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Draft curriculum content
This page is based on the draft Year 8 content for Science, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Year 8, your child will compare data from different sources and apply logical reasoning to explain their findings. They interpret more formal diagrams and models, like classification keys or Venn diagrams. Students will continue to convert information between formats, such as converting a table into a graph, and explain what the graph shows. Their thinking becomes more systematic and evidence-based. They may explore cells, inheritance, adaptation, electrical circuits, and ecological systems using diagrams, models, and digital tools.
Physical Science#
Materials#
With your child, you could:
- mix ingredients while cooking, like sugar in tea, salt in water, or flour in milk, and observe how some dissolve while others remain visible
- compare how quickly substances dissolve in hot versus cold liquids, for example, sugar dissolves faster in a hot drink than in a cold drink
- notice how cooking changes the appearance and colour of food, for example, rice swells as it absorbs water, meat browns as it cooks, and eggs turn solid as they cook.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child's understanding of mixtures, including how they can be differentiated, how temperature affects dissolving, how to separate mixtures, and how to recognise when something has changed chemically rather than just being physically mixed.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- describe mixtures based on what they can see and identify mixtures that contain dissolved material (saltwater) or undissolved material (sand and water)
- separate a range of mixtures in different ways
- explain that temperature affects how something dissolves
- understand that physical changes, like mixing and dissolving, can be reversed, but chemical changes, such as burning or rusting, cannot be reversed
- know the signs of physical changes, like mixing, separating, dissolving, and chemical changes, like colour changes, new material being formed, and temperature changes.
Matter, Interactions and Energy#
With your child, you could:
- notice everyday uses of electricity, like motors in fans, heating in toasters, and powering computers and TVs, and discuss how electrical energy is converted into heat, light or movement
- create static electricity by rubbing a balloon on hair or cloth to stick it to a wall, or by rubbing a comb on hair to pick up paper, and talk about or research why opposite charges attract
- talk about why power cords have thick rubber around the outside and what this tells us about conductors and insulators
- discuss where the electricity in your home comes from, for example, power stations, hydro dams, wind turbines, or solar panels, and how these convert other forms of energy into electricity.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child's understanding of electric charges and static electricity, how electricity flows through circuits, the difference between conductors and insulators, and how series and parallel circuits work differently.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that an electric charge builds up on surfaces through friction, causing static electricity and attraction or repulsion
- identify materials that are good electricity conductors (metals) and those that are not (plastics)
- know that poor conductors (insulators) block the flow of electricity and have essential uses
- describe electrical currents as electrical charges flowing through a circuit, and voltage as the pushing force that makes it flow
- explain that series circuits have 1 path for electricity, so the same current flows through all components, and if 1 part breaks, the whole circuit stops working
- explain that parallel circuits have multiple paths for electricity, so each branch gets the same voltage, and if 1 path breaks, the others keep working.
Motion and Forces#
With your child, you could:
- observe sharp and blunt objects, push a skewer through fruit with the pointy end versus the blunt end, and notice the sharp end needs less force because the smaller area creates more pressure
- look at household and garden tools and ask questions like:
- Why does a hammer have a round head?
- Why is a nail pointed at one end and wide at the other?
- Why does a chef’s knife have a thin sharp edge while a butter knife has a wide flat edge?
- observe footprints in sand or mud and discuss:
- What makes them deeper or shallower?
- Why does the sand or mud rise around the foot?
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child's understanding that pressure depends on both the force applied and the area over which it spreads. Students will learn how tool design concentrates or spreads pressure, and why this matters for how things work effectively.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that pressure is a force spread over an area, the smaller the area, the greater the force
- describe everyday examples of how pressure is applied
- understand that tool design determines how pressure is applied, for example, sharp edges concentrate the force, flat edges spread the force
- explain how everyday tools work, for example, knives cut because they concentrate the pressure along their sharp edge
- explain why tools have a specific shape and design for the job.
Earth and Space#
With your child, you could:
- talk about gravity and how the Sun’s gravity keeps the Earth moving around it, and how the Earth’s gravity keeps the Moon moving around it
- go outside on a sunny day and feel the Sun’s rays on your skin and talk about how the light travels across space to reach us.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child's understanding of the universe's structure, how gravity holds objects in space (such as planets, rocks and moons), the differences between stars, planets, moons and other celestial objects, and their relative sizes and positions.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- describe the universe as containing billions of galaxies and trillions of stars, many of which have planets orbiting them
- know that stars give off energy in the form of heat and light, including our own Sun
- understand that gravity is a force of attraction between objects that have mass
- describe different objects in space, such as stars, planets, comets, moons, asteroids
- explain the relationship between the Sun, Earth and the Moon.
Biological Science#
Organism Diversity#
With your child, you could:
- look at photos of family members and find similarities and differences
- talk about the differences in biological sex between males and females, and how they inherit male or female chromosomes
- look at the similarities of animals or plants in similar places, and talk about why these organisms have similar features, for example, birds living on ponds or lakes have webbed feet to help them swim more efficiently
- ask questions about how animals of different species that live in similar places can have similar traits, helping your child remember what they have learned in school.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child’s understanding of how environmental factors affect the survival of individual plants and animals, and how the individuals that do survive can breed and pass on their genetic information.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain how the genetic information of 2 parents is combined during sexual reproduction
- describe biological sex as the inheritance of 2 chromosomes, either XX for female or XY for male
- explain how adaptations help organisms survive in their environment, like a giraffe’s long neck for reaching high leaves or a duck’s webbed feet for swimming
- describe evolution as a change in the genetic makeup of a population over a very long time.
Body Systems#
With your child, you could:
- carefully pull apart a flower and use the internet to identify the different parts
- read about and look at diagrams of the menstrual cycle
- plan a healthy menu with the right balance of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water
- watch a YouTube video about healthy gut bacteria and look for foods that promote gut health
- have your child put their hands under their ribs and feel their diaphragm and intercostal muscles contract as they breathe in and breathe out.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on how digestion and gas exchange, the process of taking in oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, support the survival of individual animals, and how reproduction ensures both the maintenance of a species and the evolution of new species.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain how genetic information is inherited through sexual reproduction
- draw a diagram of how flowering plants reproduce
- describe how hormones control the production of gametes, such as sperm, eggs, or pollen
- order the steps to sexual reproduction of mammals from fertilisation to birth
- label the parts of the alimentary canal and identify where mechanical or chemical digestion occurs
- explain the difference between breathing, gas exchange, and cellular respiration.
