United Kingdom · National Curriculum Attainment Targets
Year 4 Science
A comprehensive science curriculum for Year 4 students focusing on biological systems, material properties, and physical phenomena. Students develop scientific inquiry skills through hands-on investigations and data analysis to understand the world around them.
Living Things and Their Habitats
Students explore how living things are classified and how environmental changes impact local and global ecosystems.
Learning to group and identify living things using systematic branching keys based on observable characteristics.
Investigating how human activity and natural shifts can pose dangers to living things and their specific habitats.
Animals Including Humans
An investigation into the human digestive system, the functions of different teeth, and the complexity of food chains.
Mapping the path food takes through the body and understanding the role of each organ in the process.
Identifying the types of human teeth and comparing them to animal teeth based on diet and lifestyle.
Constructing and interpreting food chains to identify producers, consumers, predators, and prey within an ecosystem.
States of Matter
Exploring the characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases while investigating how materials change state through heating and cooling.
Comparing and grouping materials according to whether they are solids, liquids, or gases.
Measuring the temperature at which substances change state and observing the processes of melting and freezing.
Understanding the role of evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and their relationship to temperature.
Sound and Vibrations
Investigating how sounds are made, how they travel through mediums, and the variables affecting pitch and volume.
Identifying how sounds are made by vibrations and how these travel to the ear.
Finding patterns between the features of an object and the pitch and volume of the sound it produces.
Investigating how the distance from a source and different materials affect the strength of a sound.
Electricity and Circuits
Constructing simple circuits and identifying common appliances that run on electricity.
Identifying common appliances that run on electricity and distinguishing between battery and mains power.
Constructing a simple series electrical circuit, identifying parts like cells, wires, bulbs, and switches.
Investigating which materials allow electricity to pass through them and which do not.
Scientific Inquiry Skills
Developing the methods and skills required to work scientifically across all topics.
Learning how to set up fair tests and choose the right equipment for a scientific question.
Using various formats including bar charts and tables to record and communicate scientific findings.
Using results to draw simple conclusions and suggest improvements for future experiments.