This document provides an overview of various science topics covered in Grade 6, including living things, states of matter, forces and energy, human reproduction, development and aging. Key concepts discussed are how science involves testing predictions and using evidence to develop explanations, how living things can be classified and depend on each other and their environment, the properties of solids, liquids and gases, how forces can act through contact or at a distance, the process of human reproduction from sexual intercourse to childbirth, and the physical and emotional changes of adolescence and life stages.
1. Grade 6 (MYP 1)
Diving into Science
-Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships.
-Science involves testing predictions by gathering data and using evidence to develop explanations of events and
phenomena.
-Science may be discovered by chance/ accidentally.
-Working Safely in a Science Lab.
Living Things
-Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things.
-Living things have life cycles.
-Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and the environment to survive.
-There are differences within and between groups of organisms; classification helps organise this diversity
-Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment.
-Interactions between organisms can be described in terms of food chains and food webs; human activity can affect these
interactions.
What’s the Matter?
-Natural and processed materials have a range of physical properties; These properties can influence their use.
-Solids, liquids and gases have different observable properties and behave in different ways.
-Changes to materials can be reversible, such as melting, freezing, evaporating; or irreversible, such as burning and
rusting.
-The properties of the different states of matter can be explained in terms of the motion and arrangement of particles.
Forces and Energy
-Forces can be exerted by one object on another through direct contact or from a distance.
-Change to an object’s motion is caused by unbalanced forces acting on the object.
-Energy appears in different forms including movement (kinetic energy), heat and potential energy, and causes change
within systems.
Growing up and exploring Human limitations
- The male sex cell is the sperm (made in the testis) and the female sex cell (made in the ovary) is the egg.
- The sperm tube carries sperm to the penis; glands add fluid to the sperms to make semen; the egg tube
carries an egg to the uterus every month.
- In a pregnant woman the baby grows in the uterus.
- During sexual intercorse, the sperm meets the egg (if the egg is available) and fertilisation happens.
- At fertilisation the sperm penetrates the egg and its nucleus joins with the egg nucleus.
- If the egg is fertilised it passes down the egg tube and settles into the uterus; the fertilised egg grows into a
fetus.
- If an egg is not fertilised, then the uterus lining breaks down and leaves through the vagina. This is a period.
- The placenta acts as a barrier to infections and harmful substances; the cord carries blood with oxygen and
food to the fetus from the placenta; later the cord and placenta are passed out as the after-birth.
- The fluid sac acts as a shock absorber to protect the fetus.
- Contractions of the uterus muscles are the start of labour; babies are usually born head first through the
vagina.
- At adolescence our bodies and our emotions change. Hormones are chemicals that bring about these
changes.
- Life stages (about physical and emotion): infancy, early childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle
adulthood, later adulthood.
Light and Sound
-Light and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed.
- Light and Sound travel as waves.
-Light from a source forms shadows and can be absorbed, reflected and refracted