Particle model and temperature
Ice melts, water boils, and the temperature stops rising meanwhile. The particles show where the energy goes in between.
Physics – grade 5/6
Orientation stage (grades 5 and 6): the core curriculum states its expectations “by the end of the orientation stage”, so the units are the same for grades 5 and 6. Both grades are therefore shown as one stage. The content areas are numbered in the curriculum; the numbers of the focal points are our own.
Unit 1Temperature and heat
Measuring temperature and telling it apart from heat, three ways heat travels, materials expand and change state – explained with a simple particle model.
1.1Thermal energy
Heat, temperature and measuring temperature, the Celsius scale.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
1.2Heat transfer
Convection, conduction and radiation, temperature equalisation and insulation.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
1.3Effects of heat
States of matter and changes of state as well as thermal expansion, interpreted with particles; the anomaly of water.
Unit 2Electric current and magnetism
Planning and building simple circuits and drawing circuit diagrams, effects of current and safety, as well as magnets, magnetic fields and the Earth’s magnetic field.
2.1Circuits and connections
Voltage sources, conductors and insulators, series, parallel, AND and OR circuits, electrons as charge carriers in a conductor.
Simple circuit
Build a circuit with a battery, a switch and a lamp, as a set-up and as a circuit diagram. When the circuit is closed, the lamp lights up.
2.2Effects of electric current
Heating, lighting and magnetic effects, fuses and dangers of electricity.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
2.3Magnetic forces and fields
Attraction and repulsion, magnetic poles, field-line patterns, the Earth’s magnetic field and the compass.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
2.4Magnetisation
Magnetisable materials and the model of elementary magnets.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
Unit 3Sound
Sound is produced by vibrations, travels through materials and is reflected or absorbed; pitch, loudness, ultrasound and noise protection.
3.1Vibrations and sound waves
Pitch and loudness, sound propagation in the particle model, absorption and reflection.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
3.2Sound sources and receivers
Sender–receiver model, ultrasound in nature, medicine and technology, noise and noise protection.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
Unit 4Light
Light travels in straight lines; explaining vision, shadows and the pinhole camera with the ray model; how surfaces scatter, reflect or absorb light.
4.1Propagation of light
Light sources and receivers, the light-ray model and images formed by a pinhole camera.
No separate simulation is planned for this.
4.2Visibility and appearance of objects
Scattering, reflection, transmission and absorption at surfaces, as well as umbra and penumbra.
Light and shadow
One lamp casts a sharp shadow, two lamps a penumbra. Solar and lunar eclipses form in just the same way.
The summaries describe the curriculum in our own words. The original text is authoritative. Original text (German): Kernlehrplan, Gymnasium, Physics, grade 5/6