Year 5 Science Properties of Materials – Block 5PCM – Music Festival Materials

Session 4:Cleaning team challenge
Science curriculumarea: Properties of Materials / i. give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic
Working Scientifically (UKS2) / i. planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary
ii. taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate
iii. recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs
iv. reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations
Teaching Objectives /
  • To planand implement investigations to compare absorbency, strength and durability
  • To record and share investigation findings using different graph forms
  • To apply knowledge of fabric properties to suggest fitness for purpose

Key Vocabulary:opinion/fact, variables, accuracy, precision, degree of trust, scatter graphs, line graphs
ResourcesA range of cleaning cloths (different materials, incl. kitchen towel), cleaning rep marketing words, measuring jugs, electronic scales, marbles, water, sticky-notes investigation materials, images of gloves. / Weblinks
Whole Class:Ensure all equipment is ready and the cloths are laid out. Have investigation resources printed off.Have an array of cleaning cloths set up on the desks and explain that these have been left by cleaning company reps for the music festival organisers to decide which ones they want to buy. A kind of ‘try before you buy’ scenario! Explain that the festival cleaning team needs the best cloths in the business to keep on top of spills and mess in the toilets, food areas and catering areas. What kinds of materials do cleaning cloths need to be? Get chn to sort the cleaning rep sales words into ‘definitely’ /‘definitely not’ and ‘doesn’t matter’ to identify some key properties. Now that they have essentially created their own success criteria explain that chn are going to need to design and carry out a series of investigations so that they can make recommendations on the most absorbent and hard wearing, as well as the strongest materials for the job. Discuss with chn how they think they can test the cleaning materials? Ask chn to make suggestions(to test strength children should be able to recall the paper test from Session 3; for absorbency children need to come up with a method for seeing how much liquid the cloths can hold and then measure the volume; for ‘durability’ children can use an abrasive material, like sand paper, to see how the cloths stand up to being rubbed across this). Explain to chn that their approach to their investigation may be different to another gp, but that as long as they have ‘data’ to present at the end that helps them to draw conclusions and make recommendations, then that doesn’t matter.
Activities:Encourage chn (in gps) to complete the entire process of this investigation independently (you can use this as a formative assessment to help decide how to support and/or stretch chn for the final two sessions of the block). They should be building on knowledge and understanding of the scientific process from the supported investigations that they have done so far, but be making their own decisions about enquiry questions, variables, what and how to measure (equipment needed), how to record (tables/graphs) and how to present findings (incl. a video). Chn will needto keep track of any problems and issues that they encounter and ways they dealt with them, so that they can share their findings and reflect on limitations and possible improvements to their investigations at the end of the session.Ensure that chn are using the sticky-note approach to investigating.
Plenary / Get chn to present their findings (as long as their evidence backs up their argument, there is no right or wrong answer) and identify any anomalies across the gps (did any have different findings) and discuss why this may have occurred. Then get chn to identify any issues and limitations that they may have encountered and how these might be overcome (or were overcome, as the case may be). Ask chn how they can be sure their results are correct? Hopefully chn will have repeated tests to ensure accuracy. As a finale, give chn a range of gloves to look at (see images)for the cleaning team. Just by thinking about the materials used which do chn think would be the best gloves for the jobs – what are the other ones good for and why (gardening gloves, rubber gloves, woollen gloves, cotton gloves)?
Outcomes / Children will
  • Plan and set up investigations to test a range of materials for their absorbency, strength and durability
  • Record and present findings in a suitable graph/table
  • Select the materials that are most suited to cleaning
  • Make suggestions for suitable materials based on experience/knowledge

© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.

We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.