ScienceHow to use these pages
Each topic takes about ten minutes to read. Read the explanation, note the key terms, try the activity and then answer the quick questions without looking. Tap "Mark this topic as learnt" when you can answer them all; a tick then appears beside the topic in these lists, in your browser.
The class range is a typical guide. Your board or school may teach a topic a year earlier or later, so look for the topic by name. For examinations, read the same chapter in your prescribed textbook. How to study science has a simple plan.
What changes in classes 6 to 8
Middle school science moves from naming things to explaining how they work. Students meet their first circuits, magnets, mirrors and thermometers, and their first chemistry: acids, bases and the difference between a physical and a chemical change. In biology the view goes inside the body, to the cell, the lungs and the heart. Diagrams must now be neat and labelled, and answers are expected to use the correct terms.
A good order to read in
The physics topics build on each other: start with electric circuits and magnets, then light, sound and heat, and take friction last. In chemistry, read physical and chemical changes before acids, bases and salts. In biology, read the cell first, because breathing, circulation and microorganisms all refer back to it.
How to study at this level
- Learn definitions exactly, then explain them in your own words to check that you have understood.
- Practise each diagram until you can draw it from memory: a simple circuit, the reflection of light, the human heart, a plant cell and an animal cell.
- Make a two-column table for every pair that is easy to confuse: conductor and insulator, heat and temperature, breathing and respiration, physical and chemical change.
- Do the activity where you safely can. Never taste or touch chemicals, and ask an adult before using a flame or mains electricity.