KS1 & KS2 science curriculum

This unit builds on pupils' prior learning from New life, where they explored how animals, including humans, reproduce and grow. In Evolution and inheritance, pupils will learn how traits are passed down through generations and how species evolve over time through adaptation and natural selection. This prepares them for the next unit, Heredity and DNA, where they will explore the genetic mechanisms that underpin inheritance, deepening their understanding of how DNA carries the information responsible for the traits of living organisms.

1. Where fossils are found (non-statutory)
2. What fossils can tell us about the past
3. How living things have changed over time
4. Human skulls: using evidence from the past (non-statutory)
5. Offspring: similar but not identical
6. Family trees (non-statutory)
7. Inherited characteristics
8. Animal adaptations
9. Charles Darwin and finches
10. Plant adaptations
11. More about plant adaptations
12. The survival of the fittest
13. Evolution: evidence
14. Evolution: presentation

• Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed
• Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults
• Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited
• Describe how habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other