.

No, I don't think anyone should do A level maths unless they're good at it - it's really tough even for pupils who do very well at GCSE.
I was thinking more about whether she should consider doing more than one science GCSE if she is maybe thinking of Geography later. My niece did the International Baccalaureate rather than A levels so she had a fairly broad base going into her Geography degree, but her current job is definitely very science based.
Whilst Maths and Science A levels might not be necessary to get onto a Geography course I would think that having a good basic science grounding might be helpful. To be honest, unless she has a very clear career plan for something that absolutely definitely doesn't need sciences I would probably encourage her to take the double science option. You can do individual A level sciences after doing the double award and it gives a solid base for a lot for related things in the future. I would think that all 3 done at a slightly less detailed level is better than one science done in a bit more depth when it comes to laying the foundation for future choices.

If she thinks she wants to do anything in the physical world at university & as a career, I would be extremely hesitant to drop to a single science at GCSE level. Having a solid, wider base helps immensely. If you said that your daughter struggles so much with maths that even passing will be a struggle then my answer might be different.

I'd also caution on how much you reinforce the "I hate anything to do with maths, I'm not good at it and I'm going to avoid it like the plague" thinking, especially at that age. Often the best thing for students who don't like maths lessons & exams is to spend time applying a moderate level of maths in a subject that they do enjoy. They may never come to love maths, but then many people in STEM careers don't.

I suspect they mean studying single sciences in terms of doing all three at once. I’ll have a quick google.

I’m sorry if you don’t mean Northern Ireland, but this website says the single science award does actually study all three burnish one gcse. https://ccea.org.uk/key-stage-4/gcse/subjects/gcse-science-single-award-2017

She would like to do chemistry and biology at GCSE. My initial query really was about whether if her weakest subject is maths, does it make sense to choose those two rather than including physics and other other.
That's a useful perspective about doing combined science.