Year 6 Science Scheme of Work

The Circulatory System

• –Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels, and blood.
• –Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs, and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.
• –Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

• –Dissect a lamb's heart to identify the chambers, valves, and major vessels, then compare with a diagram.
• –Measure resting and active pulse rates and plot the recovery time on a line graph, discussing the implications for heart health.
• –Create a large-scale model of the circulatory system on the playground using ropes, pupils as red blood cells, and stations for the lungs and body tissues.
• –Research the effects of smoking, alcohol, and poor diet on heart health and present findings as a public health leaflet.

Evolution and Inheritance

• –Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago.
• –Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents.
• –Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

• –Examine fossil evidence from Year 3 and extend it by exploring how organisms have changed over geological time.
• –Use a selection of photographs to identify inherited traits and explore how variation within a species occurs.
• –Simulate natural selection using a 'peppered moth' activity to model how the environment selects advantageous traits.
• –Research an animal adaptation and explain the evolutionary advantage it confers in that particular environment.

Light

• –Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines.
• –Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye.
• –Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes.
• –Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them, and to predict the size of shadows when the light source or object is moved.

• –Use a laser pointer and smoke or mist to observe that light travels in straight lines and cannot bend around corners.
• –Investigate refraction using a transparent container of water, observing how a straw appears bent at the water surface.
• –Explore how a periscope works using mirrors, linking to the law of reflection.
• –Carry out a quantitative shadow investigation, changing the distance of the light source and measuring shadow size, then plot the results as a graph.

Electricity: Advanced Circuits

• –Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
• –Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers, and the on/off position of switches.
• –Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.

• –Build circuits using varying numbers of cells and observe the effect on bulb brightness, then explain the pattern.
• –Add additional bulbs in series and parallel configurations and compare the effect on brightness.
• –Draw formal circuit diagrams using standard electrical symbols (BS EN 60617).
• –Design and build a working electrical device with a circuit diagram, such as a lighthouse or a quiz board.

Classification of Living Things

• –Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants, and animals.
• –Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.

• –Explore the five kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, protists, bacteria) using photographs and short texts.
• –Build a classification hierarchy for a set of organisms from kingdom down to species, using the Linnaean system.
• –Use and create multi-stage classification keys for increasingly complex sets of organisms.
• –Research a micro-organism and discuss why microscopic life is difficult to classify using observable features alone.

Working Scientifically: Consolidation and Enquiry

• –Plan different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary.
• –Take measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision.
• –Record data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs.
• –Report and present findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships, and explanations of results.

• –Design and carry out an independent investigation of their own choosing, planning variables, method, and risk assessment.
• –Analyse a given data set with anomalies and discuss how to handle and report outliers.
• –Write a full scientific report including method, results, conclusion, and evaluation of reliability.
• –Peer-review another group's investigation report using a structured scientific feedback framework.