United Kingdom Year 4 Science Curriculum

This outlines the science curriculum for Year 4 in the United Kingdom, based on the National Curriculum in England.

Working Scientifically

Throughout the science curriculum, pupils will develop their "working scientifically" skills, which are embedded within the subject content. These skills include:

• 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.
• Gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways.
• Recording findings using scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables.
• Reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations.
• Using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions, suggest improvements and raise further questions.
• Identifying differences, similarities or changes related to scientific ideas and processes.
• Using scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.

Subject Content

Living Things and Their Habitats

• Classification: Pupils will learn to group living things in a variety of ways and use classification keys to identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment.
• Environments: Pupils will recognize that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things. They will explore examples of human impact (both positive and negative) on environments.

Animals, Including Humans

• Digestive System: Pupils will describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans.
• Teeth: Pupils will identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions.
• Food Chains: Pupils will construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey.

States of Matter

• Solids, Liquids, and Gases: Pupils will compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases.
• Changes of State: Pupils will 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).
• Water Cycle: Pupils will identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Sound

• Sound Production: Pupils will identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating.
• Sound Travel: Pupils will recognize that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear.
• Pitch and Volume: Pupils will find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it, and between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it.
• Distance and Sound: Pupils will recognize that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.

Electricity

• Electrical Appliances: Pupils will identify common appliances that run on electricity.
• Simple Circuits: Pupils will construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers.
• Complete Circuits: Pupils will 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.
• Switches: Pupils will recognize that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit.
• Conductors and Insulators: Pupils will recognize some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.