Science
Implementation
Our Science curriculum meets the requirements of the national curriculum and has been further developed in school to meet the needs of our children. Our curriculum is designed using Curriculum Maestro - for further information see on main curriculum page.
Teachers promote enjoyment and foster interest of the scientific disciplines; Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Children are given the opportunity to carry out an investigation where they can explore, question, predict, plan, and observe as well as conclude their findings. In order to support children in their ability to ‘know more and remember more’ there are regular opportunities to review the learning taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons, developing pupils' ability to store facts and skills in their long term memory. Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details some key science curriculum statement information and vocabulary.
‘Working Scientifically’ skills are embedded into lessons to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the children’s school career, and new vocabulary and challenging concepts are introduced through direct teaching.
Teachers find opportunities to develop children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning and expert visitors. Links with Secondary schools allow pupils hands-on experience with equipment not available in the Primary setting. Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the Science curriculum.
Impact
At Wilbury we aim to have pupils who are confident and able to talk about what they have learnt in science using subject specific vocabulary. We want our children to enjoy science and are able to recall their learning over time. Children's work should demonstrate that science is taught at an age appropriate standard across each year group with opportunities for children of all abilities to engage; that what they produce is of good quality and demonstrates pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.
Year 3
Year 3 Science Units
Plant Nutrition and Reproduction
In the Plant Nutrition and Reproduction project, your child will learn to link plant structure to function and identify plant parts associated with water transport and reproduction. They will build on prior learning, naming and describing the function of different parts of flowering plants, including the roots, stems, leaves and flowers. Your child will observe fibrous roots and taproots and investigate how water and nutrients are transported in plants. Your child will create the life cycle of a flowering plant and learn the parts and functions of flower parts. They will ask scientific questions about pollination and research to find the answers. They will learn about seed formation and dispersal and identify how the structure of seeds aid dispersal.
Light and Shadow
In the Light and Shadows project, your child will learn that light is a form of energy essential to life on Earth. They will learn that dark is the absence of light and that the Sun is Earth's main source of light and heat. They will identify light sources and reflectors and discuss their differences. They will investigate materials to discover which are reflective and which are non-reflective. They will use their results to identify the qualities of reflective and non-reflective materials and discuss the need for reflective materials in everyday life. They will learn the importance of staying safe in the Sun and investigate sun creams. They will learn about shadows and how they change shape when a light source moves. They will investigate whether transparent, translucent and opaque materials cast shadows and discuss their uses. They will ask scientific questions about light, reflectors and shadows and research to find the answers. They will complete their learning by investigating how shadows change during the day.
Animal Nutrition and the Skeletal System
In the Animal Nutrition and the Skeletal Systems project, your child will revisit prior learning about living things, including how animals can be carnivores, herbivores or omnivores, needing food, water, air, shelter, sleep and space to reproduce and survive. They will use the term 'nutrition', learning that it is a life process by which all living things get or make food. They will learn that humans are omnivores because of their teeth and ask scientific questions about the human diet and research to find the answers. They will learn how humans need a balanced diet containing various foods in the right proportions from the main food groups: fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates, proteins, dairy and alternatives and oils and spreads. They will learn that oils and spreads contain fat which is an essential part of the human diet if consumed in small amounts, before investigating the fattiness of various foods. They will read information to compare the diets of different animals, including carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, revisiting learning about how animals' diets change with the seasons. They will learn the function of the human skeleton, observing and then labelling the location of its major bones. They will learn what joints are and investigate how they allow us to bend and move easily. They will learn the function of muscles and identify how they work in pairs before observing firsthand the movements their muscles bring about. They will carefully examine different skeleton types and use the terms 'vertebrate', 'invertebrate', 'endoskeleton' and 'exoskeleton'. They will complete their learning by generating scientific questions on the theme of nutrition, skeletons and muscles and use observation or research to find the answers.
Forces and Magnets
In the Forces and Magnets project, your child will learn what forces are and what they do. They will learn about pushing and pulling forces and sort different actions into pushes and pulls. They will identify and explain contact forces. They will learn about and investigate frictional forces. They will use force meters to measure the forces needed to carry out everyday tasks and record their measurements. They will learn about magnetism (a non-contact force) and explore bar magnets. They will find out about magnetic attraction, repulsion and magnetic fields. They will test the magnetic properties of different objects. They will learn about the magnetism of the Earth and how this enables compasses to work. They will use this knowledge to make compasses. They will learn about the uses of friction and magnetism and carry out research. They will use different methods to investigate the strength of magnets.
Rocks, Relics and Rumbles
This unit science is taught in conjunction with a geography unit about Volcanoes. In the Rocks, Relics and Rumbles project, your child will learn about the different layers of the Earth, including plate tectonics and their potential effects on the Earth's surface. They will investigate different types of rock to learn about their uses and properties. They will also investigate soil and fossils, including learning about the work of Mary Anning. They will have the opportunity to use maps to learn about the lines of latitude and longitude and a compass to learn about the cardinal and intercardinal points. They will also learn about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis and the long and short-term consequences that these can have.
Year 4
Year 4 Science Units
States of Matter
In the States of Matter project, your child will identify and classify solids, liquids and gases. They will learn the properties of solids, liquids and gases and discover that some materials have properties of more than one state. They will learn that particles make up all matter and how their arrangement determines whether the material is a solid, liquid or gas. They will find that materials can change from one state to another and learn about how materials can change state. They will use thermometers to measure the temperature of water and observe what happens when water changes state. They will investigate melting ice and record their data on graphs. They will also learn about melting and boiling points, researching various materials' melting and boiling points.
Grouping and Classifying
In the Grouping and Classifying project, your child will learn why we sort and group things and the important classification skills of observing and questioning. They will learn what classification keys are and how they identify living things. Your child will learn the characteristics of the five vertebrate groups and the six main invertebrate groups. They will learn how to identify vascular and non-vascular plants and sort vascular plants into the three main groups. They will also examine and classify real plants and create a classification key based on their observations. They will learn about some newly discovered plants and animals and use a classification key to classify each discovery.
Electrical Circuits and Conductors
In the Electrical Circuits and Conductors project, your child will learn about the importance of electricity to our daily lives and the two sources, mains electricity and cells or batteries. They will discuss the dangers of mains electricity and safety measures. They will learn about a range of electrical components, such as cells, batteries, wires, lamps, buzzers and motors, and use them to construct series circuits, exploring the effect of adding and removing different components. Your child will learn to recognise the difference between a complete and incomplete circuit and examine ways of fixing incomplete circuits. They will also learn about conductivity and investigate various materials to discover which are conductive or non-conductive. Your child will learn about electrical conductors and insulators and use this knowledge to make switches and examine plugs, identifying their parts, materials and safety features. They will ask and answer research questions about incandescent light bulbs and write a scientific report. They will learn about programmable technologies and then create programs to control a set of traffic lights. Your child will use the knowledge gained throughout the project to design, make and evaluate a nightlight. They will complete their learning by discussing the future of electricity and the natural resources harnessed to create sustainable energy.
Food and the Digestive System
In the Digestive System project, your child will revisit the meaning of scientific vocabulary, including producer, consumer, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, predator and prey. They will learn about the features of ecosystems and the meaning of new terminology, including 'biotic', which means living, and 'abiotic', which means non-living. They will research an ecosystem and use the information gathered in future lessons. They will learn about two scientific diagrams, a food chain and a food web, finding out what these diagrams are and what they show. They will discuss the similarities and differences between food chains and food webs and sketch examples. They will revisit the word 'interdependence' and its meaning and discuss how living things depend on biotic and abiotic features of ecosystems for their survival. They will discuss the challenges different ecosystems face from human activities such as pollution or natural events such as deforestation. They will then learn about the digestive system of humans, naming the digestive organs, describing their functions and finding out what happens to the food they eat. They will learn the names and functions of the four types of human teeth and identify the differences between the teeth of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. They will formulate and then ask a dental health professional questions to discover the importance of oral hygiene and its role in preventing tooth decay and gum disease. They will complete their learning by creating and carrying out an investigation into the effectiveness of fluoride toothpaste.
Sound
In the Sound project, your child will learn that sounds are vibrations that travel from sound sources, such as a person's vocal chords, musical instruments or pieces of machinery, through a solid, liquid or gas to the ears. They will explore the parts of instruments that vibrate to make sound and investigate the pitch, volume, distance and direction of sound. They will learn how sound waves are made and how they travel from a sound source to the ear. They will carry out research to find the answer to the question, 'How do we hear sounds?' and use diagrams and words, such as sound waves, vibrate, pinna, ear canal, eardrum, ossicles, cochlea and cochlear nerve, to record their findings. They will investigate the most effective ways to muffle sound and identify scenarios when muffling sound is important to prevent hearing damage. They will plan an investigation to learn how the volume of sound changes as they move away from a sound source and use a sound meter to measure the volume of sound. They will identify low and high-pitched sounds and then follow instructions to investigate the different ways the pitch of a sound can be changed. They will complete their learning by asking a scientific question about an aspect of sound that interests them before planning and carrying out an investigation to find the answer.
Year 5
Year 5 Science Units
Human Reproduction and Ageing
In the Human Reproduction and Ageing project, your child will learn what life cycles are, order the stages of life cycles for different animal species and compare them. They will learn what mammals are and the five key mammalian characteristics. They will sort vertebrates, deciding whether or not they are mammals. They will look closely at different mammalian life cycles and make comparisons. They will investigate the relationship between the mass of mammals and how long they carry their young by creating and interpreting scatter graphs. They will learn about the stages and processes of the human life cycle. They will learn about human gestation from embryo to birth. They will investigate how humans change and develop from infant to adolescence in the juvenile stage. They will learn about the changes that happen during puberty. They will interpret data about human growth and learn about the human reproductive system and sexual reproduction. They will learn about how humans change as they get older. They will investigate how ageing affects reaction times.
Earth and Space
In the Earth and Space project, your child will learn the names of the planets in the Solar System before creating a model outdoors to describe its scale, movement and features. They will learn how scientists throughout history used different methods to study the Solar System and came to understand how the planets orbited the Sun. They will make a model and use it to explain the orbits of the Moon around the Earth and the Earth around the Sun. They will identify the spherical shape of the Sun, Earth and Moon. They will learn how people in ancient civilisations believed the Earth was flat and how evidence proved the Earth was a sphere. They will know that the Earth's rotation creates a range of phenomena, including day and night and the appearance of the Sun rising above the horizon in the east at sunrise, moving across the sky and then setting below the horizon in the west at sunset, and use equipment to model these phenomena. They will make and use sundials to learn how people in the past used the Earth's rotation, the angle of the sunlight, and the length and direction of shadows to tell the time. They will learn that the Earth's tilt and rotation as it orbits the Sun creates different seasons and day lengths in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and the effect of similar amounts of direct sunlight all year round in the tropics. They will research the times of day on the Earth in different locations and describe how Earth's rotation creates this phenomenon. They will learn about the Moon's orbit and name and explain the eight phases of the Moon. They will research how solar and lunar eclipses occur and create labelled diagrams to show their findings. Children will complete their learning by conducting an in-depth study of either Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune and compare the planet's scale, features and movement to that of the Earth.
Forces and Mechanisms
In the Forces and Mechanisms project, your child will revisit prior learning about forces, identifying what a force is and discussing the two types, including contact and non-contact forces. They will learn that gravity is a force of attraction and follow instructions to observe gravity in action. They will learn the meanings of the terms 'mass' and 'weight' and their units of measurement, following instructions to record the mass and weight of various everyday objects using a piece of equipment called a force meter. They will revisit learning about friction, discussing situations where it can be helpful or where we need to minimise its effects. They will learn about the frictional forces called air and water resistance in detail and conduct investigations to observe these frictional forces in action. They will learn about mechanisms, including gears, pulleys and levers and follow instructions to investigate how these simple machines use forces to make tasks easier. They will generate scientific questions they wish to study further on the theme of forces and mechanisms and research to find the answers. They will complete their learning by examining the forces involved in riding a bicycle and the parts that are gears, pulleys and levers.
Properties and Changes of Materials
In the Properties and Changes of Materials project, your child will revisit prior learning about the properties of materials. They will plan and carry out tests to determine the properties of a range of materials. They will use their results to suggest suitable materials for different purposes. They will learn about the property of thermal conductivity and identify materials that are thermal conductors and insulators. They will also learn about the property of solubility and test various materials to discover which are soluble and insoluble. They will find out about heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures and will separate heterogeneous mixtures using sieving and filtration. They will also separate homogeneous mixtures, investigating how to reverse dissolving by evaporation. They will ask scientific questions about separating unusual mixtures and research to find out the answers. They will learn the difference between reversible and irreversible changes and follow instructions to observe the signs of an irreversible change firsthand. They will complete their learning by finding out about materials scientists and their innovative materials.
Sow, Grow and Farm
This Science unit is linked to the geography unit of Sow, Grow and Farm. In the Sow, Grow and Farm project, your child will learn about allotments in the United Kingdom and how the government encouraged people to have them to support food rationing during the Second World War. They will learn about food webs and animal life cycles, including how living things are dependent on one another within a habitat. They will investigate the different ways that plants reproduce and will dissect flowering plants to identify the different structures. They will have the opportunity to learn about farming in the United Kingdom and the techniques used in modern farming, including the challenges that farmers face. They will learn about the benefits of eating seasonally and about the pros and cons of importing food. They will also learn about world farming and how the different climate zones affect where different foods can be grown.
Year 6
Year 6 Science
Circulatory System
In the Circulatory System project, your child will revisit prior learning about the systems in the human body and the seven life processes. They will explore the role of the circulatory system and its main parts, carrying out research to answer their own questions. They will look closely at the structure, functions and features of the heart. They will learn about the components and functions of blood, making a representation of a separated blood sample. They will draw and label diagrams of each type of blood vessel and learn about their structure and function. They will test their resting heart rate using a variety of methods. They will investigate whether having a lower resting heart rate means you can sprint faster. They will recap the four types of exercise and test which raise their heart rate the most. They will recap what they know about healthy eating and the Eatwell guide, exploring foods that fall outside the Eatwell plate and recommended daily amounts of foods. They will research the effects of smoking, alcohol and drugs on the human body. They will complete their learning by carrying out an investigation into heart rate recovery.
Light Theory
In the Light Theory project, your child will create a mind map to recap their prior learning about light sources, reflectors, day and night, sun safety and shadows. They will observe how light travels in straight lines. They will use their research skills to discover what happens to light when it enters the eye and how this relates to how we see. They will learn about the electromagnetic spectrum, finding out about visible light in detail. They will investigate how we perceive colour, learning that the stimulation of cells in the eye helps us perceive light, dark and colour. Using a torch for a light source, they will explore how shadows change, including their shape, size and how they become distorted. They will discuss what happens to light when it strikes a surface, learning about absorption, reflection, scattering and transmitted light. They will use different mirrors, including plane, concave and convex, to explore how they affect reflections. They will use a light meter to measure light and will observe refraction, and ask and answer scientific questions about the phenomena.
Electrical Circuits and Components
In the Electrical Circuits and Components project, your child will consolidate their understanding of the components that make up a circuit, such as a lamp, cell, wire and switch. They will make a range of circuits and use symbols to draw circuit diagrams. Your child will learn about electric currents and measure the voltage of different cells. They will discover how cells produce electricity and research questions about cells and batteries. Your child will also learn how the voltage across a circuit affects the performance of different components. They will explore how programmable devices are used in everyday life and create a program to switch a light on and off via a light sensor. They will use the knowledge gained throughout the project to design, make and evaluate a programmable home device.
Evolution and Inheritance
In the Evolution and Inheritance project, your child will learn about the five kingdoms scientists group living things into based on their characteristics. They will discuss what fossils are, revisit how they form and learn about the fossil record before classifying fossils, using what they have learned about the features of living things. Children will discuss the theory of evolution and the scientists who founded it in the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, learning that all living things on Earth are related and have gradually changed over time. They will learn that fossils and the DNA of extinct and living things provide evidence for the theory of evolution and then study a scientific diagram called an evolutionary tree, identifying the relationships between past and present-day living things. Children will learn the meaning of the terms 'inheritance' and 'variation' and how evolution relies on them. They will discuss examples of inherited and non-inherited features and continuous and discontinuous variation within humans before collecting and displaying class data about eye colour as a bar chart and heights as a line graph. They will revisit the meaning of 'adaptation' and use new scientific terminology, including 'natural selection and 'survival of the fittest'. They will learn about adaptation in animals by investigating how birds' beaks have changed over time to improve their ability to catch and eat specific foods. They will learn about adaptation in plants, including structural, behavioural and chemical adaptations, and then investigate the leaves of trimmed and untrimmed holly plants, observing how holly plants can adapt to become spikier to survive. They will complete their learning by holding a class debate about artificial selection using evidence from research and presenting an argument for and against its use.
Frozen Kingdoms
In the Frozen Kingdoms project, your child will learn about the regions of the Arctic and Antarctic. They will learn about the similarities and differences between these two regions, including the climate, landscape and natural resources. They will learn how to use grid references, lines of latitude and longitude, contour lines and symbols to identify the geographical locations of the Arctic and Antarctic, and how these, along with the tilt of the Earth, affect day length and warmth. They will investigate polar oceans to learn how they differ from other oceans on Earth and how climate change increases Earth's temperature and leads to rising sea levels. They will learn about the indigenous people of the Arctic, including how their lives have changed over time, and about the positives and negatives of tourism in Antarctica. They will also learn about classifying animals, animal adaptations and evolution, and polar exploration and discovery.