Key stage 2 | Science | Subjects | Key stages 1 & 2 | National Curriculum

Key stage 2 | Science | Subjects | Key stages 1 & 2 | National Curriculum Access Key Definitions Skip navigation Access key details Home page Latest updates Site map Search Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Terms and conditions The DfE is conducting a review of the primary and secondary National Curriculum. This site contains the statutory programmes of study for National Curriculum subjects which maintained schools must follow until a new curriculum is in place. Contact us FAQs News Accessibility / Help Register or Login to your account Search Select Area Entire Site Primary Curriculum Secondary Curriculum Go Home Key stages 1 & 2 Key stages 3 & 4 My Portfolio In this section Key stages 1 & 2 homepage Aims, values and purposes General teaching requirements Subjects Art and design Citizenship Design and technology English Geography History ICT Mathematics MFL Music Physical education Science Key stage 1 Key stage 2 Attainment targets Personal, social and health education Religious education Assessment You are here: > Home > Key stages 1 & 2 > Subjects > Science > Key stage 2 Add to portfolio Email Science key stage 2   Sc1 Scientific enquiry Sc2 Life processes and living things Sc3 Materials and their properties Sc4 Physical processes Breadth of study Sc1 Scientific enquiry Statutory content Teaching should ensure that 'scientific enquiry' is taught through contexts taken from the sections on 'life processes and living things', 'materials and their properties' and 'physical processes'. Explanatory text During key stage 2 pupils learn about a wider range of living things, materials and phenomena. They begin to make links between ideas and to explain things using simple models and theories. They apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to familiar phenomena, everyday things and their personal health. They begin to think about the positive and negative effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment and in other contexts. They carry out more systematic investigations, working on their own and with others. They use a range of reference sources in their work. They talk about their work and its significance, and communicate ideas using a wide range of scientific language, conventional diagrams, charts and graphs. Note The general teaching requirement for health and safety applies in this subject. Knowledge, skills and understanding Ideas and evidence in science 1. Pupils should be taught: that science is about thinking creatively to try to explain how living and non-living things work, and to establish links between causes and effects [for example, Jenner's vaccination work] that it is important to test ideas using evidence from observation and measurement. Investigative skills 2. Pupils should be taught to: Planning ask questions that can be investigated scientifically and decide how to find answers consider what sources of information, including first-hand experience and a range of other sources, they will use to answer questions think about what might happen or try things out when deciding what to do, what kind of evidence to collect, and what equipment and materials to use make a fair test or comparison by changing one factor and observing or measuring the effect while keeping other factors the same Obtaining and presenting evidence use simple equipment and materials appropriately and take action to control risks make systematic observations and measurements, including the use of ICT for datalogging check observations and measurements by repeating them where appropriate use a wide range of methods, including diagrams, drawings, tables, bar charts, line graphs and ICT, to communicate data in an appropriate and systematic manner Considering evidence and evaluating make comparisons and identify simple patterns or associations in their own observations and measurements or other data use observations, measurements or other data to draw conclusions decide whether these conclusions agree with any prediction made and/or whether they enable further predictions to be made use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain observations, measurements or other data or conclusions review their work and the work of others and describe its significance and limitations. Explanatory text Note for 2 Cross reference to English En1 Speaking and listening: Breadth of study 10. The range of purposes should include: a. investigating, selecting, sorting b. planning, predicting, exploring c. explaining, reporting, evaluating Note for 2b Cross reference to English En2 Reading: Reading for information 3. Pupils should be taught to: a. scan texts to find information b. skim for gist and overall impression c. obtain specific information through detailed reading d. draw on different features of texts, including print, sound and image, to obtain meaning e. use organisational features and systems to find texts and information f. distinguish between fact and opinion [for example, by looking at the purpose of the text, the reliability of information] g. consider an argument critically Note for 2c, 2e, 2f Units of measurement In the international system of units, kilogram (kg) is the unit of mass. In practice mass is measured by weighing; scales measure or compare a force (a push or a pull). At key stage 2 pupils learn that the unit of weight (a type of force) is the newton. In science the term volume is preferred to capacity. The preferred unit is cubic centimetres. Cross reference to mathematics Ma3 Shape, space and measures: Understanding measures 4. Pupils should be taught to: a. recognise the need for standard units of length, mass and capacity, choose which ones are suitable for a task, and use them to make sensible estimates in everyday situations; convert one metric unit to another [for example, convert 3.17kg to 3170g]; know the rough metric equivalents of imperial units still in daily use b. recognise that measurement is approximate; choose and use suitable measuring instruments for a task; interpret numbers and read scales with increasing accuracy; record measurements using decimal notation Note for 2f Cross reference to ICT Developing ideas and making things happen 2. Pupils should be taught: b. how to create, test, improve and refine sequences of instructions to make things happen and to monitor events and respond to them [for example, monitoring changes in temperature, detecting light levels and turning on a light] Note for 2h Cross reference to ICT Exchanging and sharing information 3. Pupils should be taught: a. how to share and exchange information in a variety of forms, including e-mail [for example, displays, posters, animations, musical compositions] b. to be sensitive to the needs of the audience and think carefully about the content and quality when communicating information [for example, work for presentation to other pupils, writing for parents, publishing on the internet] Note for 2i, 2j Cross reference to mathematics Ma2 Number: Numbers and the number system 2. Pupils should be taught to: Decimals i. understand and use decimal notation for tenths and hundredths in context [for example, order amounts of money, round a sum of money to the nearest £, convert a length such as 1.36 metres to centimetres and vice versa]; locate on a number line, and order, a set of numbers or measurements; then recognise thousandths (only in metric measurements) Ma2 Number: Solving numerical problems 4. Pupils should be taught to: a. choose, use and combine any of the four number operations to solve word problems involving numbers in 'real life', money or measures of length, mass, capacity or time, then perimeter and area d. recognise, represent and interpret simple number relationships, constructing and using formulae in words then symbols [for example, c = 15 n is the cost, in pence, of n articles at 15p each] Note for 2i, 2k Cross reference to mathematics Ma4 Handling data: Processing, representing and interpreting data 2. Pupils should be taught to: a. solve problems involving data b. interpret tables, lists and charts used in everyday life; construct and interpret frequency tables, including tables for grouped discrete data c. represent and interpret discrete data using graphs and diagrams, including pictograms, bar charts and line graphs, then interpret a wider range of graphs and diagrams, using ICT where appropriate d. know that mode is a measure of average and that range is a measure of spread, and to use both ideas to describe data sets e. recognise the difference between discrete and continuous data f. draw conclusions from statistics and graphs and recognise when information is presented in a misleading way; explore doubt and certainty and develop an understanding of probability through classroom situations; discuss events using a vocabulary that includes the words 'equally likely', 'fair', 'unfair', 'certain' Sc2 Life processes and living things Statutory content Teaching should ensure that 'scientific enquiry' is taught through contexts taken from the sections on 'life processes and living things', 'materials and their properties' and 'physical processes'. Knowledge, skills and understanding Life processes 1. Pupils should be taught: that the life processes common to humans and other animals include nutrition, movement, growth and reproduction that the life processes common to plants include growth, nutrition and reproduction to make links between life processes in familiar animals and plants and the environments in which they are found. Humans and other animals 2. Pupils should be taught: Nutrition about the functions and care of teeth about the need for food for activity and growth, and about the importance of an adequate and varied diet for health Circulation that the heart acts as a pump to circulate the blood through vessels around the body, including through the lungs about the effect of exercise and rest on pulse rate Movement that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles to support and protect their bodies and to help them to move Growth and reproduction about the main stages of the human life cycle Health about the effects on the human body of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, and how these relate to their personal health about the importance of exercise for good health. Green plants 3. Pupils should be taught: Growth and nutrition the effect of light, air, water and temperature on plant growth the role of the leaf in producing new material for growth that the root anchors the plant, and that water and minerals are taken in through the root and transported through the stem to other parts of the plant Reproduction about the parts of the flower [for example, stigma, stamen, petal, sepal] and their role in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation, seed dispersal and germination. Variation and classification 4. Pupils should be taught: to make and use keys how locally occurring animals and plants can be identified and assigned to groups that the variety of plants and animals makes it important to identify them and assign them to groups. Living things in their environment 5. Pupils should be taught: about ways in which living things and the environment need protection Adaptation about the different plants and animals found in different habitats how animals and plants in two different habitats are suited to their environment Feeding relationships to use food chains to show feeding relationships in a habitat about how nearly all food chains start with a green plant Micro-organisms that micro-organisms are living organisms that are often too small to be seen, and that they may be beneficial [for example, in the breakdown of waste, in making bread] or harmful [for example, in causing disease, in causing food to go mouldy]. Explanatory text Note for 2b ICT opportunity Pupils could use a database or spreadsheet to analyse data about types of food in school lunches. Note for 2c Details of structure do not need to be taught. 2c, 2e, 2f ICT opportunity Pupils could use video or CD-ROM to see things that cannot be directly observed. Note for 4a ICT opportunity Pupils could use a branching database to develop and use keys. Note for 5b ICT opportunity Pupils could use video or CD-ROM to compare non-local habitats. Note for 5f ICT opportunity Pupils could use simulation software to show changes in the populations of micro-organisms in different conditions. Sc3 Materials and their properties Statutory content Teaching should ensure that 'scientific enquiry' is taught through contexts taken from the sections on 'life processes and living things', 'materials and their properties' and 'physical processes'. Knowledge, skills and understanding Grouping and classifying materials 1. Pupils should be taught: to compare everyday materials and objects on the basis of their material properties, including hardness, strength, flexibility and magnetic behaviour, and to relate these properties to everyday uses of the materials that some materials are better thermal insulators than others that some materials are better electrical conductors than others to describe and group rocks and soils on the basis of their characteristics, including appearance, texture and permeability to recognise differences between solids, liquids and gases, in terms of ease of flow and maintenance of shape and volume. Changing materials 2. Pupils should be taught: to describe changes that occur when materials are mixed [for example, adding salt to water] to describe changes that occur when materials [for example, water, clay, dough] are heated or cooled that temperature is a measure of how hot or cold things are about reversible changes, including dissolving, melting, boiling, condensing, freezing and evaporating the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle that non-reversible changes [for example, vinegar reacting with bicarbonate of soda, plaster of Paris with water] result in the formation of new materials that may be useful that burning materials [for example, wood, wax, natural gas] results in the formation of new materials and that this change is not usually reversible. Separating mixtures of materials 3. Pupils should be taught: how to separate solid particles of different sizes by sieving [for example, those in soil] that some solids [for example, salt, sugar] dissolve in water to give solutions but some [for example, sand, chalk] do not how to separate insoluble solids from liquids by filtering how to recover dissolved solids by evaporating the liquid from the solution to use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated. Explanatory text Note for 1e Particle theory does not need to be taught. Note for 2b ICT opportunity Pupils could use sensors to record temperature changes. Note for 2e ICT opportunity Pupils could use CD-ROM or the internet to research water supplies in a range of localities. Sc4 Physical processes Statutory content Teaching should ensure that 'scientific enquiry' is taught through contexts taken from the sections on 'life processes and living things', 'materials and their properties' and 'physical processes'. Knowledge, skills and understanding Electricity 1. Pupils should be taught: Simple circuits to construct circuits, incorporating a battery or power supply and a range of switches, to make electrical devices work [for example, buzzers, motors] how changing the number or type of components [for example, batteries, bulbs, wires] in a series circuit can make bulbs brighter or dimmer how to represent series circuits by drawings and conventional symbols, and how to construct series circuits on the basis of drawings and diagrams using conventional symbols. Forces and motion 2. Pupils should be taught: Types of force about the forces of attraction and repulsion between magnets, and about the forces of attraction between magnets and magnetic materials that objects are pulled downwards because of the gravitational attraction between them and the Earth about friction, including air resistance, as a force that slows moving objects and may prevent objects from starting to move that when objects [for example, a spring, a table] are pushed or pulled, an opposing pull or push can be felt how to measure forces and identify the direction in which they act. Light and sound 3. Pupils should be taught: Everyday effects of light that light travels from a source that light cannot pass through some materials, and how this leads to the formation of shadows that light is reflected from surfaces [for example, mirrors, polished metals] Seeing that we see things only when light from them enters our eyes Vibration and sound that sounds are made when objects [for example, strings on musical instruments] vibrate but that vibrations are not always directly visible how to change the pitch and loudness of sounds produced by some vibrating objects [for example, a drum skin, a plucked string] that vibrations from sound sources require a medium [for example, metal, wood, glass, air] through which to travel to the ear. The Earth and beyond 4. Pupils should be taught: The Sun, Earth and Moon that the Sun, Earth and Moon are approximately spherical Periodic changes how the position of the Sun appears to change during the day, and how shadows change as this happens how day and night are related to the spin of the Earth on its own axis that the Earth orbits the Sun once each year, and that the Moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. Explanatory text Note for 1a ICT opportunity Pupils could use simulation software to extend an investigation of components in a series circuit. Note for 1b Resistance does not need to be taught. Note for 2b Distinction between mass and weight need not be taught. Note for 3f ICT opportunity Pupils could use sensors to detect and compare sounds made under different conditions. Note for 4b-4d ICT opportunity Pupils could use video or CD-ROM to study models of the Sun, Earth and Moon system. Breadth of study Statutory content Teaching should ensure that 'scientific enquiry' is taught through contexts taken from the sections on 'life processes and living things', 'materials and their properties' and 'physical processes'. Knowledge, skills and understanding 1. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through: a range of domestic and environmental contexts that are familiar and of interest to them looking at the part science has played in the development of many useful things using a range of sources of information and data, including ICT-based sources using first-hand and secondary data to carry out a range of scientific investigations, including complete investigations. 2. During the key stage, pupils should be taught to: Communication use appropriate scientific language and terms, including SI units of measurement [for example, metre, newton] , to communicate ideas and explain the behaviour of living things, materials, phenomena and processes Health and safety recognise that there are hazards in living things, materials and physical processes, and assess risks and take action to reduce risks to themselves and others. Explanatory text Note for 2a Cross reference to English En1 Speaking and listening: Breadth of study 10. The range of purposes should include: a. investigating, selecting, sorting b. planning, predicting, exploring c. explaining, reporting, evaluating En3 Writing: Breadth of study 9. The range of purposes for writing should include: b. to inform and explain, focusing on the subject matter and how to convey it in sufficient detail for the reader c. to persuade, focusing on how arguments and evidence are built up and language used to convince the reader d. to review and comment on what has been read, seen or heard, focusing on both the topic and the writer's view of it Cross reference to mathematics Ma3 Shape, space and measures: Using and applying shape, space and measures 1. Pupils should be taught to: a. recognise the need for standard units of measurement Key actions: Download the programme of study [pdf 1mb] Attainment targets Add to portfolio Email Bookmark & Share Digg MySpace Facebook Yahoo Buzz Twitter Favorites Delicious Google Live StumbleUpon Quick links Last time you looked at: Science key stage 1 Science Attainment target for physical education Physical education key stage 2 Physical education key stage 1 This website is operated by QCDA Terms and conditions Site map Back to top