Science at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 5)

• Tell children a story about inadequate diets eg sailors developing scurvy, babies from well-off families in eighteenth century Paris surviving less well than babies from poorer families and explain how this puzzled doctors at the time and how they thought of explanations and tested them.

• Help children to use secondary sources eg reference books, CD-ROMs, leaflets from supermarkets, health centres and pharmacies to find out about foods which are rich in fats/oils, those which are rich in sugars/starch and those which provide materials needed for growth. Discuss with children why fruit and vegetables are also important for a healthy diet and possible effects of too much fat and sugar. Help children to produce a display illustrating adequate and varied diets or a week's menus which provide a varied and balanced diet.

• Describe and explain in terms of the muscles working what happens during and after playing games or doing other strenuous exercise eg we breathe faster, feel hotter, feel tired and what happens after a short rest.

• Using models or other secondary sources, locate the heart and lungs within the rib cage. Show children a model of a heart to show size, vessels and thickness of the walls. Using secondary sources eg video, CD-ROM explain that the muscle in the walls of the heart contracts regularly, pumping blood around the body. Demonstrate a pump eg a balloon pump and emphasise it is used to push air into the balloon. Using models or video demonstrate to children that the heart pumps the blood to all parts of the body where it is needed eg muscles, brain, lungs.

• Ask children about the relationship between heart beat and pulse. Explain to children that pulse rate is measured as beats per unit time (minute). Show children how to measure resting pulse rate and ask them to take and record their own several times. Ask children to suggest why they didn't get the same result each time and why it is important to make several measurements. Ask them to contribute the result they think is most accurate to a class record of resting pulse rate. Help children to convert this into a bar chart where data is grouped. Ask children questions about the bar chart eg
  • Which was the most common range for pulse rate?
  • What were the highest and lowest pulse rates?
  • Were these very common?

• Ask children to speculate about factors which could change the pulse rate eg exercise and to make a prediction eg if I run for two minutes it will increase my pulse rate, if I run for three minutes it will increase more and take longer to get back to normal and to investigate the relationship between exercise and pulse rate. Discuss with children what sort of exercise they think raises pulse rate most and why it is important to investigate the effect on several children, not just one. After children have carried out their investigation help them to represent their data as a line graph. Talk with children about what their graph shows and, if possible, show them other graphs or data relating to changes in pulse rate and ask them to interpret these.

  Ask children to think of additional questions eg would we have got the same results if we'd used adults instead of children? boys as well as girls? and to review their conclusions in the light of these questions.

• Discuss with children which muscles they move when they exercise eg running, jogging, swimming and relate this to how muscles move their skeletons. Review previous work on skeleton, muscles and exercise by asking children to produce an information leaflet about a form of exercise.

• Review what children know and understand from the previous key stage unit 'Health and growth' (Unit 2A). Explain the definition of a drug as any substance which changes our physical or mental state and talk with children about possible side effects. Encourage children to think about why we take medicines even though there may be unpleasant side effects. Use secondary sources eg video, CD-ROM, leaflets to illustrate effects of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs. Ask children to make posters to inform other children of the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.