Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science involves the study of the science and technology underlying the principles and practices of agriculture. It aims to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote the sustainability of agricultural resources, and places emphasis on the managed use of these resources.
Plants and animal types associated with agriculture are studied, and investigations are undertaken into such aspects as soil, ecology, plant and animal physiology, farm crops, farming practices, genetics and microbiology.
Course Content
- Animal Diseases
- Animal Physiology - Digestive System
- Animal Production - Reproductive Systems
- Beef Cattle
- Classification of Animals & Plants
- Coursework Project - 2021
- Coursework Project - 2022
- Crop Production
- Dairy Cattle
- Energy Crop & Catch Crop
- Fertilisers - Pollution - Environment - Cycles
- Genetics
- Grassland
- Innovation and Biotechnology in Agriculture
- Pigs
- Plant Physiology
- Scientific Practices - Experiments & Investigations
- Sheep
- Soil Science
The Exam
75% of the marks are going for the written paper examining the above topics. The higher level paper has nine questions and you must answer six. For some reason, although not mandatory question one carries more marks than all the others so you should consider question one as a must do. The higher paper breaks down as follows:
Q1. Short Questions..........based on Geography, Biology and Ag Science
Q2. Soil Science..........a good bit of Geography in this
Q3. Different parts of the Ag Science course
Q4. Experiments……….Lots of Biology here
Q 5/6 Parts of the Ag course
Q7. Genetics.......... Biology pretty much covers this
Q8. An option question can contain Biology questions
Q9. Scientific explanations
The other 25% (100 marks) is based on an assessment of your work. Your teacher is required to grade you. An external assessor will then validate your teacher's grades, usually in May of 6th year.
This assessment of work can be broken into three parts;
1. Identification of plant and animal types associated with agriculture (usually a written exam or interview where you must identify 5 plants and their respective family and 10 animals and describe their importance to agriculture.
2. Practical experience with crops, livestock, house and farmyard layouts. This part of the assessment usually takes the form of a written project that you write based on your farm or an adopted farm.
3. Investigations and experiments are carried out related to ecology, soil science, animal physiology, plant physiology, genetics and microbiology. These investigations are normally recorded in a lab copy which is then assessed, sometimes in conjunction with an interview.