SCNC1112 Fundamentals of Modern Science
The Complete Exam Bible · S1 2026-27SCNC1112 Overview
- The University of Hong Kong
- First Semester, 2026-27
- Level 1 undergraduate
- Communication-Intensive Course
- 13 chapters
SCNC1112 Fundamentals of Modern Science is a first-year course at The University of Hong Kong that runs one argument through physics, chemistry, earth science, astronomy and biology: a small set of principles, applied with numbers, explains phenomena that look unrelated. It is taught in four modules.
- Four components, one grade Tutorial work and homework 20 per cent, project presentation 20 per cent, three module assessments 15 per cent, final examination 45 per cent.
- Every written paper is multiple choice Three in-class assessments of ten questions each, then a two-hour final of 45 questions, so the same preparation serves all four sittings.
- Two fifths is communication The tutorial and project components are the ones the course ties to the Communication-Intensive badge, and they are assessed on work rather than on attendance.
- The paper rewards transfer The stated question areas include connecting different parts of the course and applying what was learned to situations no lecture covered.
How SCNC1112 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial participation and homework | 20% | Nine one-hour tutorials plus two group assignments submitted through the course Moodle page; work submitted before and during the tutorial is assessed alongside participation |
| Project presentation | 20% | A ten-minute group presentation in Tutorials 6 and 7, in teams of four, on a topic the group chooses, marked against a rubric that rewards coverage across disciplines |
| Three course module assessments | 15% | Three in-class assessments, one at the end of each main module, ten multiple-choice questions each, taken on the course Moodle page in the classroom |
| Final examination | 45% | Two hours, 45 multiple-choice questions, closed book apart from one double-sided A4 note sheet |
Weights are as published in the 2026-27 Semester 1 course plan and are corroborated by the course overview lecture; the four numeric rows sum to 100. The course plan and the Moodle section heading call the three in-class assessments Course Module Assessments, while the regulations document and the overview lecture call them Continuous Module Assessments; both names refer to the same three sittings, abbreviated CMA. No hurdle or minimum-mark requirement for any individual component is stated in the course plan, the assessment regulations or the assignment policy, so nothing is asserted here either way; confirm on the course Moodle page.
Current SCNC1112 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2026, 18:00 | Assignment 1 rolling due dates begin | Due dates roll by tutorial group; check your own group. |
| 2 October 2026 | Course module assessment 1 | In class, ten multiple-choice questions. |
| 12 to 17 October 2026 | Reading week | No lectures scheduled. |
| 18 October 2026, 18:00 | Assignment 2 rolling due dates begin | Due dates roll by tutorial group; check your own group. |
| 6 November 2026 | Course module assessment 2 | In class, at the end of the second module. |
| 27 November 2026 | Course module assessment 3 | In class, at the end of the third module. |
| 1 to 5 December 2026 | Revision period | Teaching has finished. |
| 7 to 23 December 2026 | Assessment period | The final examination date is not published in the course plan. |
Dates are as published in the 2026-27 Semester 1 course plan. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What SCNC1112 covers
Thirteen chapters follow the teaching order of the course plan: the unifying principles of Module 0, the reactions of Module 1, the physical evolution of Module 2, the living world of Module 3, and the science communication strand that carries the Communication-Intensive badge.
Motion, Force and Gravity as Universal Laws
Sharpen speed, velocity, acceleration and force, read one event with all three of Newton's laws, and separate mass from weight02Energy, Heat and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Work, energy and power with their units, three routes for heat transfer, spontaneity against speed, and entropy in an isolated system03Atoms, Electrons and Chemical Reactivity
Atomic number and isotopes, valence electrons, ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, and reactions as bonds broken and formed04Water as a Special Molecule
Boiling points against molecular mass, hydrogen bonding, the density anomaly, solvation, and the entropy behind the hydrophobic effect05Acid-Base Reactions and Oxygen Reduction
The logarithmic pH scale, buffers, feasibility against kinetics, catalysts and activation barriers, and controlled oxygen reduction06Planet Earth: The Geosphere and Deep Time
Seismic evidence for the interior, mantle convection and plate boundaries, half-lives, choosing a radiometric clock, and superposition07Atmosphere, Climate and Earth in Space
The radiation budget, greenhouse absorption, reflectivity feedback, poleward heat transport, the carbon cycle, and axial tilt08Planets, Stars and the Expanding Universe
The habitable band and inverse square starlight, the main-sequence balance, mass against stellar lifetime, nucleosynthesis, and cosmological evidence09The Origin of Life and Its Molecules
Four requirements for a living system, models for the origin of life, falsifiability, carbon and the four molecule families, and protein structure10DNA, Genomics and the Rules of Inheritance
Base pairing and packaging, the experiment that settled replication, transcription and translation, and alleles with mitosis against meiosis11Cells, Organ Systems and Feedback Control
Cell theory and compartmentation, channels, transporters and receptors, agonists against antagonists, and negative against positive feedback12Evolution, Ecology and the Anthropocene
Selection as six checkable statements, four independent lines of evidence, speciation, trophic energy transfer, and biodiversity risk13Science Communication and the Group Project
The Communication-Intensive badge, the assignment to presentation sequence, reading a research article, and the submission rules that cost marksModule 0 sets out the universal principles of motion, gravity, energy, heat and entropy. Module 1 covers the reactions that matter to the physical and living world, from electronic structure and water to acid-base chemistry and the reduction of oxygen. Module 2 follows the evolution of the physical world from the interior of the Earth to the expansion of the universe.
Module 3 covers the living world from the molecules of life to genomes, cells, evolution and ecosystems. The course states its own mathematical expectation plainly: mathematics is the language of science and quantitative arguments are not avoided, while usage is kept simple, with scientific notation, straightforward algebra and trigonometry.
Students are not expected to run complex computations and are expected to understand what a relation means and to reason from it. Assessment is split four ways. Tutorial participation with homework carries 20 per cent, the group project presentation carries 20 per cent, three in-class course module assessments carry 15 per cent between them, and a two-hour final examination of 45 multiple-choice questions carries 45 per cent.
The course plan flags the first two as the components tied to developing communication competency, and SCNC1112 holds the Communication-Intensive Course badge, which appears on a student's academic attainment profile.
Questions in the module assessments and the final examination are described as covering three areas: knowledge of the fundamental concepts covered in class, connecting material from different parts of the class into a synthesis, and adopting what was learned to novel situations.
Those three describe different tasks rather than three difficulty levels, and each fails for a different reason, which is why this guide organises its practice the same way. This guide follows the teaching order of the course plan across thirteen chapters, with a final chapter on the communication strand that carries 40 per cent of the mark and is the part most often left until the week it is due.
Planning a semester around three module assessments instead of one examination
- 2Read the module assessments as feedback rather than as verdicts. Each is worth five per cent, small enough to be cheap and large enough to be honest about how your preparation is working.
- 2Sort every missed question into one of the three stated question areas: vocabulary, connecting parts of the course, or applying to a new situation. The distribution tells you what to change, and the three areas need different repairs.
- 2Schedule the communication components on their own track. Tutorial work, two group assignments and the presentation carry 40 per cent and run on rolling deadlines set by tutorial group, so they cannot be absorbed into revision weeks.
Key terms
- Course Module Assessment
- One of three in-class assessments, each of ten multiple-choice questions taken on the course Moodle page at the end of a module, together worth 15 per cent.
- Communication-Intensive Course
- A University designation recorded on a student's academic attainment profile, which this course carries through its tutorial, assignment and presentation work.
- Unifying Concept
- A principle that explains phenomena across several branches of science, such as energy conversion or entropy, and the organising idea of the opening module.
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Arguing from what a relation implies when a quantity changes, rather than computing a numerical answer, which is the level of mathematics this course expects.
- Order of Magnitude
- The size of a quantity expressed as a power of ten, used to compare things measured in different units once both are converted.
- Spontaneous Process
- A change with a natural tendency to occur without being driven by work, carrying no implication about how fast it happens.
- Feedback Loop
- A circuit in which the output of a process affects its own input, opposing the change in a negative loop and amplifying it in a positive one.
- Trophic Level
- An organism's position in a food chain, with roughly a tenth of the energy at one level passing into the next.
- Falsifiability
- The requirement that a scientific claim specify what observation would count against it, which is what separates a theory from an untestable assertion.
SCNC1112 FAQ
How is this course assessed, and what carries the most weight?
Four components. Tutorial participation with homework is 20 per cent, the group project presentation is 20 per cent, three in-class course module assessments are 15 per cent between them, and a two-hour final examination is 45 per cent. The numeric rows sum to 100, and the course plan flags the first two as the components tied to developing communication competency.
What format are the papers, and what may be brought in?
Every written assessment is multiple choice. Each module assessment has ten questions and is taken on the course Moodle page in the classroom, where one single-sided A4 study sheet and a calculator from the approved list are permitted. The final examination is two hours and 45 questions, closed book apart from one double-sided A4 sheet, handwritten or printed.
Does this course need strong mathematics?
It needs comfort with simple quantitative reasoning rather than computational fluency. The course states that mathematics is the language of science and that quantitative arguments are not avoided, while keeping usage to scientific notation, simple algebra and trigonometry. Being able to say what happens when a quantity doubles matters more than producing a number.
What makes an integrated science course different from a single-subject one?
The questions deliberately cross subjects. Entropy introduced in the opening module returns in solvation, in stellar energy transport and in food chains, and the stated question areas include connecting material from different parts of the class. Studying each module as a separate block leaves you unprepared for a whole category of question.
How much of the grade sits outside the multiple-choice papers?
Forty per cent, in the tutorial and project components. Tutorial work is assessed on what is submitted before and during the meeting alongside participation in discussion, and the project is a ten-minute group presentation marked against a rubric that rewards coverage across more than one discipline of science.
Is there support outside lectures and tutorials?
The course runs a student-led peer-learning programme on a separate platform, where past students post assessment-style problems weekly and follow them with worked answers, and where live question sessions are scheduled before each module assessment and before the final examination. Participation is not compulsory and does not affect the grade.
What is the fastest way to use this guide?
Read each chapter alongside its module rather than saving everything for the revision period, because the three in-class assessments arrive during teaching. Work the practice with the answers covered, sort your errors by the three stated question areas, and build the double-sided sheet from what that sorting exposes.
How to study for the exam
Work with the shape of the semester rather than against it. Module 0 finishes early and its vocabulary is reused everywhere, so the energy and entropy chapter repays being read twice.
Each of the three main modules ends with its own in-class assessment, which gives three honest checkpoints instead of one, and the useful move after each is to sort missed questions into the three stated question areas rather than to reread the module.
Vocabulary errors are repaired with definitions and units, synthesis errors with practice that deliberately crosses modules, and transfer errors by restating each principle in a sentence of your own before looking at any example. Keep the tutorial and project work on a separate schedule from revision, since it carries 40 per cent on rolling deadlines set by tutorial group.
In the last week, build the double-sided sheet as an index of constants, conversions and direction words rather than as a summary, and check every relationship you tend to state backwards.
One framing point is worth carrying through the semester: the University uses standard referencing rather than a curve, and the course overview lecture reports that scores above roughly 45 per cent have most likely produced a pass and scores above roughly 70 per cent some form of A. Those are descriptions of past cohorts offered as guidance, not published grade boundaries.
