Ukraine 11 клас Natural Sciences (integrated)
Chapters: 4
1. Energy and power engineering
Electricity · Power generation · Alternative energy and saving
- Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor, Motor and Induction – A wire carrying current inside a magnetic field feels a push. The push is biggest when the wire is at 90° to the field and zero when it is parallel. Fleming's left-hand rule gives its direction. A motor uses this push to spin a coil; a generator does the reverse and makes current by moving a coil or magnet.
- How Electricity Is Generated – Most electricity is made by spinning a magnet inside coils of wire (or coils near magnets). This is electromagnetic induction, and the machine is an alternator. A turbine does the spinning; steam, water or wind turns the turbine. Solar cells are different: light makes current directly. Transformers raise the voltage so the grid can carry power far with little loss.
- Minerals and Energy Resources – Minerals are natural substances found in rocks. They are metallic (ferrous or non-ferrous), non-metallic, or energy minerals. Energy comes from conventional sources like coal, petroleum, natural gas and electricity, and from non-conventional sources like sun, wind, nuclear, biogas, tides and heat from the Earth. Both minerals and energy must be conserved.
2. Nutrition
Energy from food · GMOs and personalised nutrition
- Nutrition – Nutrition is how we get and use the substances in food. The body needs six groups of nutrients: carbohydrates and fats (mainly energy), proteins (growth and repair), vitamins and minerals (small amounts to keep the body working), and water, plus fibre for healthy digestion. Carbohydrate and protein give about 17 kJ per gram, fat about 37 kJ per gram. A balanced diet gives all nutrients in the right amounts, and energy in should roughly equal energy out.
- Biotechnology: Principles and Processes (Recombinant DNA Technology) – Genetic engineering means changing the genes of a living thing on purpose. We cut the gene we want with restriction enzymes (molecular scissors), paste it into a carrier DNA called a vector using DNA ligase (molecular glue), put it into a host cell, pick out the cells that took it, and grow them in big tanks (bioreactors) to collect the product. PCR makes millions of copies of a gene, and gel electrophoresis sorts DNA pieces by size.
3. Human psychophysiological development
Brain and body · Sport, stress and learning
- Neuroscience: How the Brain Builds the Mind – Neuroscience studies the brain and nerves. The brain has three main parts: the cerebrum (thinking, senses, movement), the cerebellum (balance) and the brainstem (breathing, heartbeat). It is made of about 86 billion neurons that pass electrical signals and talk across synapses with chemicals. Each lobe has main jobs; Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas handle speech; mirror neurons fire when we act and when we watch others act. The hippocampus forms memories and the amygdala adds emotion. EEG records brain waves, ECG records the heart and a spirogram records breathing.
- Stress: Nature, Sources and Effects on Health – Stress is the pattern of body and mind responses to events that disturb our balance and seem to exceed our ability to cope. Events that cause stress are stressors. Stress can be helpful (eustress) or harmful (distress). Lazarus showed that stress depends on appraisal: is it a threat, and can I cope? Stress can be physical and environmental, psychological (frustration, conflict, inner and social pressure) or social. Its sources include major life events, daily hassles and traumatic events. It affects emotions, body, thinking and behaviour, and long-term stress can lead to burnout. Selye's general adaptation syndrome has three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion. Long stress weakens the immune system. A healthy lifestyle protects against stress.
4. Space
Sky and Solar System · Space technology and travel · Black holes and life beyond Earth
- The Solar System – The Solar System is the Sun and everything its gravity holds: 8 planets, their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets and dust. The inner four planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are small and rocky. After the asteroid belt come the giants: gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Gravity pulls planets towards the Sun while they move sideways, so they travel in orbits; closer planets move faster and have shorter years. It all formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a spinning cloud of gas and dust.
- Space Exploration – Space exploration means sending rockets, satellites, probes and people beyond Earth's air. Rockets rise by pushing gas down (action–reaction). At about 7.9 km/s sideways a craft keeps falling around Earth in orbit; at 11.2 km/s it escapes. Since 1957 space has been a place of rivalry and cooperation, and it gives us weather forecasts, navigation, communication and new science.
- Astrobiology: Is There Life Beyond Earth? – Astrobiology is the science that asks whether life exists beyond Earth. Life as we know it needs liquid water, energy and carbon chemistry. The habitable (Goldilocks) zone is the range of distances from a star where a planet could keep liquid water. Scientists search Mars, icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus, and thousands of exoplanets, look for biosignatures in their air, and listen for signals (SETI). The Drake equation estimates how many talking civilisations might exist; the Fermi paradox asks why we have not heard from any.