Physical science

3 areas

Materials: Observing materials

• Every material takes up space, even air
• Natural and manufactured materials
• Testing how materials bend, stretch and break, with results in a table
• Broken pieces, like sand from rock, are still the same material

Matter interactions and energy: Sound

• Sounds come from vibrations
• Bigger vibrations make louder sounds; faster ones make higher sounds
• Sound travels through air, water and solids
• How soft and hard materials change what we hear

Motion and forces: Pushes and pulls

• A force is a push or a pull
• Forces start, stop, speed up, slow down and turn things
• Rolling, sliding, gliding, bouncing, spinning and falling
• Testing how a bigger push changes how far a toy car goes

Biological science

3 areas

Organism diversity: Life cycles

• Life cycles of a monarch butterfly, a frog, a chicken and a broad bean
• Born or hatched, growing up, having young, and dying
• Why young look like their parents but are not identical
• Drawing a life cycle as a loop of arrows

Life processes: Breathing, moving and sensing

• Muscles pull on bones to move the body
• How the ribs and lungs move when we breathe in and out
• The sense organs and how the brain makes sense of them

Ecosystems: Habitats

• What a habitat is and what it gives the living things there
• New Zealand habitats, from forests and streams to rocky shores and wetlands
• Looking closely at a small habitat and counting what lives there

Summarised by Vertex Academy from the New Zealand Curriculum, Science Years 0 to 10 (August 2026), Ministry of Education. Vertex Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ministry of Education.