New Zealand

The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades

The science learning area in the English-medium document has five strands: the Nature of Science, the Physical World, the Material World, the Living World, and Planet Earth and Beyond.

The following summary details Level 3 of the English-medium curriculum.^m The majority of students should have been introduced to or taught each of the following topics or skills by the end of Year 5:

• Nature of Science—Appreciate science as a way of explaining the world and that science knowledge changes over time; identify ways scientists collaborate and provide evidence supporting their ideas; build on prior experiences, working together to share and examine their own and others’ knowledge; ask questions, find evidence, explore simple models, and carry out appropriate investigations to develop simple explanations; begin to use a range of scientific symbols, conventions, and vocabulary; engage with a range of science texts and begin to question the purposes for which these texts are constructed; use their growing science knowledge when considering issues of personal concern; and explore various aspects of an issue and make decisions about possible actions
• Living World—Recognize that there are life processes common to all living things, and that these occur in different ways; explain how living things are suited to their particular habitats and how they respond to environmental changes, both natural and human-induced; begin to group plants, animals, and other living things into science-based classifications; and explore how groups of living things in the world have changed over long periods of time and appreciate that some living things in New Zealand are quite different from those in other areas of the world
• Planet Earth and Beyond—Appreciate that water, air, rocks and soil, and life forms make up our planet, and recognize these as Earth’s resources; investigate the water cycle and its effect on climate, land forms, and life; and investigate the components of the solar system, developing an appreciation of the distances between them
• Physical World—Explore, describe, and represent patterns and trends for everyday examples of physical phenomena, such as movement, forces, electricity and magnetism, light, sound, waves, and heat. For example, identify and describe the effect of forces (contact and noncontact) on the motion of objects; and identify and describe everyday examples of sources of energy, forms of energy, and energy transformations
• Material World—Group a range of materials in different ways, based on observations and measurements of characteristic chemical and physical properties; compare chemical and physical changes; and relate observed, characteristic chemical and physical properties of a range of different materials to technological uses and natural processes

The following summary details Level 5 of the English-medium document. The majority of students should have been introduced to or taught each of the following topics or skills by the end of Year 9:

• Nature of Science—Understand that scientists’ investigations are informed by current scientific theories, and aim to collect evidence to be interpreted through processes of logical argument; develop and carry out more complex investigations, including using models; show an increasing awareness of the complexity of working scientifically, including recognition of multiple variables; begin to evaluate the suitability of the investigative methods chosen; use a wider range of science vocabulary, symbols, and conventions; apply their understandings of science to evaluate both popular and scientific texts (including visual and numerical literacy); and develop an understanding of socio-scientific issues by gathering relevant scientific information in order to draw evidence-based conclusions and to take action where appropriate
• Living World—Identify the key structural features and functions involved in the life processes of plants and animals; describe the organization of life at the cellular level; investigate the interdependence of living things (including humans) in an ecosystem; and describe the basic processes by which genetic information is passed from one generation to the next
• Planet Earth and Beyond—Investigate the composition, structure, and features of the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere; investigate how heat from the sun, Earth, and human activities is distributed around Earth by the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere; and investigate conditions on the planets and their moons, and the factors affecting them
• Physical World—Identify and describe the patterns associated with physical phenomena found in simple everyday situations involving movement, forces, electricity and magnetism, light, sound, waves, and heat (e.g., identify and describe energy changes and conservation of energy, simple electrical circuits, and the effect of contact and noncontact forces on the motion of objects); and explore a technological or biological application of physics
• Material World—Investigate the chemical and physical properties of different groups of substances, (e.g., acids and bases, fuels, and metals); distinguish between pure substances and mixtures and between elements and compounds; describe the structure of atoms of different elements; distinguish at the particle level between an element and a compound, and a pure substance and a mixture; and link the properties of different groups of substances to the way they are used in society or occur in nature