Year 1

Students learn about the basic needs of plants and animals including humans. They apply this knowledge to design and build a physical or digital diorama of a plant or animal habitat.

Year 1

Students identify daily and seasonal changes and describe ways these changes affect their everyday life. They explore this concept through the context of planning for a picnic or an open-air school-related event. 

Year 2

Students learn about sound energy and how different objects and actions can create different sounds. They apply this knowledge to design and create sound effects for a specific prompt. 

Year 2

Students learn about the properties of materials and how materials can be physically changed without changing their inherent properties. They apply this knowledge to design and make a 3D sculpture using repurposed everyday materials.

Year 3

Students learn about the observable properties of solids and liquids and how adding or removing heat leads to a change of state. They apply this knowledge to design and create a sensory experience involving solids, liquids and the adding and removal of heat.

Year 3

Students learn about the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals, and their importance as resources. They explore a way to sustainably use or reuse a resource that exists because of soils, rocks or minerals, in a design challenge adapted to their local context.

Year 3

Students learn about the transfer of heat, resultant changes in temperature and the conductivity of materials. They explore real-life applications by designing a playground or piece of playground equipment that limits the impacts of heat.

Year 4

Students are introduced to concepts about forces, including friction, gravity, magnetism and buoyancy, in a practical engineering challenge where their apply their learning to design or improve an accessibility vehicle that can traverse diverse terrains and weather conditions.

Year 4

Students learn about the properties of natural and man-made materials including fibres, metals, glass and plastics. They explore how to test materials for different properties, and examine real-life applications by designing packaging suitable to store and transport food, justifying why each material has been chosen. 

Year 4

Students learn about the roles and interactions of consumers, producers and decomposers with their local habitat and use food chains to represent the feeding relationships. They apply their knowledge to their school grounds and develop agency in their local environment.

Year 5

Students learn about changes to the Earth’s surface caused by weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition occurring over varying time scales. They design, and potentially test, an erosion control strategy for an area of need in their school/local environment.

Year 5

Students learn about how light is transferred, how it helps them to see, and how reflections, shadows, and refraction occurs. They explore real-life applications by designing and/or making an artwork that utilises light in an artistic or celebratory capacity.

Year 5

Students learn about solids, liquids and gases, determine their properties and consider how their particulate arrangement relates to their properties and behaviour. They study science communication to communicate what they have learned.

Year 6

Students learn about reversible and irreversible physical and chemical changes in the context of food preparation and cooking. They apply this knowledge to design and participate in a food experience.

Year 6

Students use scientific models to explore phenomena on Earth involving the relative position of the Sun and Moon, such as day and night, variable day length and the phases of the Moon. They explore the wider solar system and consider the scientific and technological innovations that have enabled humans to study space.

Year 6

Students learn about the role of the components in an electrical circuit and how they affect the transfer and transformation of energy. Using the context of blackouts, students explore how switches work and design prototype backup electrical circuits.