Quebec: A Science Unit That Fits the Quebec Education Program

Quick answer: The Quebec Education Program is built on competencies rather than a checklist of outcomes, so a science unit is planned around what students will be able to do and defend. Sitting above that is the ministerial examination, which at Secondary IV carries fifty per cent of the course grade and therefore decides how the year is paced.

What does the QEP actually ask a science unit to do?

The Quebec Education Program is organized around cross-curricular and subject-specific competencies instead of a list of outcomes to tick off. A unit therefore names the competency it develops and the evidence that will show it, which takes longer to write than a topic list and is far easier to defend when a parent asks how a mark was reached in November.

Keep the wording of the competency in front of you while planning. Tasks drift toward whatever is easiest to mark, and a unit that began as an investigation quietly becomes a set of definitions by week three. Naming the evidence first, before any activity is chosen, is the cheapest protection against that drift across a full cycle.

How does the ministerial examination change your pacing?

Quebec still runs mandatory ministerial examinations, which most other provinces have moved away from. Certain exams at the elementary level and in Secondary II count for twenty per cent of the final grade, while at Secondary IV and V they carry fifty per cent and are required for the Secondary School Diploma. Half a mark decided elsewhere changes what three weeks of class time is worth.

Work backwards from the examination date and protect the final month for consolidation, then place the open-ended investigations early while the calendar still has slack. The Quebec listings on Quebec Curriculum Teaching Resources (K–12) are sorted by grade so you can fill a single week without rebuilding the cycle plan you finalized in August and have already handed to your department head.

What does this look like in the earlier cycles?

Younger classes build a competency from something they can watch change. Frogs in the Ecosystem – Biology Lessons (Grades 5–7) | Life Cycles & Habitats runs life cycles and habitats for grades five to seven, and a unit on frogs supplies the observation work, the vocabulary and the labelled diagrams that later competency judgements rest on. Students who can describe a life cycle in their own words can be assessed honestly rather than approximately.

Continuity between cycles matters more in Quebec than a single strong unit does, because the competency is meant to develop across years rather than restart each September. Agree with the teacher above and below you on which vocabulary is introduced when, and write it on one page. Colleagues inherit that page long after they have forgotten your lesson plans.

What evidence supports a competency judgement?

Collect two things per unit: a piece of practical work and a short written explanation of a decision the student made. Both are defensible, both can be moderated with a colleague in twenty minutes, and both survive the moment a family disputes a report card entry. Marks assembled from participation and neatness do not survive that conversation.

When the course reaches measurement and how a reading becomes something a computer can store, Data and Encoding: Binary & Digital Images – Computer Science Unit: Worksheets, Projects & Slides (Grades 6–9) gives binary and digital images their own short sequence for grades six to nine. Departments wanting a full year of biology material instead can begin from Ultimate Biology Teaching Bundle 🌍 Life Science, Plants, Animals, Ecology, Genetics & Cells | Grades 5–10, and teachers comparing one provincial framework with another will find the rest gathered on Canadian Curriculum Navigator: Resources by Province.

Frequently asked questions

Do ministerial examinations really count for half the grade?

At Secondary IV and V the ministerial examinations count for fifty per cent of the course grade and are required for the Secondary School Diploma, while certain elementary and Secondary II examinations count for twenty per cent. That weighting is why Quebec pacing decisions tend to be made in August rather than adjusted in March.

Are these materials connected to the Ministère de l'Éducation?

No. They are independently produced classroom resources, not affiliated with, reviewed by or endorsed by the Ministère de l'Éducation, any school service centre or any examination authority. Any alignment with the Quebec Education Program described here is a teacher's planning judgement, so verify it against your own programme documents.

Are these resources available in French?

The materials described here are English-language files, so check the product listing before ordering for a French-language classroom. Diagrams, data tables and image-based tasks usually transfer with light adaptation, while written prompts and rubrics need translating properly rather than quickly if the work is going into a competency judgement.

Related reading

• Quebec Science: Reporting Around the Uniform Ministerial Exams
• Science When You Need Graded Evidence: A Plan for Quebec Teachers
• Quebec Curriculum Teaching Resources (K–12)