Year 10 Science

Free interactive Year 10 Science notes for NSW students: genetics and biotechnology, evolution, chemical reactions, using chemistry, motion and forces, the universe, global systems and climate, and the independent research project.

1Pick a chapter below.
2Read and explore: every topic has its own diagrams and an interactive you can play with.
3Test yourself: a quiz, fill the gaps, sorting tasks and exam-style short answers you mark against a marking guide.

Year 10 finishes Stage 5 Science and leads straight into the senior courses: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Environmental Science and Investigating Science. Tap Mark as mastered after each topic to track your progress on this device. No account needed.

Chapters

1 Genetics and Biotechnology 12 sections

The structure of DNA, genes and chromosomes, meiosis and variation, protein synthesis, mutations, patterns of inheritance with Punnett squares and pedigrees, PCR and DNA profiling, genetic engineering and CRISPR, and the ethics of genetic testing, including Indigenous data sovereignty.

Notes Quizzes
2 Evolution 8 sections

How Darwin and Wallace explained the diversity of life by natural selection, how allele frequencies change, how new species form, the evidence from fossils, anatomy, embryos and DNA, evolution happening today, and the story of human evolution and the first Australians.

Notes Quizzes
3 Chemical Reactions 8 sections

Writing and balancing chemical equations, conservation of mass, acids, bases and pH, reactions of acids and titration, combustion and corrosion, precipitation, displacement and decomposition, and chemistry in the body, industry and the oceans.

Notes Quizzes
4 Using Chemistry 8 sections

How chemists put reactions to work: energy changes calculated from bond energies, fuels and combustion compared with respiration, electrochemical cells and electrolysis, rates of reaction and collision theory, catalysts in industry, designing polymers, fibres and composites, and green chemistry and chemistry careers.

Notes Quizzes
5 Objects in Motion 10 sections

How things move and why: distance and displacement, vectors, speed and velocity, ticker timers, acceleration and g, position–time and velocity–time graphs, Newton's three laws, F = ma, momentum and collisions, kinetic and potential energy, work and efficiency, and the physics of stopping distances and car safety.

Notes Quizzes
6 The Universe 11 sections

What the universe contains and how we know: scales and units, measuring distances with parallax and standard candles, star colours and the H–R diagram, the life cycles of stars, galaxies and redshift, the Big Bang and its evidence, gravity and dark matter, the technology astronomers use, and the search for planets and life beyond Earth.

Notes Quizzes
7 Global Systems 10 sections

Earth as one connected system: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, ocean currents and the drivers of Australia's rainfall, cyclones and eruptions across the spheres, the phosphorus and oxygen cycles, Earth's energy budget and the greenhouse effect, the evidence for climate change, its impacts including sea-level rise, and how the world is responding.

Notes Quizzes
8 Independent Research Project 10 sections

How to plan, run and report your own scientific investigation: choosing and refining a research question, judging sources, designing a valid experiment, risk assessment, research ethics and First Nations knowledge, measurement uncertainty and errors, processing and graphing data, evaluating results and writing a scientific report.

Notes Quizzes