Bound for Success Scope and Sequence Statements

SCIENCEEarth and BeyondConcept In Year 1the student:In Year 2the student:In Year 3the student:In Year 4the student:In Year 5the student:In Year 6the student:In Year 7the student:In Year 8the student:In Year 9the student:There arerelationships betweenthe Earth, our solarsystem and theuniverse• Knows that some changesin our behaviour dependon the sun (e.g. says “wedon’t swim in winterbecause it’s cold” ).• Knows that we live on aplanet called ‘Earth’ andthat there are other planets.• Explores relationshipsbetween distance andapparent size of objects.Understands that the sun ismany times bigger than theearth but appears muchsmaller because it is so faraway. Understands that themoon is much smaller thanthe Earth and tinycompared to the sun but itappears to be comparableto the size of the sunbecause it is closer to theEarth than the sun.• Knows that our solarsystem is made up of thesun and eight planetsincluding Earth.• Knows that there are sevenother planets besides theEarth in our solar systemand that all of these aredifferent distances awayfrom the Earth and allrevolve around the sun –describes this using amodel.• Understands that the Earthturns slowly on its ownaxis so that sometimes wecan see the sun and othertimes we can’t; describesthis using a model.• Understands that many ofthe other planets are muchgreater in size than theEarth but appear smallerdue to their great distancefrom Earth.• Can name the eight planetsin the solar system in orderof their distance from thesun.• Knows that our sun is astar and that all stars are asbright as or brighter than,our sun and learns this byinvestigating “doesdistance away from anobject affect itsbrightness?’• Knows that other planetsdo not support life as weknow it here on Earth.• Knows the commonfeatures in the night skyincluding comets andmeteors [a meteor is afalling star ∗ ] and knowsthat we can often see otherplants with a telescope orthe naked eye.• Knows that many stars aremuch greater in size thanour own star, the sun, butappear much smaller dueto the distance from us.• Knows that each of theother seven planets in thesolar system is different toearth in many waysincluding temperature, andrecognises the immensedistances across the solarsystem.• Knows that the moonaffects the Earth causingtides. Knows that a totaleclipse causes the moon toblock the sun’s rays fromreaching Earth.• Understands the spatialrelationships between theEarth, Moon and Sun.• Knows that the phases ofthe moon are the result ofthe reflection of the sun onthe moon’s surface [thephases of the moon are dueto clouds ∗ ]• Knows that stars formpatterns in the sky but thatthese stars are differentdistances away from theEarth and that these are allsuns like our suns but ofdifferent sizes.• Recognises the SouthernCross constellation in thenight sky.• Compares the sizes ofother plants to Earth andthe relative distances ofthese to each other andfrom the sun; understandsthat some planets havetheir own moon or moons.• Uses a telescope toobserve changes in thenight sky and identifiesnearby planets.• Knows the requirementsfor life on earth andidentifies what would berequired for life on otherplanets and in space.• Understands the basicfeatures of each of theeight planets and thedifferences between rocky(inner) planets and gaseous(outer) planets.• Knows our solar system islocated in the Milky Waygalaxy and that there aremillions of other galaxiesthat make up the Universe.• Knows features of theuniverse – e.g. galaxies,comets, asteroids - andtheir relationship to eachother and to the universe asa whole.• Considers and explainsscientific theories of theorigin of the universe;Explains how man’sknowledge andunderstanding of theuniverse has developedover time aided by thedevelopment of technologyfor this purpose, includingtelescopes, observatoriesand space travel).• Identifies key figures inthe history of astronomy(Newton, Galileo,Einstein) and knows theircontribution.• Comprehends some of thedifficulties of space traveland recognizes moderndevelopments in this area.• Knows that things on orabove the Earth’s surfaceare pulled towards it bygravity.• Knows that gravity is aforce that pulls smallerobjects towards largerones, and that because thesun is so much bigger thanall the planets this forcekeeps the planets in orbitaround the sun.• Knows that the force ofgravity keeps the moon inorbit around the Earth andholds humans to theEarth’s surface.• Knows that gravity is aforce that acts betweenobjects, tending to pullobjects of smaller masstowards objects of largermass.• Knows that gravity keepsthe planets of the solarsystem in their orbitsaround the sun and themoon in orbit around theEarth and holds humans tothe Earth’s surface.• Know that gravitationalattraction exists betweenall the objects in the SolarSystem.• Knows that all objects inthe solar system areinfluenced by the force ofgravity – a force that tendsto pull smaller objectstowards larger ones – andthat the bigger the object,the greater the force itexerts on other bodies (e.g.the Sun exerts a very largeforce on all the planets; theEarth exerts acomparatively smallerforce on the moon and onhumans).∗ identifies common misconceptions in ScienceBound for Success Scope and Sequence Statements V2 Page 52 Working Document Semester One 2007