Check it! - Reversible and Irreversible Changes - Year 5

In the Year 5 curriculum, students explore the fascinating world of materials and their properties, specifically focusing on reversible and irreversible changes. The educational material encourages students to investigate which materials can revert to their original form after a change has been applied. To reinforce their understanding, the course includes a variety of interactive strategies such as 'Brain dump', 'Give me FIVE', and 'Retrieval Pyramids'. These methods are designed to provide regular opportunities for students to review and consolidate their knowledge on the subject.

Students are prompted to consider examples of materials that undergo reversible changes, like melting ice, as well as those that experience irreversible changes, such as baking a cake where the original ingredients cannot be separated once combined. The course materials pose thought-provoking questions, such as the importance of fingerprints in crime detection, the effect of salt on ice, and various methods for separating mixtures like sand from water or salt from water. Students are also encouraged to think creatively about the different ways that eggs can be changed. The 'Pyramid Check' activity is designed to assess students' understanding, with the bottom two rows covering foundational knowledge and the third row introducing more complex challenges.