The senses
The five main senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Sense organs such as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin collect information and send it to your brain.
Learning Wiki
Science
Living things, materials, forces, space and the human body.
Around ages 5–11
Primary
Weather
Weather is what the air is like at a particular place and time, such as hot or cold, wet or dry, windy or calm, sunny or cloudy. It changes from day to day.
Parts of a plant
The main parts of a flowering plant are the roots, stem, leaves and flowers. Each part has a job, from soaking up water to making food and producing seeds.
Habitats
A habitat is the natural home of a living thing, where it finds the food, water, shelter and space it needs to survive.
Living things
Living things are organisms that grow, feed, get rid of waste, sense the world and reproduce. Plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are all alive.
Teeth
Teeth bite, tear and grind food so it can be swallowed and digested. Children have 20 baby teeth, which are replaced by up to 32 adult teeth.
Healthy eating
Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods from all the main food groups, with plenty of fruit and vegetables and water to drink, so your body gets everything it needs to grow.
Life cycles
A life cycle is the series of changes a living thing goes through from the start of its life to becoming an adult that can produce young, so the cycle begins again.
Magnets
A magnet is an object that pulls on certain metals, such as iron, and pushes or pulls on other magnets. Every magnet has a north pole and a south pole.
Materials
Materials are what objects are made from, such as wood, metal, plastic and glass. Each has properties, like being hard, bendy, waterproof or see-through, that suit it to some jobs.
Shadows
A shadow is a dark area made when an opaque object blocks light. Because light travels in straight lines, it cannot bend round the object, leaving a dark shape behind it.
The human body
The human body is made of trillions of cells that form organs, such as the heart, lungs and brain. Organs work together in systems that keep you moving, breathing, eating and thinking.
Forces
A force is a push or a pull. Forces can make things start moving, speed up, slow down, change direction or change shape. They are measured in newtons.
Seasons
Seasons happen because Earth is tilted. As Earth orbits the Sun over a year, each half of the planet takes turns leaning towards the Sun, getting more direct sunlight and longer days.
The Moon
The Moon is Earth's natural satellite, a rocky ball about a quarter of Earth's width that orbits us roughly once a month. It shines by reflecting sunlight.
The solar system
The solar system is the Sun and everything that orbits it, including eight planets, their moons, dwarf planets such as Pluto, asteroids and comets.
Evaporation
Evaporation is when a liquid slowly turns into a gas from its surface, like a puddle drying in the sun. It happens faster when it is warm, windy or the liquid is spread out.
Food chains
A food chain shows who eats whom in nature, starting with a plant that makes its own food and following the energy as it passes from one living thing to the next.
Skeleton
The skeleton is the frame of bones inside your body. It holds you up, protects soft organs like the brain and heart, and works with muscles so you can move. Adults have 206 bones.
The heart
The heart is a muscle about the size of your fist that pumps blood around your body, carrying oxygen and food to every cell and taking waste away.
The water cycle
The water cycle is the endless movement of water between the land, the sea and the sky. Water evaporates, condenses into clouds, falls as rain or snow and collects in rivers and oceans.
Friction
Friction is a force that acts when two surfaces rub or slide against each other. It slows things down and turns movement into heat, and it also stops us slipping.
Lungs
The lungs are two spongy organs in your chest that take oxygen from the air into your blood and remove carbon dioxide when you breathe out.
Rocks
Rocks are natural solids made of minerals. The three types are igneous (cooled melted rock), sedimentary (squashed layers of bits) and metamorphic (changed by heat and pressure).
Solids, liquids and gases
Solids, liquids and gases are the three main states of matter. Solids keep their shape, liquids flow and take the shape of their container, and gases spread out to fill any space.
Sound
Sound is made when something vibrates. The vibrations travel through air, water or solids to our ears. Sound cannot travel through empty space.
Electricity
Electricity is the flow of tiny charged particles called electrons through a material. It powers lights, phones and machines, and it can come from batteries or the mains supply.
Fossils
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago, usually found in sedimentary rock. They help scientists learn how life on Earth has changed.
Gravity
Gravity is the force that pulls objects towards each other. Earth's gravity pulls everything towards its centre, which is why things fall down and why the Moon orbits Earth.
Light
Light is a form of energy that travels in straight lines, very fast. We see things when light from them enters our eyes, either because they make light or because they reflect it.
Digestive system
The digestive system is the long tube and organs that break food down into tiny pieces your body can absorb for energy and growth, then get rid of what is left as waste.
Electric circuits
An electric circuit is a complete loop that electricity flows around. A simple circuit has a battery, wires and a component like a bulb. If the loop is broken, the electricity stops.
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is how green plants make their own food. They use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into sugar, giving out oxygen.
Around ages 11–16
Secondary
Evolution
Evolution is the way living things change over many generations. Individuals with features that help them survive tend to have more young, so those features become more common over time.
Cells
A cell is the smallest living unit. Every living thing is made of one or more cells, each with a membrane, cytoplasm and, in plants and animals, a nucleus that controls it.
Atoms
An atom is the tiny building block of all matter. It has a nucleus of protons and neutrons in the middle with electrons around it. The number of protons decides which element it is.
The periodic table
The periodic table is a chart of all 118 known chemical elements, arranged in order of atomic number. Elements in the same column have similar properties.