Unit 2
	2a: Health and growth		2b: Plants and animals in the local environment
	2c: Variation		2d: Grouping and changing materials
	2e: Forces and movement		2f: Using electricity

Unit 2c:
Variation

Recognise similarities between animals and between plants and differences within these groups; suggest questions relating to differences between living things; make measurements of length using standard units and, with help, present results in block graphs, making simple interpretations of these.

Teaching Activities

Make a slideshow of pictures of minibeasts. Group them according to observable features.

Teaching Activity ideas
www.naturegrid.org.uk

Direct2U Lesson Plan
As part of a unit of study on Variation, children use web-based resources to find out about penguins. As they study the information they use keywords to complete a worksheet W48 Science Y2X , which involves identifying some differences and similarities between penguins and other birds. They then use a writing frame W48 Science Y2X1 to write a few sentences about what they have discovered.
forum.ngfl.gov.uk

Smartboard Resource - (Client Canterbury)

Branching Database ICT Link Unit 2E -
Tell the children they are going to apply some of the skills and key ideas they have learnt from studying variation in science lessons.

Explain that they are going to play detective. You are thinking of one child in the class but can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when asked about them. Discuss the type of questions the children should ask. Point out that each question should eliminate as many suspects as possible, eg ‘Is it a boy?’ will eliminate around half the possible childre n. Remind the children that humans are similar to each other in some ways, but different in others.

Some differences/criteria are permanent, eg eye colour, and some can be changed, eg length of hair.

Prepare a branching database with photos of four girls and four boys. Children work in pairs, with one child choosing a photo and the other asking questions to find the appropriate record.

Learning Outcomes

• collect information for a database
• use a simple branching database to find the answers to simple questions
• understand that questions cannot be answered if the relevant data has not been entered into the database

Science Stories Online Video Looks at similarity and differences between plants and animals on a farm.

Websites

BBC Science Clips	Variation in Living things crick.northants.sch.uk	Sorting Activity sciencenetlinks.com