A guide to the new QCE Sciences Units 1–4 General Senior Syllabuses 2025 (Version 1.1)
A guide to the new QCE Sciences Units 1–4 General Senior Syllabuses 2025 (Version 1.1)
BIOLOGY | CHEMISTRY | PHYSICS | PSYCHOLOGY
This guide has been produced by the expert team of science teachers, authors, and learning designers at Oxford University Press Australia. It contains a clear, concise summary of the key changes to the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) General Senior Syllabuses 2025 (Version 1.1) for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology and is designed to help you implement the new syllabuses with confidence.
Why
are
the QCE Sciences General Senior Syllabuses
changing?
▶ Queensland’s current senior secondary curriculum and assessment system was implemented in 2019 as part of the Queensland Government reform, Advancing futures: New senior assessment and tertiary entrance systems in Queensland.
▶ To ensure all QCE General Senior Syllabuses remain relevant, align with outcomes in the new Australian Curriculum 9.0 across Years 7–10, incorporate latest research in teaching and learning, and incorporate contemporary skills needed for further study and work, all learning areas are reviewed and updated from time to time.
▶ The review of the QCE General Senior Syllabuses began in Term 4, 2020 and involved extensive consultation and feedback from over 8000 stakeholders (including teachers, students, parents and other educators).
▶ The new QCE Sciences General Senior Syllabuses 2025 (Version 1.0) were finalised in December 2023, and final documents were released in Term 1, 2024.
▶ The goal of the review and revisions to the syllabuses was to streamline and refine the content to allow greater depth rather than overloaded breadth of learning, as many teachers felt that the 2019 syllabuses (Versions 1.0–1.4) tried to cover too much.
How is the structure of the QCE Sciences
General Senior Syllabuses changing?
While the basic structure remains, there are some important changes to be aware of in the 2025 syllabuses:
1. Three Science strands are now much more clearly identified Old structure 2019 (Versions 1.0–1.4)
▶ Lacked clear structure in terms of Science strands
▶ Links to subject matter were not obvious
The 2019 syllabuses included coverage of Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Inquiry, but the syllabus lacked a clear framework for this content and links to subject matter were not obvious.
structure 2025 (Version 1.1)
▶ Three strands are now clearly identified and align with strands in the Australian Curriculum 9.0
2. There are no longer any ‘mandatory’ practicals
▶ The ‘mandatory’ designation has been removed from all practicals.
▶ Practicals now appear as ‘knowledge utilisation’ cognitions in subject matter in the Science Understanding strand or Science Inquiry strand.
3. Syllabus objectives have changed and Assessment objectives for internal and external assessments are different
▶ The total number of syllabus objectives has been reduced from 7 to 6, and the remaining syllabus objectives have been reorganised and simplified.
▶ The assessment objectives for each of the internal assessments (IA) and the external assessment (EA) have also changed (as outlined in the Assessment objectives column in table below).
1. describe and explain scientific concepts, theories, models and systems and their limitations
apply understanding of scientific concepts, theories, models and systems within their limitations
4. Assessment information in the new syllabuses (including ISMGs) has been restructured and rewritten
▶ All assessment information has been revised and a simplified syllabus structure makes finding this information easier. All assessment information (including Internal and External Assessment specifications) now appears at the end of each document.
▶ All ISMGs have been revised to make marking clearer and distinguishing grades more equitable.
▶ Characteristics have been shortened, simplified and broken down to make allocating marks easier and more transparent (as shown below).
Comparison of ISMGs for Internal assessment 2: Student experiment (20%)
QCE Biology 2019 (Version 1.3)
QCE Biology 2025 (Version 1.1)
How is the content of the QCE Sciences General Senior Syllabuses changing?
General changes to content Units 1–4
▶ To reduce the time required to engage with QCE Sciences General Senior Syllabuses, they are now more concise, less repetitive and shorter overall.
▶ Generic content has been removed so the syllabuses only contain information relevant to designing a course of study.
▶ Plain language is now used throughout each syllabus simplifying the way content is communicated and making requirements easier to understand.
▶ A new Response requirements section ensures task requirements are clear.
▶ A simplified syllabus structure makes information easier to find. Each syllabus now contains three main sections:
1. Course overview
2. Units and Topics
3. Assessment.
▶ Updated syllabus formatting improves accessibility. Using plain language also ensures the syllabuses can be understood by a diverse audience, including teachers, parents/carers and students.
Specific changes to Units 1–4
The following tables provide a high-level summary of specific changes to the subject matter across Units 1 & 2 and Units 3 & 4. Only content that has been added, moved or removed is included. Many other content descriptors have been refined and clarified, so please visit the QCAA website for details.
QCE Biology Units 1–4
Units What’s been added or moved? What’s been removed?
1&2
UNIT 1: CELLS AND MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS
Topic 1: Cells as the basis of life (15 hours)
Đ Unipotent, multipotent, pluripotent and totipotent stem cells
Đ Synthesis of pigments, tannins and polyphenols
Đ Analysis of multiple modes (i.e. diagrams, schematics, images) of energy transfer
Topic 2: Exchange of nutrients and wastes (15 hours)
Đ Structure and function of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids
Đ Structure and function of enzymes and enzyme activity
Đ Different types of nitrogenous wastes produced by the breakdown of proteins
Topic 3: Cellular energy, gas exchange and plant physiology (15 hours)
Đ Relationship between photosynthesis and the main tissues of leaves
Đ Oxygen dissociation graphs and associated calculations
Đ Function of gills in gas exchange
UNIT 2: MAINTAINING THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Topic 1: Homeostasis – thermoregulation and osmoregulation (24 hours)
Đ Xerophytes, hydrophytes, halophytes and mesophytes
Topic 2: Infectious disease and epidemiology (21 hours)
Đ Phagocytosis
Đ Epidemiology
Units What’s been added or moved? What’s been removed?
UNIT 3: BIODIVERSITY AND THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF LIFE
Topic 1: Describing biodiversity and populations (20 hours)
Đ Multiple definitions of species
Đ Relationship between process of classifying ecosystems and effective ecosystem management
Đ EUNIS ecosystem classification
Đ Interspecific hybrid example
Topic 2: Functioning ecosystems and succession (25 hours)
Đ Species interactions
Đ Mutualism, parasitism and commensalism
Đ Using the fossil record to observe past ecosystems
UNIT 4: HEREDITY AND CONTINUITY OF LIFE
Topic 1: Genetics and heredity (30 hours)
Đ Okazaki fragments
Đ Chemical tags affecting chromatin structure
Đ SRY gene
Đ Appraising data from an outcome of a current genetic biotechnology technique
