Lower Key Stage 2

Working Scientifically

Asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.
Setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests.
Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers.
Gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions.
Recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables.
Reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions.
Using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions.
Identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes.
Using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.

Animals including Humans

Year 3

Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat.
Identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.

Year 4

Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans.
Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions.
Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey.

Living Things

Year 4

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.
Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment.
Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers and have an impact on living things.

Plants

Year 3

Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.
Explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant.
Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.
Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.

Rocks

Year 3

Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties.
Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.
Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

States of Matter

Year 4

Compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases.
Observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C).
Identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Electricity

Year 4

Identify common appliances that run on electricity.
Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
Recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit.
Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Forces and Magnets

Year 3

Compare how things move on different surfaces.
Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance.
Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials.
Describe magnets as having two poles Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.

Light

Year 3

Recognise that he/she needs light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light.
Notice that light is reflected from surfaces.
Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect eyes.
Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect eyes.
Find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.

Sound

Year 4

Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating.
Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear.
Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it.
Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it.
Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.

Scientists and Inventors

Year 3

Year 4