Curriculum Ideas & School Examples

Grouping and classifying materials 1. Pupils should be taught: to compare everyday materials and objects on the basis of their material properties, including hardness, strength, flexibility and magnetic behaviour, and to relate these properties to everyday uses of the materials that some materials are better thermal insulators than others that some materials are better electrical conductors than others to describe and group rocks and soils on the basis of their characteristics, including appearance, texture and permeability to recognise differences between solids, liquids and gases, in terms of ease of flow and maintenance of shape and volume.

Try using web pages (  Group Homepage or  Custom page) to link to videos such as BBC Science clips- materials & their properties, materials and their uses. Through a  forum ask the pupils to identify which materials appear in the video, its properties and its uses. Use a  wiki to collaboratively plan the building of a structure using appropriate class-based materials. Create a wiki for pupils to classify different materials according to their properties using terms such as magnetic, electrical conductor, thermal insulator.

Garland Junior School - West Berks- web page providing links and activities

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