Ontario's Science Curriculum Is Getting A Total Makeover & Here's What Will Change

What some of Ontario's students will learn next year will be completely different than what they have ever learned before, as the provincial government announced they will be making some major changes to the science curriculum.

Right in time for the next school year and poised to start in September 2022, students between grades 1 and 8 will be taught a revised science and technology curriculum.

On top of that, students in grade 9 will be offered a new de-streamed science course, which the government said during their March 8 announcement is all part of their "commitment to modernizing education and preparing students for success beyond the classroom."

So, why are they changing things up now?

The last time Ontario updated the elementary school science curriculum was 15 years ago back in 2007, and changes to grade 9's science course were last made in 2008.

What will be taught next year?

There will be four new areas of learning for Ontario's students:

1. STEM skills, connections, and careers
2. Engineering design process
3. Coding, emerging technology and skilled trades
4. Environmental protection

With STEM skills, students will apply science, tech, engineering and math concepts to real-world issues that deal with what's happening in our society, economy, and our environment. Students in the ninth grade will also explore STEM-related careers — even ones in skilled trades.

While taking engineering design, students can learn to invent, design and come up with innovative solutions to issues. Then in environmental protection, they can learn and think of possible solutions to save the environment for the years to come and learn about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Students will also learn how to code and explore how science and emerging technologies impact them and the future of careers, too.

So, what has changed?

Back in 2007, there were no explicit coding, engineering design processes and emergent technologies expectations, and nobody learned a thing about what a career looked like in skilled trades.

Now, coding will be offered with the expectations increasing as they move from grade to grade. Students will learn about engineering design processes where they will apply STEM skills and do a variety of things from designing and creating prototypes to provide solutions to problems to using coding to look into emerging technologies like AI in everyday life.

Young elementary school students in grades 1 to 3 will learn to make connections about the skilled trades and the practical nature of their work, while grades 4 to 8 will learn how to practically apply science and tech concepts in these trades, and more.

Before students learned only a little bit about climate change, but now they will learn about how to protect the world they live in and how they can reduce greenhouse gases.

They will also learn more about food literacy and have enhanced learning about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives and apply it to real-world issues.