England Years 7–9 science curriculum

Outcome Forces as pushes or pulls, arising from the interaction between 2 objects. Taught in lesson 3, the balloon rocket.

Lessons: Build It, Launch It (Can you drop an egg without breaking it?, What makes a paper plane fly farthest?, How does a rocket push itself into space?)

Practice: Build It, Launch It workbook · Pushes, Pulls and Magnets workbook · Forces at Work: Gravity, Resistance, Levers and Pulleys workbook

Outcome The interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops. Taught in lessons 2 and 3, food webs only.

Lessons: Food Webs: Who Eats Whom?

Practice: Food Webs: Who Eats Whom? workbook · Our Living Planet workbook

Outcome The differences in arrangements, in motion and in closeness of particles explaining changes of state, shape and density, the anomaly of ice-water transition. Taught in lesson 2, why ice floats.

Lessons: Solids, Liquids and Gases (Where does a puddle go?, Why does ice float?)

Practice: Solids, Liquids and Gases workbook · Earth and Sky at Home workbook · Kitchen Chemistry for Families workbook · Winter Science at Home workbook · Living with Water: Salt, Rice and the Mekong workbook · Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move workbook

Outcome Conservation of mass, changes of state and chemical reactions. Taught in lesson 2.

Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Is it a new substance?, Where does the mass go?, Can red cabbage tell acid from base?)

Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook

Outcome Fuels and energy resources. Taught in lessons 1 to 3.

Lessons: Power Up: Where Electricity Comes From (Where does our classroom's electricity come from?, Can the wind power our school?, Why don't we use solar power everywhere?)

Practice: Power Up: Where Electricity Comes From workbook · Earth Day Investigations: Make Your School Better workbook · Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact workbook

Outcome Cells as the fundamental unit of living organisms, including how to observe, interpret and record cell structure using a light microscope. Taught in lesson 1.

Lessons: Cells: The Smallest Living Things

Practice: Cells: The Smallest Living Things workbook

Outcome The role of diffusion in the movement of materials in and between cells. Taught in lessons 2 and 4.

Lessons: Cells: The Smallest Living Things

Practice: Cells: The Smallest Living Things workbook

Outcome Chemical reactions as the rearrangement of atoms. Taught in lessons 1 and 2.

Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Is it a new substance?, Where does the mass go?, Can red cabbage tell acid from base?)

Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook

Outcome The pH scale for measuring acidity/alkalinity; and indicators. Taught in lesson 3, red cabbage.

Lessons: Kitchen Chemistry (Is it a new substance?, Where does the mass go?, Can red cabbage tell acid from base?)

Practice: Kitchen Chemistry workbook

Outcome Speed and the quantitative relationship between average speed, distance and time (speed = distance ÷ time). Taught in lesson 2.

Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop

Outcome Forces being needed to cause objects to stop or start moving, or to change their speed or direction of motion (qualitative only). Taught in lessons 1 and 3.

Lessons: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop

Practice: Forces and Motion: Crash, Push and Stop workbook

Outcome Heating and thermal equilibrium: temperature difference between 2 objects leading to energy transfer from the hotter to the cooler one, through contact (conduction) or radiation; such transfers tending to reduce the temperature difference: use of insulators. Taught in the felt yurt lesson.

Lessons: Steppe Science: Staying Warm on the Kazakh Steppe (How does a felt yurt keep a family warm at −30 °C?)

Practice: Steppe Science: Staying Warm on the Kazakh Steppe workbook · Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move workbook · Hot Stuff: Heat, Temperature and Cooling workbook

Outcome Physics, space physics: our Sun as a star, other stars in our galaxy, other galaxies; the light year as a unit of astronomical distance. (No galaxies.)

Lessons: Stars and the Night Sky (Why do stars come out at night?) (partly)

Outcome Physics, space physics: the seasons and the Earth's tilt, and day length at different times of year in different hemispheres.

Lessons: Sun, Earth and Moon (Why are there seasons, and why do some places barely have them?) (partly)

Outcome Physics, space physics: our Sun as a star, other stars in our galaxy, and the light year as a unit of distance.

Lessons: Sun, Earth and Moon (How far away is the Sun, really?) (partly)

Outcome Biology, relationships in an ecosystem: the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops; the importance of plant reproduction through insect pollination in human food security; how organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment, including the accumulation of toxic materials. (Toxic materials are not covered.)

Lessons: Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom (What happens to a population when food runs out?, Are living things competitors, predators or partners?, How can we protect an ecosystem's services?) (partly)

Outcome Chemistry, the particulate nature of matter: the properties of solids, liquids and gases in terms of the particle model, including gas pressure.

Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Why do bike tires go soft in winter?)

Outcome Chemistry, pure and impure substances: diffusion in terms of the particle model.

Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water?)

Outcome Physics, energy in matter: changes with temperature in motion and spacing of particles.

Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move

Outcome Physics, energy changes and transfers: heating and thermal equilibrium, energy moving from the hotter object to the cooler one, and the use of insulators.

Lessons: Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move (Can you keep an ice cube frozen the longest?)

Outcome Chemistry, Earth and atmosphere: Earth as a source of limited resources and the efficacy of recycling. (Limited resources in lessons 1 and 2; recycling and reuse in lesson 4.)

Lessons: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact (Where does your stuff come from?, Will our energy ever run out?, How can a town use less and waste less?) (partly)

Outcome Geography, human and physical geography: human geography relating to population and urbanisation; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources. (Population and the use of natural resources.)

Lessons: Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact (Where does your stuff come from?, Do more people always use more resources?) (partly)

Outcome Physics, space physics: the seasons and the Earth's tilt, day length at different times of year, in different hemispheres.

Lessons: The Reason for the Seasons: Tilt, Daylight and the Solstice (Is summer when Earth is closest to the Sun?, Why are summer days longer?, Why is sunlight stronger in summer?)

Outcome Physics, space physics: gravity force, weight = mass x gravitational field strength (g), on Earth g=10 N/kg, different on other planets and stars; gravity forces between Earth and Moon, and between Earth and Sun (qualitative only). (Weight on other planets and the Sun's pull on the planets; the Earth and Moon are not modelled.)

Lessons: The Solar System: Gravity, Orbits and Scale (Why do planets go around the Sun and not fly away?, What is each world like?) (partly)

Outcome Biology, genetics and evolution (inheritance, chromosomes, DNA and genes): heredity as the process by which genetic information is transmitted from one generation to the next; a simple model of chromosomes, genes and DNA in heredity. (The history of the DNA model and continuous and discontinuous variation are not covered.)

Lessons: Genes and Traits: Heredity and Punnett Squares (partly)

Outcome Biology, genetics and evolution: the variation between species and between individuals of the same species means some organisms compete more successfully, which can drive natural selection; changes in the environment may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction. (Chromosomes, DNA, genes and gene banks are not taught here.)

Lessons: Natural Selection: How Living Things Change Over Time (Why do some animals survive and others don't?, What did the Grants find on the Galápagos?, How do fossils show life has changed?) (partly)

Outcome Biology, material cycles and energy, photosynthesis: the reactants in, and products of, photosynthesis, and a word summary for photosynthesis; the dependence of almost all life on Earth on the ability of photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, to use sunlight in photosynthesis to build organic molecules that are an essential energy store and to maintain levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (The adaptations of leaves are not taught here.)

Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (Where does a tree's mass come from?, How does energy from the Sun move through a whole ecosystem?) (partly)

Outcome Biology, material cycles and energy, cellular respiration: aerobic and anaerobic respiration in living organisms, including the breakdown of organic molecules to enable all the other chemical processes necessary for life; a word summary for aerobic respiration. (Aerobic respiration only; anaerobic respiration and fermentation are not taught here.)

Lessons: How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration (What happens to the food a plant makes?) (partly)

Outcome Physics, energy changes and transfers: heating and thermal equilibrium, energy moving from the hotter object to the cooler one by conduction or radiation, and the use of insulators.

Lessons: Hot Stuff: Heat, Temperature and Cooling (Does hotter always mean more heat?, Why does a hot drink cool fastest at the start?, How do you keep a drink hot for the longest?)