Science in Year 6

Working Scientifically

During years 5 and 6, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:

• • planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary

  • taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision

  • recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, and bar and line graphs

  • using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests

  • using simple models to describe scientific ideas

  • reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations

  • identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments.

Living Things and their habitats

• • describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals

  • give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.

Animals including humans

• • identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood

  • recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function

  • describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

Evolution

• • recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago

  • recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents

  • identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

Light

• • recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines

  • use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye

  • explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes

  • use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them

Electricity

• • associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit

  • compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches

  • use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.