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Science years 5–7: free practice, theory and problems
The body is built of organs that work together. Each organ has its own job.
Contents
- The human body
- Plants and animals
- Materials and states of matter
- Weather and climate
- Earth and space
- Electricity and magnets
1. The human body
What is it about?
The body is built of organs that work together. Each organ has its own job.
Key points
- The heart is a muscle that pumps blood around the body. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients.
- The lungs take in oxygen from the air and let out carbon dioxide when we breathe out.
- The skeleton holds the body up and protects the organs. An adult has 206 bones.
- Muscles move the skeleton. They can only pull, not push – so they work in pairs.
- Digestion breaks food down in the mouth, stomach and intestines, so the nutrients can enter the blood.
- The brain controls everything and gets messages from the senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
Example
When you run, you breathe faster and your heart beats faster. The muscles need more oxygen.
2. Plants and animals
What is it about?
All living things need energy. Plants make their own food, while animals must eat.
Key points
- Photosynthesis: plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make sugar. They release oxygen.
- A food chain shows who eats whom: grass → hare → fox.
- Producers are plants. Consumers are animals. Decomposers (fungi, bacteria, worms) break down dead plants and animals.
- Mammals have fur and feed their young milk. Birds have feathers and lay eggs. Fish breathe with gills. Insects have six legs.
- An ecosystem is all living things in an area and the environment they live in.
Example
In the forest the moose eats leaves. The wolf eats the moose. When they die, fungi and bacteria break them down into nutrients for new plants.
3. Materials and states of matter
What is it about?
Everything around us is made of materials. A substance can be solid, liquid or gas.
Key points
- A solid keeps its shape (ice, stone). A liquid takes the shape of its container (water). A gas spreads everywhere (air, steam).
- Heat can change the state: ice melts to water at 0 °C, water boils and becomes steam at 100 °C.
- Cold works the other way: steam condenses to water, water freezes to ice.
- A mixture can be separated: sand and water with a filter, salt and water by letting the water evaporate.
- Some things dissolve in water (sugar, salt), others do not (sand, oil).
Example
The drops on a cold glass are water vapour from the air condensing into tiny droplets.
4. Weather and climate
What is it about?
Weather is what it is like outside right now. Climate is what the weather is usually like in a place over many years.
Key points
- The water cycle: the sun heats water which evaporates, the vapour rises, cools down and forms clouds, and the water falls as rain or snow.
- We measure the weather with a thermometer (temperature), a rain gauge (precipitation) and a wind gauge.
- Wind is air moving from high to low air pressure.
- The greenhouse effect: gases in the air keep in the heat, like the glass of a greenhouse. More CO₂ gives a warmer climate.
- Norway has a coastal climate (mild and wet) by the sea and an inland climate (colder winters) further in.
Example
It is raining in Bergen today – that is weather. That Bergen gets a lot of rain most years is climate.
5. Earth and space
What is it about?
The Earth is a planet that orbits the Sun. The Sun is a star.
Key points
- The Earth spins around itself once a day. That gives day and night.
- The Earth goes around the Sun once a year.
- The seasons come from the tilt of the Earth's axis. In summer our part of the Earth leans towards the Sun.
- The Moon goes around the Earth in about a month. We see it because it is lit up by the Sun – the phases of the Moon show how much of the lit side we see.
- The solar system has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Example
When it is day in Norway, it is night in Australia – the Earth has turned so they face away from the Sun.
6. Electricity and magnets
What is it about?
Electricity and magnets are invisible forces we use all the time – in torches, phones and fridges.
Key points
- An electric circuit must be closed: battery, wires and a bulb in a loop. Break the loop and the bulb goes out.
- Conductors let current through (metals). Insulators do not (plastic, rubber, wood).
- A battery has a plus and a minus terminal and supplies the circuit with current.
- A magnet has a north pole and a south pole. Like poles repel, unlike poles attract.
- Magnets pull on iron, but not on plastic, wood or aluminium.
- A compass is a small magnet that points north.
Example
The cable of a lamp is copper (conductor) with plastic around it (insulator), so you do not get a shock.
Example problems with solutions
Here are some of the problems in science years 5–7. In the app, calculation problems get new numbers every time, so you can practise until it sticks – and take a graded practice exam before the real one.
The human body: What is the job of the heart?
Answer: To pump blood around the body
The heart is a muscle that pumps blood.
Plants and animals: What do plants need for photosynthesis?
Answer: Sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
Using energy from the sun, the plant makes sugar from water and carbon dioxide.
Materials and states of matter: At what temperature does water boil?
Answer: 100 °C
At normal air pressure water boils at 100 °C.
Weather and climate: What is the difference between weather and climate?
Answer: Weather is now, climate is the average over many years
Climate is the typical weather over a long time.