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Natural Sciences and Technology
Facilitator’s guide
Grade 6
the Moon look bigger when it rises than when it is high in
LESSON ELEMENTS
LEARNING AIMS
What learners should know at the end of the lesson. Taken from CAPS.
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY
New terminology to extend understanding of the subject as part of this lesson.
DEFINE
Definitions of concepts to understand the content.
IMPORTANT
Explain misunderstandings; possible confusion regarding existing knowledge.
TIPS
Any information other than the content, to guide learners through the learning process.
SAMPLE
FOR THE CURIOUS
Encouragement to do in-depth research about the content. Expand the activity and exercise to such an extent that learners are encouraged to explore. For gifted learners: expanded exercises. For Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN): explain the need to complete the basic questions to achieve a passing mark.
ACTIVITY
Questions throughout the lesson that must be done in order to test the knowledge of the lesson completed.
EXERCISE
In conclusion of the specific Unit. Formative assessment.
CORE CONTENT
Emphasise the core of content; in-depth explanation of a specific section of the lesson; needs to be understood.
STUDY/REVISION
Time spent to study the content in conclusion of the Unit and in preparation for the test or examination.
SAMPLE
TIMETABLE AND TIME MANAGEMENT
Unit 1: Life and Living, Processing:
Unit 2 Matter and Materials, Processing:
Unit 3 Energy and Change, Systems and Control:
Unit 4 Planet Earth and Beyond, Systems and Control:
ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS
1 selected practical task.
• Grade appropriate assessment on aspects of investigations and technological processes should form part of the selected practical tasks in the assessment programme for the year.
• The class test and examinations MUST include questions on both Natural Sciences and Technology.
SAMPLE
WORK SCHEDULE
Work Schedule for Natural Sciences
Plants make their own food (glucose sugar) by a process called photosynthesis
Photosynthesis takes place mainly in the leaves
During photosynthesis the plant uses carbon dioxide from the air and gives off oxygen into the air
Foods can be grouped according to their functions in the body and the main nutrients they supply
Diet refers to the selection of foods we eat every day. A balanced diet contains sufficient quantities of food from all four nutrient groups, as well as water and fibre
*Food Processing Need for Processing Food
9 *Ecosystems and Food Different Ecosystems Living and Nonliving Things in an Ecosystem Food Webs
Food is processed to:
- make it edible (preparing, cooking)
- make it last longer (preserving)
- improve its nutrient value (fermenting)
During processing many foods may lose some of their nutrients
There are many different methods (ways) to process food
An ecosystem is an area where living and non-living things depend on each other in many different ways.
In an ecosystem there are certain relationships between living things and Non-living things.
In an ecosystem plants and animals are connected by their feeding relationships. This is called a food web
Drawing and writing about how particles are arranged in a
Investigating solutions to see if we can recover the solute by:
the water. (crystallisation) drawing and writing about crystallisation
Making mixtures including: two solids – salt and sand, sugar and tea leaves, peanuts and dried beans, different coins, mixture of different sweets
Investigating,
Materials such as plaster of Paris, concrete, fabrics, ceramics and glass, plastics and paints, have their own special properties.
In
Diagrams Symbols are used when drawing circuit diagrams.
Some materials conduct electricity and are called conductors
Most metals, especially copper, conduct electricity some materials do not conduct electricity and are called insulators
Most non-metals, such as plastics, do not conduct Electricity
Electric circuits are often used to solve problems that require energy, such as street lighting, alarms, electric gates, traffic lights, fans and heaters
Electric circuits can also be used in models and toys
Fossil fuels were formed in the Earth’s crust millions of years ago from dead plants and animals
It requires infrastructure including coal mines, transport, power stations, pylons, substations, wiring
The Sun (a star) is at the centre of our Solar System
There are eight planets and the asteroid belt (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) in orbit around the Sun
Moons, including our Moon do not give out their own heat and light
In our Solar System, each planet rotates (spins) on its own axis the planet.
Earth is spinning, and one complete rotation takes about 24 hours. We experience this as a day and a night Revolutions Rotation and revolution of the moon.
All planets also revolve (travel) around the Sun in their own orbits.
The Moon revolves around the Earth and one revolution also takes about a month (about 28 days) together, the Earth and the Moon revolve around the Sun
Telescopes are used to look into space and gather Information.
South Africa has built and uses some of the largest
• *Topics that are in “bold” are most important. Ensure that the concepts are completely understood by learners.
• All topics must be covered before the exams start or by the end of October.
SAMPLE
STUDY TIPS AND METHODS
It would be useful to learners to make summaries of the Natural Sciences and Technology theory; this will not only improve learners’ understanding of the key concepts but they will make study notes which will help when the time comes to start studying. Concepts such as mind maps can also be very helpful in the development of learners in Natural Sciences and Technology. When answering the theory exercises and questions in tests and exams, learners are expected to relay valid information with an interpretive approach. Throughout the year one must have an open minded approach to Natural Sciences and Technology.
Take note of this module’s lesson schedule. It has been scheduled in such a way that learners will have two lessons per week.
Invest in a good dictionary and show learners how to look for the meaning of more difficult words.
Take out interesting books from the library for each module to help learners see and understand the work in each lesson better. Where possible take learners out in the garden or in nature to see things they are learning about. Show them live examples. Learners can also design and make things. We are going to develop that ability.
Many different elements come together in Technology. The best way to keep these elements in perspective and in balance is to deliver the course through a limited series of extensive projects rather than a string of individual lessons.
SAMPLE
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
One must always acknowledge that Natural Sciences and Technology should be seen as a hands-on approach to education and learning. This learning area should be experienced by learners with uses of a practical approach in relation to the theoretical understanding of the learning area. Links are supplied below that will help and guide learners to experience Natural Sciences and Technology to the full extent:
• Why can a plant make its own food but an animal cannot?
• What is needed for photosynthesis to happen?
• How do plants make food and store food?
• Why do plants need water?
• Can plants live in the dark?
• Why are plants mostly green?
The facilitator is encouraged to make a large circle on the wall using large arrows that can be cut from black plastic bags. Cut out white letters to say “PHOTOSYNTHESIS” in the centre of the circle and stick large posters on the arrows to say:
• Plants absorb carbon dioxide
• Plants release oxygen
• Animals breathe in oxygen
• Animals breathe out carbon dioxide
LESSON 1: Photosynthesis SAMPLE
Perhaps, cut out pictures of plants or get learners to make plants and animals and stick them next to the specific labels they illustrate. Create a glossary by placing words relating to the topic around the classroom. Tell the learners that they are going to be plant investigators, and that their job is to find out what the words mean, and how they relate to plants and photosynthesis.
When introducing this topic, remind them of the work on interdependence they covered in Grade 5. Discuss how animals and plants are interdependent upon each other; plants produce food and oxygen for animals while animals – when they die – decay, replacing nutrients in the soil for plants and releasing carbon into the air to continue the carbon cycle.
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY
• photosynthesis
• chlorophyll
• carbon dioxide
• oxygen
• glucose
• molecules
• conditions
• anchorage
• microbes
• fertile
1.1 Plants and food
Green plants are just like factories! They make food for themselves and every animal on Earth using sunlight energy, water and the gas carbon dioxide. They also recycle the air and make oxygen for us to breathe.
QUESTIONS:
1. What happens in a factory?
Why do you think we can say plants are like factories?
A factory is a place where goods or products are made/assembled/manufactured and then delivered to other places to be used. Plants are therefore like factories as they use raw products to make new products (food).
2. Why can we say that plants make food for themselves and every animal on earth?
SAMPLE
Plants make food for themselves and plants are the beginning of the food chain, therefore all other animals, whether herbivores which eat plants directly, or carnivores which eat the herbivores, depend on plants for food.
Scientists have found out exactly how plants are able to do all these things. Let’s take a closer look at how scientists did this and see how plants make food for themselves and us.
The process of photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to change the energy from sunlight into energy for food. Plants change light energy from the sun into food energy. Photosynthesis happens in all green parts of a plant. Leaves are usually the greenest parts. So plants do this mostly in their leaves.
FOR THE CURIOUS
The word photosynthesis actually has two parts: photo = light and synthesis = to make or put together. So it means to use light to make something (in this case, food).
FOR THE CURIOUS
The photosynthesis song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1_uez5WX1o&feature=youtu.be
Do you remember learning about photosynthesis in Grade 5? Plants need certain things to photosynthesise.
FOR THE CURIOUS
Scientists have a term for substances like chlorophyll that have a colour. They call them pigments. There are other pigments in plants. Can you think of their colours? There are pigments in your body too! Where do we find them? What do they do?
Scientists have a term for substances like chlorophyll that have a colour. They call them pigments. There are other pigments in plants. Can you think of their colours? There are pigments in your body too! Where do we find them? What do they do?
There are some important requirements for photosynthesis to happen:
1. Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green substance that plants use to capture light energy from the sun. Chlorophyll is very important. Without chlorophyll plants cannot use the sunlight energy to make food. Also, oxygen levels in the air will go down. If that happens, plants and animals will suffocate.
Facilitator’s note:
As a fun activity, take the learners outside to see if there are other colours found in leaves, and not just the green pigment chlorophyll. Although green chlorophyll is predominant, there are also yellow, orange and purple pigments found in leaves, especially in autumn when the leaves change colour. In the body, the pigment melanin is the main determinant of skin colour and it is also found in hair and the iris in the eye.
2. Sunlight
Sunlight has energy. Plants use this energy to make sugars from water and carbon dioxide.
3. Water
SAMPLE
The roots of a plant absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Water is a solvent in all living things. Dissolved substances are moved around the body to where they are needed. Just like you, plants have veins for this movement. They move minerals from the roots upwards. They move sugars from the leaves downwards. Photosynthesis can only happen in a water solution. Water is also important because it provides support to the plant to keep it upright. Like you, plants have skeletons. But unlike you, many plants have water skeletons.
Facilitator’s note:
In the second unit, Matter and materials and processing, learners will learn more about mixtures, solutions and dissolving, and this will therefore make sense. Refer back to this section when you are doing solutions and discussing water as a solvent
4. Carbon dioxide
The plant absorbs or takes in carbon dioxide from the air through little holes. These holes are found all over the plant, mostly under the leaves.
5. Soil
The soil provides mineral nutrients and water for the plant that are necessary during photosynthesis. Soil also provides anchorage to the plant, otherwise the plant cannot stand up straight.
CURIOUS
These holes also allow other gases and water to enter or leave the plant. They do the same job as your mouth and nose when you breathe; the same job as the pores in your skin when you sweat. FOR THE
How does photosynthesis occur?
Plants use chlorophyll, sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food.
• Chlorophyll captures the sunlight energy.
• This energy splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• The oxygen is released into the air.
• The hydrogen is used with the carbon dioxide to make glucose (sugars).
• The sugars are moved from the leaves to other parts of the plants where they are stored.
• The water in the plant veins carries the sugars. When the sugars reach the storage parts they are changed into starch.
• Plants can store the starch in the following places:
o leaves (cabbage, spinach, lettuce)
o fruits (apple, banana, peach)
o stems (sugar cane)
o seeds (wheat, mealie)
o flowers (nasturtium, broccoli, cauliflower)
o roots (carrot, beetroot)
A really good website on photosynthesis: http://www.realtrees4kids.org/sixeight/letseat.htm
Here is a simple diagram illustrating the process of photosynthesis:
Facilitator’s note:
SAMPLE
Starch is insoluble in water which is why plants store starch and not glucose, which is soluble in water. Refer back to this section when doing soluble and insoluble substances in the second unit
ACTIVITY 1: Dramatise the process of photosynthesis
Facilitator’s note:
Prepare beforehand by collecting the different materials needed. The characters need different colours to identify themselves as what they are, possibly some t-shirts that the learners can pull over their clothes, or a scarf, ribbon or coloured piece of paper to pin onto their front. You will also need tin foil, glitter and string for the roots. For the animals, you can make masks from paper plates with the eyes cut out, and tied around the learners’ heads with a piece of string. Learners can draw animal faces on the front.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Your facilitator will explain to you how to act out the process of photosynthesis.
2. Characters needed for this dramatisation:
• Narrator to describe the process. This can be a facilitator or a learner. It might be a good idea to make short notes from the information above to remember in what order everything is happening.
• Sun – this learner can dress in yellow and perhaps get some tin foil or shiny paper to decorate their head or body to show the light and heat energy that the sun produces.
• Plants – a few learners can dress in green and perhaps tie a few strings to their feet to represent roots. They need to hold some rice or shiny glitter in their hands or their pockets to show that the water evaporates after photosynthesis.
• Rain/water – a few learners can dress in blue and perhaps have some rice, shiny glitter, small pieces of tin foil or something similar to represent the rain falling.
• Carbon dioxide – attach signs to some learners’ chests that say ‘CARBON DIOXIDE’ and dress them in purple.
SAMPLE
• Oxygen – attach signs to some learners’ chests that say ‘OXYGEN’ and dress them in orange.
• Glucose energy as fruit and vegetables – dress up or make posters from scrap cardboard to show large carrots, apples, potatoes or something similar.
• Some learners need to be animals who breathe out carbon dioxide and eat plants. You can make masks from paper plates with eyes cut out.
Facilitator’s note:
When the dramatisation starts, the glucose and oxygen actors sit quietly in small groups around the plants with their heads down, not looking at the audience.
The narrator introduces the play and explains the different processes as they occur.
The sun shines in the centre of the stage and can turn and/or raise their arms to show the sunlight radiating from it.
The plants stand away from the sun and the rainwater actors can ‘water’ them by gently throwing the rice or similar little objects over their heads. Then sit down around the plants.
The carbon dioxide actors run from the animals and circle the plants, and then sit down around the plants.
Now the oxygen and glucose actors rise and run around the plants, and then run to the animals to show they are receiving oxygen and food.
You might want to repeat this a few times to show that this cycle continues.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why do plants die when there is a drought?
There are many processes which shut down without water, photosynthesis being one of them. Plants cannot photosynthesise sunlight without water. If they cannot photosynthesise, they cannot create glucose to support life processes within the plant. If the plant cannot support its own life processes, it dies. The plant also loses its support from the water in the veins acting as a ‘skeleton’.
2. Design a poster to explain the process of photosynthesis. You can use sentences and short paragraphs, but make sure you use many illustrations.
Facilitator’s note:
Soil was looked at in Grade 5 in Earth and beyond, especially the particles of soil and which types of soil plants grow best in. However, it would be useful to also emphasise soil in this section and have a discussion on what makes up soil, namely organic and inorganic material, water, air, rocks and sand. Where possible, bring examples of different soil types to class (such as loam soil, clay, beach sand) and get the learners to touch and feel the soil and explore what makes up soil.
SAMPLE
1.2 Food from photosynthesis
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY
• iodine
• solution
• indicator
• starch
• test
Photosynthesis is the process inside plants that changes the energy from the sun’s light into a form of energy that animals can eat and use to carry out their life processes.
Plants change the glucose into starch, for example mealies (mealies and maize flour), rice (rice flour and rice) and wheat (flour).
Plants then store this food in different parts of the plant that an animal will eat. They can store it in their leaves, stems/roots, flowers, fruits or seeds.
QUESTIONS:
Look at the images below of different plant products. For each image, identify which part of that plant we eat (e.g.: When we eat an apple, are we eating the leaf, the stem, the root, the fruit or the seed of the plant?) Use the space provided to write down your answers.
