The National Curriculum for Science in Year 4.

Working Scientifically

During years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:

• 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.

  All Living Things

  Our children will be taught to:

• 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 to living things.

  Animals including humans

  Our children will be taught to:

• 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.

  States of Matter

  Our children will be taught to:

• 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.

  Sound

  Our children will be taught to:

• 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.

  Electricity

  Our children will be taught to:

• 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.