What am I going to learn in Science?
Year One
Summer 2: - Materials and Magnets
In this unit pupils will learn to distinguish everyday objects from the material they are made from. They will recognise everyday materials such as wood, plastic, glass, metal and rock. They will become familiar with key vocabulary used to describe everyday materials, such as soft, hard, flexible, strong, opaque and transparent. They will compare and group together materials based on their properties.
Year Two
Summer 2 - Astronomy
This unit builds important understanding that scientists learn from each other to make new discoveries. This avoids pupils building a misconception that scientists discover things in a vacuum, just one day stumbling upon new knowledge, and reinforces the idea that scientists are experts who have studied the work of people who came before them. Pupils will be introduced to the planets of our solar system and will begin to understand orbit and rotation. They will begin to understand why there is life on earth, but not similar life on other planets.
Year Three
Summer 2 - Light
In this unit children will learn that light is an energy that enables us to see, and interact with, the world around us. They will learn there are many different sources of light and the light of the sun is vital for life on earth. Children will work scientifically to find out if materials are transparent or opaque using torches. They will learn that light travels in straight lines and sometimes bounces off from an object or material and that scientists call this reflection. There are frequent opportunities for observing and investigating how light behaves and how materials interact with light during this unit.
Year Four
Summer 2 - Electricity
Pupils will identify common appliances that run on electricity. They will then move on to looking again at circuits. They will understand that electricity can flow around a loop, called a circuit. They will make simple circuits and consider what happens when the circuit is broken. They will recognise that batteries are stores of electrical energy that can power a component such as a bulb. Pupils will be introduced to switches. They will learn that often a circuit will contain a switch, which allows the flow of electrical current to be stopped by opening the circuit. They will understand that switches can be used for safety reasons and that a switch opens and closes a circuit which turns any components within the circuit on and off.
Year Five
Summer 2 - Meteorology
In this unit, children will deepen their understanding of meteorology: the study of the weather. Building on the children’s existing knowledge, this unit will focus on weather, climate, atmosphere and forecast. The knowledge gained in this unit allows the children to think more like meteorologists, using data and diagrams to deduce and draw logical conclusions.
Year Six
Summer 2 - Evolution
In this unit, children will be introduced to the concept of evolution: the process by which living organisms (plants and mammals) develop and change, over time. The concepts of this unit are inheritance, variation, adaptation and evolution by natural selection.
