Expecting students to produce enormous written assessment pieces before they have adequate understanding of a topic is unfair and will not improve their scientific literacy.

Being literate in physics and chemistry requires insight into a range of often rather complex concepts.  To gain such insight, one must dedicate significant time to learning and studying.  This alone poses a substantial challenge to most students, yet they are now required to submit pieces of writing that take an enormous amount of thought, energy, and time to produce.  This eats into the time needed to gain deep understanding of the science involved, yet the purpose of studying science is to understand the world in which we live.

Students should be given the opportunity to develop their writing skills on familiar topics (in their English course), not on abstract concepts they have barely grasped!  Let them get on with understanding the world by having adequate time to study in their science courses.