Author: Amanda McGarrigle

Term 5

Background Information
The principal focus of science teaching in Upper Key Stage 2 is to enable pupils to develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas.
They should do this through exploring and talking about their ideas; asking their own questions about scientific phenomena; and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically. At Upper Key Stage 2, they should encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates.
They should also begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. They should select the most appropriate ways to answer science questions using different types of scientific enquiry, including observing changes over different periods of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out comparative and fair tests and finding things out using a wide range of secondary sources of information.
Pupils should draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings.
Pupils might work scientifically by: observing and raising questions about local animals and how they are adapted to their environment; comparing how some living things are adapted to survive in extreme conditions, for example, cactuses, penguins and camels. They might analyse the advantages and disadvantages of specific adaptations, such as being on two feet rather than four, having a long or a short beak, having gills or lungs, tendrils on climbing plants, brightly coloured and scented flowers.

In this unit the children will…
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
http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/demonstrating-how-light-travels-in-straight-lines/1625.html

By the end of this unit….
All children will:
be able to understand why it important to learn about light
be able to understand that light appears to travel in straight lines.
be able to 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.
use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them.
be able to 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.
be able to plan a fair-test; recognising and controlling variables.
Most children will:
be able to plan an enquiry that will answer a question.
be able to use scientific evidence to support or refute on idea
Some children will:
use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings.
be able to present findings from an enquiry.
be able to use test results to make predictions to set up further comparative tests.

The children will explore:
What they know already (KWL grid)ime
Light – Why learn about it?
What evidence would prove that light travels in straight lines? Pupils make their own model to prove it. Draw their model. Explain the path that the light takes.
How can we show why shadows have the same shape as the object that casts them? Through drawings, children can try and show the path that the light takes in order for the shadows to be formed.
Fair-test investigation – Which materials is best at reflecting light? Record their findings in a bar chart.
Problem solving – How can the detective see over the wall? (Making a periscope) Use drawings and ext to explain how their product works.
How much light passes through different objects - record their results in a table
fossils and figure out how they are evidence of living things changing. do we know about living things that have lived in the pahat We h materials allow electricity to pass through them?
Which metals are the best conductors of electricity?
What are the best conditions for dissolving sugar in the fastest time?
What is the best material for filtering?
Which changes cannot be easily reversed?

Key Vocabulary
Simple comparisons: dark, dull, bright, very bright
Comparative vocabulary: brighter, duller, and darker
Superlative vocabulary: brightest, dullest, and darkest Opaque, translucent, transparent
Shadow – block, absence of light Reflect – bounce, mirror, reflection
See – light source Sun – sunset, sunrise, position
Key Scientists—Thomas Young (1773 – 1829) – Wave theory of light. Double-slit experiment.
Sir David Brewster (1781 – 1868) - Deduced ``Brewster's law'' giving the angle of incidence that produces reflected light which is completely polarized; invented the kaleidoscope and the stereoscope, and improved the spectroscope
Jean-Bernard-Leon Foucault (1819-1868) – Accurately measured the speed of light