Content strands

Presentation of content

The concepts and knowledge to be explored by the child are outlined in four content strands of the science curriculum. It is through the study of these areas of content that the scientific and technological skills described in Working scientifically and Designing and
making will be developed.

How are the strands arranged?

The strands outline broad areas of knowledge and understanding, which aim to provide pupils with a framework of scientific ideas. The four areas of understanding have been chosen because they concern children's immediate everyday experiences and reflect the major areas of scientific investigation:

• Living things
• Energy and forces
• Materials
• Environmental awareness and care.

A menu curriculum

Four strands have been chosen for each class level. The organisation of these strands is designed to ensure that children experience a broad and balanced range of topics. An equal emphasis is placed on the study of living things, forces and energy, materials and environmental awareness and care at each level. It is not expected that children would cover each objective within each strand unit. The strands provide a menu from whichteachers and schools can select topics that best reflect the aims and objectives of the curriculum and that enable the pupils to apply and develop their scientific skills and understandings in a broad range of contexts. It should also be remembered that the strands are not completely separate sections. Work from the strand Living things might include a study of an ecosystem and form an important link to Environmental awareness and care.

Science and geography

Many of the strands and strand units of the geography and science curricula have been planned so that the scientific skills of investigation can be developed as children study aspects of the natural environment in both scientific and geographical contexts.

The strand Natural environments in the geography curriculum involves the children in the study of the local natural environment and includes specific investigations of topics such as
water, air, rocks and soils, weather, climate and atmosphere and planet Earth in space.
These topics are of equal relevance and importance for a broad and balanced understanding of science. To avoid repetition and overlapping, these strand units have not been detailed in the science curriculum. However, it should be remembered that an exploration of environments will involve the pupils in studying content from different strand
units in the geography and science curricula.

Living things

This strand absorbs the existing nature study programme, which focuses on plant and animal life. It provides an excellent base on which to build and incorporate a scientific approach to the study of living things. Major themes within this strand include:

• the wide variety of living organisms (animals and plants) in the local and global environments
• the life processes, including nutrition, movement, growth and reproduction, common to animals, including humans
• the structure and function of the principal parts of the human body as they relate to some of these life processes
• the life processes, including growth, nutrition and reproduction, common to plants.

Variety and characteristics of living things

Animal and plant life

In the infant classes children should begin to observe and identify a wide variety of living things. Common local plants and animals should be observed and identified in the immediate environment of the school. Similarities and differences among living things should be noted, and pupils will be encouraged to recognise different groups of living things, for example birds, farm animals and pets. In first and second classes children should be able to identify, using common names, a range of birds, mammals, trees, flowers and insects that they have observed directly in a variety of habitats. They should become more aware of the differences between plants and animals and should begin to recognise living and non-living things in the environment. The concept of life cycle will become more familiar to children at this stage.

In third and fourth classes children should sort and group animals according to observable features, and they will begin to use charts, posters, videos and simple keys to aid their identification. In the middle and senior classes children should recognise that animals of the same species vary from individual to individual. For example, humans all belong to the same species, but we look very different from each other. They should also investigate variation in behaviour from one individual to another.

Human life

This strand unit aims to help children to become aware of a range of similarities and differences between themselves. While children should observe different physical characteristics, the emphasis of the activity should be on the similarities between people. Children should be encouraged to appreciate that each person is individual and unique.

The identification of the parts of the human body is included at each level of the primary programme. The overlap in suggestions within the strand units is designed to facilitate a spiral approach to the curriculum. Good planning will ensure that repetition is avoided. In this way a much more detailed study of the human body and the different life processes can be undertaken in the middle and senior classes.

The processes of life

Plants and animals

Living plants and animals have the following properties or characteristics in common: they can move, respond to stimuli, feed, respire, grow, excrete, and reproduce.

In the infant classes children will have little understanding of what constitutes a living organism. Through first-hand observations and experiences, such as planting seeds and bulbs and observing plants and animals in the immediate environment, children should recognise that living things grow and change. In the junior classes children are presented with activities that will encourage them to develop the concept of life cycle, change and growth. In the middle and senior classes children will be aware that living things share similar life processes but that they carry out these life processes in different ways.

The processes of life -- humans

In the infant classes and in junior classes children will observe and measure their physical growth and development. Through their study of Materials and aspects of the social, personal and health education (SPHE) programme they will begin to recognise that human beings must have certain types of food for growth and energy.

In the middle classes children will be helped to develop their ideas about the human body, growth, movement and breathing. Activities are presented in which children investigate their breathing rate and relate this to body processes. They can observe their own movements and come to an understanding of the different muscle systems, bones and joints in the human body. The development of children's ideas about body changes and reproduction should be in accordance with the school's policy on SPHE.

By the end of sixth class children should have developed a simple understanding of the basic life processes of growth, feeding, breathing, excretion, reproduction, movement, and sensitivity to the environment. They will recognise that in the human body each main life process is linked to a system of body organs.

It is not intended that children in the senior classes will understand cell structure or study the digestive, excretory or respiratory systems in detail. Excessive information should be avoided. There is no requirement for pupils to name the muscles or to be familiar with the scientific names for bones, all of which is more appropriate for work at post-primary level.

Energy and forces

Energy

This strand aims to help pupils understand the idea of energy, its properties and uses. Children should be able to identify everyday forms of energy, such as light, sound, heat and electricity. The safety aspects of working with different forms of energy are emphasised.

The titles of the strand units are identical for each class level. This does not mean that children at different levels will repeat work. Rather, it is to provide flexibility for the school in planning. It is not intended that all the objectives in the strand units will be taught in each class. Some objectives will be treated during junior infants, some will be taught in senior infants, while others may be profitably taught in both classes, with the more complex details, concepts and methods of investigation reserved for the senior infants class.

The content objectives and exemplar materials (in italic type) suggest more complex and demanding work for the senior classes. This can be observed by comparing and contrasting the strand units for the middle and senior classes reproduced on the following page, for example.

Strand units from the programme for third and fourth (top) and for fifth and sixth classes (above). The exemplars (in italic type) indicate that a greater range of investigative skills and depth of treatment should be expected in the senior classes.

Forces

In infant classes and in junior classes children will develop an understanding of forces and their effects through practical experiences, which will involve pushing and pulling, floating and sinking. Structured play will develop children's understanding that moving toys involves a push or a pull. They will also investigate how a force (a push or a pull) can make an object move faster, slow down a moving object, make it stop or change its direction.

Slowing down a moving object will involve the children in activities that explore friction as a force. They will establish that by increasing friction they can slow down moving objects. Reducing friction enables moving objects to move faster and further before stopping. In the middle and senior classes pupils will investigate devices such as brakes that use friction to work. At first they will investigate friction that involves solid surfaces. Later they will become aware that friction exists between a moving solid and a liquid (a boat and the water in which it is moving) and between a solid and a gas (air resistance).

A feature of the work in both the middle and senior classes is that pupils will investigate falling objects. They will discover that objects fall because of the force of gravity. They will measure force by constructing their own spring balances. By the end of sixth class some children may recognise that the amount of pull or force is measured in newtons.

In the infant and junior classes, children will develop their ideas about why some things float and others sink in water. Children in junior and in middle classes should discover through their practical investigations that buoyancy depends on a combination of factors, such as the material the object is made of, its shape, and the liquid in which it is placed. Children will discover that a material that normally sinks can be made to float by forming it into a hollow shape.

There is no effort at this stage to provide children with an understanding of the concept of density. Some children may develop their own ideas that an object floats if it is lighter or less dense than an identical amount (volume) of water and sinks if it is more dense. However, work on the density of different liquids and displacement will be more appropriate to the post-primary curriculum.

Materials

In infant and in junior classes children should be introduced to, and be able to recognise, common materials in the immediate environment, such as food, metal, rocks, plastic, glass, wood, paper and textiles. Pupils should become aware that each material has its own characteristics or properties. Children will realise through designing and making activities and the investigation of common materials that the properties of a material make it suitable for particular uses; for example, the transparency of glass makes it suitable for windows.

Children will group materials according to how they are used in the environment, for example materials for building or for making furniture. By third and fourth classes children will be aware that some materials occur naturally, for example wood, sand and water, while others are manufactured, for example brick, concrete and plastic.

Materials and change

In first and second classes pupils will develop an awareness of the changes that may occur to solids and liquids through heating and cooling. They will observe through their investigations that some materials change from a solid into a liquid (melting), while cooling can change a liquid to a solid (solidification). In the middle classes pupils may also conclude that some materials can be changed permanently by heating but in other materials the changes can be reversed by cooling.

Children in the middle and senior classes will categorise materials according to the state in which they normally exist, that is, solid, liquid, or gas. They will appreciate that solids have definite shapes and may come in different forms. In the senior classes children should investigate water as a material in its different states. They should also appreciate that air is composed of different gases and should become aware of some of the practical applications of different gases in everyday use. The investigation of water and air as materials should link with and support the work outlined in the geography curriculum in the strand Natural environments.

Environmental awareness and care

This strand encapsulates many of the attitudinal aims of the science and geography curricula. It seeks to emphasise that children's experience of science should

• lead to an informed appreciation of the environments they encounter
• develop an awareness of the interdependence of the living and non-living elements of environments
• develop an understanding and an appreciation of the positive contribution of science and technology to society
• encourage positive environmental action and a commitment to sustainable life-styles and instil in them a sense of personal and community responsibility as custodians of the Earth.

An awareness and appreciation of environments is best fostered by a thorough knowledge of their distinguishing features and characteristics. By visiting and exploring different environmental features and by recording and analysing their observations children will come to appreciate them more fully and will become sensitive to the impact that change will bring.

In the infant and junior classes the unit 'Caring for my locality' is rooted in the child's awareness of the environment, the natural features to be found there and the habitats that these provide for plants and animals. The unit also encourages the identification of simple yet important opportunities for individual and group action to care for the immediate surroundings, for example in keeping the classroom tidy, in keeping the school and yard clean, and in caring for plants and animals.

In the middle and senior classes the strand unit 'Environmental awareness' provides for the study of different environments in Ireland and in other parts of the world and an examination of the interdependence and systems that are found there. Children in the middle and senior classes will develop an understanding of the relationships between the plants and animals in the environment. They will study plants and animals as elements of the whole community (ecosystem), which is composed of many other species and non-living surroundings.

Children should develop a broad and balanced view of the environment. The strand unit 'Science and the environment' encourages pupils in the middle and senior classes to appreciate the ways in which science and technology have enabled people to use the Earth's resources for the social, cultural and economic benefits of humanity. Children should be provided with opportunities to become aware of the applications of science and technology in familiar contexts in the home, school, work-place and the environment.

In the middle and senior classes the strand unit 'Caring for the environment' provides opportunities for children to examine the causes of a local, national or global issue and suggest possible solutions. An important aspect of this strand is that children should be able to explore environmental issues in a critical and informed way. They should have opportunities to contribute to and participate in the resolution of these issues whenever possible.