The Magic Science series is a course based on scientific experiments and activities relevant to everyday life, with a focus on the study of chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and geology as well as their related academic vocabulary and scientific theories.
Under the guidance of our experienced tutors, students are encouraged to design and participate in scientific experiments and discover interesting scientific phenomena and solve problems to fully stimulate the students' interest in scientific exploration and learning. Additionally, students are also taught to summarize experiment results in an accurate and logical manner.
Magic Science is a science exploration course for primary school students from grades 1-7. This course integrates the South Australian Education Departments’ standards for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), and Australia's Grades 7-9 Big Science Contest curriculum and competition content to help improve students’ independent thinking and teamwork ability.
The course content also teaches algebraic calculations and report writing skills relevant to scientific learning such as how to logically record findings. By cultivating the students' scientific thinking, we help in laying a solid foundation for students participating in future scientific competitions (Australian Science Olympiads) and endeavors. Refer to 'Sample Booklets' for more details.
Year 8-9 Science Programs
The Magic Science series is a course based on scientific experiments and activities relevant to everyday life, with a focus on the study of chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and geology as well as their related academic vocabulary and scientific theories.
Under the guidance of our experienced tutors, students are encouraged to design and participate in scientific experiments and discover interesting scientific phenomena and solve problems to fully stimulate the students' interest in scientific exploration and learning. Additionally, students are also taught to summarize experiment results in an accurate and logical manner.
Magic Science is a science exploration class for students from grades 8-9. The course incorporates the scientific academic vocabulary required by ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) for grades 8-10 and integrates the vocabulary and scientific concepts into more than 100 carefully selected science activities that are relevant to everyday life.
To better help students in grades 8-9 to lay a strong foundation for scientific theory as fast as possible, Golden Key Education has also organized a team of science teachers specifically for this course. The team has developed and compiled the curriculum from a combination of science competitions (Aus. Science Olympiads) and 11th and 12th grade science learning content. Each team member is not only registered but is also a professional teacher with backgrounds in 11th to 12th grade physics, chemistry and biology. Refer to 'Sample Booklets' for more details.
Course Description
Maths Olympiads / AMC (Sample Questions)
Enhanced Writing & Communications
Programs for 2022 Scholarships & Entrance Exams (Private & Public Streams)
Naturally, selective entry exams will assess the extent to which the candidate has learnt to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. Throughout their primary schooling, students develop capability in critical and creative thinking as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems. Critical and creative thinking involves students thinking broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school.
Thinking that is productive, purposeful and intentional is at the centre of effective learning. By applying a sequence of thinking skills, students develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the processes they can use whenever they encounter problems, unfamiliar information and new ideas. In addition, the progressive development of knowledge about thinking and the practice of using thinking strategies can increase students’ motivation for, and management of, their own learning. They become more confident and autonomous problem-solvers and thinkers.
An astute written response requires the candidate to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully. This capability combines two types of thinking: critical thinking and creative thinking. Though the two are not interchangeable, they are strongly linked, bringing complementary dimensions to thinking and learning.
Critical thinking is at the core of most intellectual activity that involves candidates learning to recognise or develop an argument, use evidence in support of that argument, draw reasoned conclusions, and use information to solve problems. Examples of critical thinking skills are interpreting, analysing, evaluating, explaining, sequencing, reasoning, comparing, questioning, inferring, hypothesising, appraising, testing and generalising.
We support and actively nurture creative thinking. Creative thinking involves candidates learning to generate and apply new ideas in specific contexts, seeing existing situations in a new way, identifying alternative explanations, and seeing or making new links that generate a positive outcome. This includes combining parts to form something original, sifting and refining ideas to discover possibilities, constructing theories and objects, and acting on intuition. The products of creative endeavour can involve complex representations and images, investigations and performances, digital and computer-generated output, or occur as virtual reality.
We encourage candidates to think deeply and differently in order to enrich their ideas and conceptualisations. This is known as concept formation - the mental activity that helps us compare, contrast and classify ideas, objects, and events. Concept learning can be concrete or abstract and is closely allied with meta-cognition. What has been learnt can be applied to future examples. It underpins the organising elements.
Finally, we encourage and actively hone those personal traits and qualities that allow candidates to excel in their process of learning to learn. Dispositions such as inquisitiveness, reasonableness, intellectual flexibility, open- and fair-mindedness, a readiness to try new ways of doing things and consider alternatives, and persistence promote and are enhanced by critical and creative thinking.
Key features about our scholarship programs
Establishing scholarship and selective entry testing is a resource intensive undertaking for any school looking to attract the best and brightest. As such, these activities have been outsourced to a small handful of institutions that specialise in the development, delivery and implementation of academic aptitude testing frameworks. If you are planning to register your child for a scholarship or selective entry test, it is likely to be provided by ACER or Edutest. The rewards for success in these tests are substantial. Students who make the cut emerge with a high degree of self-confidence and motivation. Furthermore, the average financial savings from a scholarship placement is around $75,800 per child over the course of their secondary schooling . The ranking methodology is designed to finely differentiate students at the margins with emphasis given to the top end of performance.
Both ACER and Edutest employ broad capabilities testing methodologies and empirically proven test materials to assess and rank applicants. Candidates are required to demonstrate a range of skills including the ability to interpret, infer, deduce and think critically. Preparation for these tests is vastly differently to preparation for school-based assessments as there is no structured curriculum or content syllabus to follow. Instead, candidates must focus their efforts on their time management, organisation, applied reasoning and problem-solving skills to excel. The tests are age and level specific. They broadly fall under three categories:
• Mathematics & Science
• Humanities - Comprehension & Interpretation
• Written Expression
Golden Key Education is invested in the training and coaching of our next generation of bright thinkers and problem solvers. We believe that in preparing for selective entry examinations, the most appropriate mode of preparation is through visual learning and encouraging practical applications of intuitive decision making. We train our students to think on their feet. Through active learning and mentoring, our students will practice rigorous discipline in their information organisation and possess creative latitude in their ability to adapt their critical thinking to different problem types.
The following sections, and their examples, illustrate how we intend to deliver these outcomes.