What am I going to learn in Science?
Year One
Spring 2: Taking Care of the Earth
This unit has been included in our curriculum in addition to the national curriculum content. Within this unit we included knowledge that, over time, builds understanding of concepts such as recycling and sustainability. We feel that our KS1 pupils should be introduced to this knowledge, in addition to the rest of their science curriculum, in order to build awareness of local and global issues relating to human interaction with the environment. Pupils will revisit these issues in both science and geography.
Summer 1: Plants
In every year of their science curriculum, pupils will encounter plants, studying them in increasing depth. The PKC curriculum has been written and planned to give pupils many opportunities to revisit knowledge and clarify their understanding, whilst learning new and interesting content that increases in sophistication as they progress through the curriculum. This unit is an introduction to plants, how they grow, what function each part has, and which common plants grow around us.
Year Two
Spring 2: Plants
This unit builds directly from the Year 1 unit ‘Plants’. Children will look again at what plants are and what they need to grow. In this unit, children will look in more detail at seeds and bulbs. They will learn that germination is the process where a seed begins to grow and changes into a seedling. Children will spend some time comparing plants that receive light and water and those that don’t. They will understand that healthy plants need light and water to grow.
Summer 1: Materials and Matter
This unit offers another opportunity to reinforce the names and uses of every day materials, developing the conceptual understanding that all materials are used for a purpose based on their properties. In this unit, building on their knowledge of John Dunlop and his work, pupils will study George de Mestral and will find out how he developed Velcro after noticing how the shape of burdock seeds allowed them to grip onto his clothes and his dog’s fur whilst out walking.
Year Three
Spring 2 - Rocks
This unit introduces key knowledge of rocks including their appearance and simple physical properties. It introduces key substantive knowledge, particularly recognising different types of rock. The unit also introduces disciplinary geology knowledge and how geologists work to find out more about rocks on earth and beyond. Pupils will learn that a geologist is a scientist who studies rocks and will be introduced to some of the things that geologists might study, such as properties of rocks, composition of rocks, and what rocks can tell us about life on earth long ago.
Summer 1: Plants
This unit builds on directly from Year 2 Plants where pupils learned how to observe and describe seeds and bulbs, found out what plants need to grow and also learned how plants are grown by farmers as crops for people to eat. In this unit, pupils will look more closely at flowering plants, their features and the functions of their features.
Year Four
Spring 2: Sound
This unit builds on knowledge from Year 3 Light, particularly around how the eye sees as they focus on how the ear hears in this unit. In this unit pupils will learn that sound is caused by a back-and-forth movement: a vibration. A vibrating object will make the particles of air around it vibrate too. The air particles, which are pushed one way, push neighbouring particles in the same way, and then bounce back, so the vibration spreads outwards.
Summer 1: States of Matter
In this unit, children will learn about the main parts of the Water Cycle including evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. They will learn about each part in detail before piecing them all together to complete the cycle. This approach will support their vocabulary development over time, focussing in on each scientific process before stepping back and seeing the cycle as a whole.
Year Five
Spring 2: Forces
This unit builds on learning from Year 3 Forces and Magnets, giving children the opportunity to build on their knowledge of forces as pushes and pulls. Pupils will learn that forces can make things increase their speed, reduce their speed, change direction or change shape. They will study gravity, friction, air resistance and water resistance.
Summer 1: Astronomy
In this unit, children will study astronomy. They will learn that the word astronomy comes from the Greek word astron meaning ‘star’. Therefore, astronomy is the science that studies the laws of the stars and everything in universe beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The substantive concepts of this unit are motion, force, energy, matter and space. In this unit, the children will learn about the evolution of the universe, gravity, the solar system, lunar phases and about galaxies.
Year Six
Spring 2: Light
In this unit, pupils will look more closely at light and how it behaves. They will learn that light is the visible part of a spectrum of energy. Pupils will be reminded that some surfaces reflect light, some allow it to pass through them and some block it. They will look again at shadows and how light travels.
Summer 1: Reproduction
This unit covers content which is additional to the National Curriculum. It builds on understanding of how plants and animals reproduce from previous years, particularly from Year 5 Human Body and also Year 5 Living Things.
