Physics for primary school children
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Jointly funded by Public Understanding of Science Small Awards, PPARC, Swindon, UK and Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
The Primary School Science Challenge
The Primary School Science Challenge has been designed as a programme of activities for primary school aged children to complete with their parents. It is intended to complement the key stage 1 and 2 curriculum. The experiments are generally short and very inexpensive - most of the things you will need for it can be found around the house.
Please note that due to a lack of time and money these experiments have not been tested on appropriately aged children and may be inappropriately hard (or easy). Notes for parents are provided, and more information may be found on websites listed below.
The University of Bristol Primary School Science Challenge
And once you've completed the challenge, print and keep your own certificate
Online Resources - games, experiments, things to make and information
BBC education has a lot of good web pages. The Science Clips site is especially recommended, as it has good content for a range of ages.
The San Francisco Exploratorium has lots of pages about science (and related topics). This one is about plants and gardening. Be warned, the clips of carnivorous plants are a little bit gruesome! This is a lovely website about the science of music. Alternatively, here's a load of ideas for science experiments that can be done at home. There's more here and here.
The Try Science website covers all aspects of science and is generally suited to primary school children. There are some online activities to try, and lots of suggestions for experiments to do at home.
EQ games are energy related puzzles and games. There are a huge number of links to more science & energy games on this page. I haven't checked them yet, so be warned, they may not be up to my impossibly high (!!) standards.
Here's another website with science stories, information and activities for the under 11's.
Sci-spy is an Irish website that covers a broad range of topics (related to the Irish rather than UK national curriculum). Each topic has a video, fact sheet, experiment, quiz, links and a related page for teachers.
The Curriculum
The primary school science curriculum consists of the following topics:
(lots more details as well as a breakdown of each unit can be found on The Standards Site)
| Unit | Description |
| 1A | Ourselves |
| 1B | Growing Plants |
| 1C | Sorting and Using Materials |
| 1D | Light and Dark |
| 1E | Pushes and Pulls |
| 1F | Sound and Hearing |
| 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 |