Contents

• Activity 1: What is Assessment Objective 3 (AO3)?

• Activity 2: Assessing AO3 at different levels of demand

• Activity 3: AO3 teaching and learning

• Activity 4: Data resources to support teaching

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Activity 1: What is AO3?

• AO3 covers the skill of looking critically at information

given in tables, graphs, diagrams or written prose.

• This can involve analysing and interpreting that

information and ideas to:
• identify and explain patterns and trends
• make judgements based on the data
• draw conclusions based on the data
• identify experimental errors, adapt and improve
practical procedures.

• 20% of the marks are AO3.

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Activity 1a

• Read through the Ofqual strand document in your

booklet for AO3.

• Highlight important points that will help you to identify

the skills students need to develop.

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Regulatory requirements for AO3

Ofqual GCSE Subject Level Guidance for Single Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) July 2015
gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-9-to-1-subject-level-guidance-for-single-science

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Assessing AO3 in GCSE Science papers

• Three broad categories which cover AO3:

• interpret and evaluate
• make judgements and draw conclusions
• develop and improve experimental procedures.
• Wide range of command words are used
• Full range of marks
• Closed, short answer and extended response
• Coverage of working scientifically and maths skills
• All levels of demand

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Activity 1b

Using the information from the two previous slides look at

the items on pages 5 to 15 of your activities booklet, which
are all assessing AO3:

• identify which strand they are targeting

• state what level of demand it is assessing.

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Discussion

• 20% of the marks are allocated to assessing AO3. Do

you think the teaching time allocated to this skill reflects
this?

• Do you think your students are developing their AO3

skills as they progress from KS3 to KS4?

• How easy was it to determine the level of demand of

each item?

• What did you use to decide on the level?

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Activity 2: Progression of demand in AO3

Look at the questions on pages 16 to 23 of your activities

booklet.
Each set of the questions assess the same thing, but at
different levels of demand.
In your group consider:
• What has the examiner done to make the question work
at the different levels of demand?
• How might you adapt your questions in class and
homework tasks to ensure there is the appropriate level
of challenge for different groups of students?

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Activity 3: AO3 teaching and learning

• In the slides that follow you can see the types of

assessment tasks students might be required to do for
each strand of AO3
• Split into three groups taking one strand each
• Add actions/reminders of things to do in lessons to help
students develop these skills
• Add any strategies students could use to access the
questions more successfully
• These might be different depending on the level of
demand you are focusing on

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Interpret and evaluate

How this might be assessed

• Identify/describe patterns and trends in information
• Compare patterns and trends
• Draw inferences from patterns and trends
• Use information given to support or disprove a
conclusion, judgement or hypothesis
• Interpret information to give advantages and
disadvantages
• Calculate uncertainties
• Identify anomalous results

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Make judgements and draw conclusions

How this might be assessed

• Use data/information to make a judgement (eg about
which of two statements is correct)
• Use data/information to come to a conclusion about
what the data is showing
• Use data/information to explain phenomena and
relationships
• Consider the validity of data in presenting and justifying
conclusions
• Make predictions based on data

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Develop and improve experimental procedures

How this might be assessed

• Adapt/develop a given method to test/prove a
hypothesis, answer a query, produce a particular result
• Identify variables that need to be controlled
• Identify and explain sources of error in experiments
• Identify reasons for anomalous results
• Identify and explain risks in experimental procedures
• Change a method to improve it – eg to correct/eliminate
errors, increase accuracy

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Activity 3: AO3 teaching and learning

Below are some examples of actions a teacher may share

with their students when they are identifying or describing
patterns and trends in information:
• annotate the data tables with arrows to show whether it
is increasing, decreasing or staying the same
• quote figures from the table to illustrate the change
• use of appropriate language – increase, decrease,
proportional.

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Activity 4: Data resources to support teaching

• As part of the training materials we have produced three

data source booklets, one for each science. These
materials are taken from the legacy specification
controlled assessments (ISAs).

• Not all the ISAs are relevant to the new specification so

the data booklets include those ISAs that:
• link directly to the required practicals
• link to areas of the subject content.

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Activity 4: Data resources to support teaching

Using the data source booklets from the website

• As a group familiarise yourselves with the information

provided, particularly the introduction on page 4.

• In smaller groups discuss how you can use the ISA

materials to develop your students AO3 skills.

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Thank you

If you have enjoyed this training pack,

please share it.

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Get in touch

Science team

T: 01483 477756
E: gcsescience@aqa.org.uk

aqa.org.uk

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