Samoa Year 5 Science Curriculum

This curriculum is organized around five strands: Nature of Science, The World of Life, The World and Beyond, The World of Materials, and The World of Physical Phenomena. Each strand has specific achievement objectives and learning outcomes for Year 5 students.

Strand 1: Nature of Science

• Understanding about Science: Students recognize that scientific knowledge can change over time and that there can be multiple explanations for natural phenomena. They understand that background knowledge guides investigations.
• Investigating in Science: Students conduct guided investigations, formulate questions, interpret observations, develop models, and draw conclusions. They identify variables and evaluate the fairness of experiments.
• Communicating in Science: Students communicate their findings through various means, including verbal, pictorial, and diagrammatic representations. They access information from computer resources.
• Participating and Contributing: Students describe how science has led to improved lifestyles, discussing examples like medicine, synthetic fabrics, telephones, and cooking methods.

Strand 2: The World of Life

• Life Cycles: Students describe the life cycles of different animals and explain the purpose of each stage.
• Animal Groups: Students group animals according to observable properties and describe the features that distinguish different groups, recognizing diversity within those groups.
• Environmental Factors: Students describe how factors like sunlight, temperature, soil composition, space, and food availability affect the growth of living organisms.

Strand 3: The World and Beyond

• Earth's Components: Students describe the layers of the Earth, the atmosphere, and the water cycle, explaining its effects on daily life.
• Changes Over Time: Students describe how the Earth's surface has changed, explaining processes like weathering and erosion and their role in soil formation.
• Human Impact: Students describe how human actions cause environmental changes and can upset the balance of nature, suggesting ways to prevent erosion.

Strand 4: The World of Materials

• States of Matter: Students describe the differences between solids, liquids, and gases, identifying them in everyday materials.
• Chemical Reactions: Students describe observations of chemical reactions with everyday substances, such as the reaction of carbonates with acids.
• Useful Reactions: Students investigate and report on chemical reactions in cooking and describe how these reactions are used to create useful materials.

Strand 5: The World of Physical Phenomena

• Forces and Motion: Students recognize that the movement of objects through air is affected by gravity, air resistance, and shape. They design experiments to demonstrate these concepts.
• Light: Students distinguish between light sources and reflectors, describing how light can be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. They predict the results of looking through colored lenses.