Science KS 2 Unit 5A Keeping healthy - Update

This unit helps children to learn that there are many aspects to keeping healthy. Children learn about the heart and how heart beat is affected by exercise and relate this to what they already know about movement and exercise. Experimental and investigative work focuses on:

• repeating measurements
• representing data in bar charts and graphs, and interpreting these
• using results to draw conclusions.

Work in this unit also offers opportunities for children to find out how early scientific ideas about diet and health were tested. It helps them to use knowledge and understanding of science to explain and interpret phenomena related to their personal health. Teaching about tobacco, alcohol and other drugs is likely to be undertaken in relation to the school's education programme for personal, social and health education.

This unit takes approximately 10 hours

OTHER RESOURCES

• secondary sources eg reference books, CD-ROMs, the internet, leaflets about food from supermarkets, health centres and pharmacies, food labels
• timing devices with an appropriate degree of accuracy (seconds not hundredths of seconds), possibly digital pulse meters
• sources of information about drugs eg local health education authority
• balloon pump or bicycle pump
• video/other secondary sources illustrating the function of the heart
• spreadsheet, graphing and DTP software