Science
Purpose of study
A high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science.
Science Curriculum (School Progression of Skills and Coverage)
Science Skills Progression by Year Group
Science Skills by Enquiry Type
Science National Curriculum Information
Science Vocabulary Progression
National Curriculum for Science
At Markyate Village school, we believe that science is part of our everyday lives, and often links to many of the other subjects we teach. We often include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) projects in our teaching and learning to foster wider, exciting learning opportunities for our children.
We teach pupils to learn to develop scientific skills such as how to:
- carry out a fair test
- research
- measure accurately
- observation
- identify patterns and draw conclusions
- identify and classify
Some of the skills the children will learn include:
- How to properly use scientific equipment; to plan experiments and to carry them out, to record results and communicate what is founds; to identify patterns; draw conclusions that are linked to their results.
- Children will learn to interpret results from data presented in different ways. For example: by looking at data tables, pie charts and different types of graphs. The children will consider different ways to present their results and which is the most suitable for communicating their results.
- Children will develop their scientific vocabulary so that they can use subject specific terminology accurately and with confidence.
- Children will learn that it is highly valuable to be able to ask interesting questions, as well as to answer them.
We believe that science is an important part of our everyday lives and often links to other subjects in our curriculum. We often include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) projects into our teaching provision to provide wider, exciting opportunities for our children to learn about the world and develop their understanding and skills.
Exciting Installation of a Poly-Tunnel!
Over the Easter break, we have been able to install a new poly-tunnel, to support the biology element of our science curriculum. The tunnel is 3 metres by 14 metres long and will be used by each class in the school to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables. The produce will be harvested and used either in the salad bar in our school dinning room at lunch-times, or will be sold as part of our Farm Stall. Experts form the world-renowned Rothamsted Centre in Harpenden will also be working with us on this exciting new project!
We are looking forward to our children enjoying the hands-on experience of growing food, which links both to the nutrition section of our Design and Technology curriculum, but also to the themes of sustainability and caring for our environment, which are important to our school community values.
What happened during Science Week?
We started the week with a fascinating science assembly. We were lucky enough to be joined by Mr Christmas (a geneticist from Sweden), who explained how animals are classified and how evolution can be examined by studying creatures' DNA. We answered quiz questions about the different animals and got to watch a demonstration on how to make elephant toothpaste.
Throughout the week each class has been conducting practical investigations using our science enquiry skills. Building on their knowledge of conducting fair tests, taking accurate measurements and developing conclusions.
Year 6 enjoyed taking part in a live Webinar called 'Seabed Safari' where they learned all about the adaptation of sea creatures within their habitats.
Science Week in Early Years Our class were really excited to be learning about plants and flowers as part of this half term’s topic, ‘How does your garden grow?’ and this fell perfectly for Science week! We came up with some great ideas about what a scientist does. We then started our own scientific enquiry/experiment – and all planted a bean, starting our own ‘bean diary’ to record our experiment, including the equipment we needed, what plants need to grow and the method we followed. During science week, we were really excited to observe the changes that had occurred over the week and we carefully recorded our results, after comparing them with our friends and discussing what we noticed. We have now had two weeks of growth – our beans are doing well!!
Science Fayre In Years 3 and 4
Year 3 and 4 have been working really hard over the last few weeks, creating a range of science investigations to share with KS2 children and all of our parents at our 'Markyate Village School Science Fair'. Each group chose their question, worked on the variables, recorded results and created a presentation and a display to share at the fair. The children were able to explain the purpose of each of their experiments and what the results meant. Excellent work Jade and Diamond Classes!
Year 5 Explore the Solar System with their Planetarium Ignite As part of our Science week activities, the Astronomy Roadshow visited Year 5 for their science IGNITE. The children spent the morning in an inflatable planetarium. The children were able to explore the solar system as it was projected on the roof of the 5m dome. They learnt about the features of different planets, stars and constellations, the moon's phases, life in space, famous astronauts, and all this while surrounding by the magic of the universe!
Year 6 Take Part in a STEM Competition
Year 6 took part in the STEM (SET Point) create a bird challenge, where children have worked in groups to design and make a bird from paper, without using scissors or glue.
They also took part in a chemistry experiment that looked at the different properties of solutions.
