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Year 5

What’s the matter?

Solids, liquids, and gases - they are literally everywhere! What are their properties and how do they behave? Explore exactly that in this unit, and take a closer 'look' at air and how temperature can change its properties.

What’s the matter? addresses AC Science Understanding ACSSU077 Solids, liquids and gases have different observable properties and behave in different ways, through the context of exploring everyday materials.

Explore our new sequences for Year 5 aligned to AC V9

What’s the matter? provides students with hands-on opportunities to:

  • explore the properties of liquids, including viscosity
  • identify properties of solids and apply their knowledge to determine if powder is a solid or liquid
  • investigate air as a gas to find out if it takes up space

Students apply their new learning by:

  • planning and conducting an investigation to discover if temperature affects the volume of a gas

Linking science with literacy

In the Primary Connections approach, students are supported to create representations that draw on and strengthen their literacy development. In What’s the matter?, students represent and explain their understanding about how solids, liquids and gases have different observable properties and behave in different ways, by creating these representations:

  • Annotated drawing
  • Factual text
  • Science chat-board
  • Data table
  • Word wall