Everyday Materials

• Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made.
• Identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock.
• Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials.
• Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties.

Living Things and their habitats

• Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive.

Uses of everyday materials

Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting, and stretching.

Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, … glass, rock… for particular uses.

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, taking repeat readings when appropriate.
• recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs.
• using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.
• reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and a degree of trust in 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.

Properties and changes of materials

• compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets
• know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution
• demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes
• explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda

Earth & Space

• describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system
• use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky

Forces

• explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object
• identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces

Light

• recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines

Scientific Attitudes

• pay attention to objectivity and concern for accuracy, precision, repeatability and reproducibility
• understand that scientific methods and theories develop as earlier explanations are modified to take account of new evidence and ideas, together with the importance of publishing results and peer review
• Evaluate risks

Experimental Skills and Investigations

• ask questions and develop a line of enquiry based on observations of the real world, alongside prior knowledge and experience
• make predictions using scientific knowledge and understanding
• make and record observations and measurements using a range of methods for different investigations; and evaluate the reliability of methods and suggest possible improvements

Analysis & Evaluation

• apply mathematical concepts and calculate results
• interpret observations and data, including identifying patterns and using observations, measurements and data to draw conclusions
• present reasoned explanations, including explaining data in relation to predictions and hypotheses
• evaluate data, showing awareness of potential sources of random and systematic error
• identify further questions arising from their results

Measurement

• understand and use SI units and IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) chemical nomenclature
• use and derive simple equations and carry out appropriate calculations
• undertake basic data analysis including simple statistical techniques

Chemistry

The particulate nature of matter

• the properties of the different states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) in terms of the particle model, including gas pressure
• changes of state in terms of the particle model

Atoms, elements, and compounds

• chemical symbols and formulae for elements and compounds

Pure and impure substances

• mixtures, including dissolving
• diffusion in terms of the particle model
• the identification of pure substances

Chemical Reactions

• chemical reactions as the rearrangement of atoms
• representing chemical reactions using formulae and using equations
• combustion, thermal decomposition, oxidation and displacement reactions
• defining acids and alkalis in terms of neutralisation reactions
• the pH scale for measuring acidity/alkalinity; and indicators
• reactions of acids with metals to produce a salt plus hydrogen
• reactions of acids with alkalis to produce a salt plus water
• What catalysts do

Energetics

• Energy changes on changes of state
• Exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions

The periodic table

• the varying physical and chemical properties of different elements
• the periodic table: periods and groups; metals and non-metals
• how patterns in reactions can be predicted with reference to the periodic table the properties of metals and non-metals
• the chemical properties of metal and non-metal oxides with respect to acidity

Materials

• the order of metals and carbon in the reactivity series
• the use of carbon in obtaining metals from metal oxides

Earth & Atmosphere

• the composition of the atmosphere
• The composition of the Earth
• the structure of the Earth
• the rock cycle and the formation of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks
• Earth as a source of limited resources and the efficacy of recycling

When courses are specialised, COMET connections become more direct, as well as acting as aspirational targets for students to see what university and career level scientific research looks like.