STE for 5th Class

Foundations of how the human body's systems work together, everyday nutrition and label literacy, and classifying Irish wildlife with a branching key. Pupils first turn 'I wonder' into a testable question and run a simple measured investigation, with Nature of STEM woven through as what biologists and doctors actually do.

1. The Human Body as a Team of Systems
2. 1 The Systems of the Human Body Sample lesson
3. 2 The Heart and Lungs: How the Body Responds to Exercise
4. 3 The Digestive System: the Journey of Food
5. 4 The Skeleton and Muscles: How We Move
6. Nutrition and Everyday Irish Foods
7. 5 Nutrition: Value in Everyday Lunchbox Foods
8. 6 Nutrition: Reading the Label
9. 7 Nutrition: Fresh, Whole Foods or Ultra-processed?
10. Classifying Irish Wildlife
11. 8 Classifying Irish Wildlife

From the properties that make a material right for a job, through natural versus manufactured, mass (including air), states of matter and dissolving, to a first look at school waste and sustainability. This module is where planning a fair test is first taught in full.

1. Properties and Fair Testing
2. 9 Choosing the Right Material for the Job
3. 10 Testing a Property Fairly: Which Is the Most Absorbent?
4. Where Materials Come from and What They Are Made of
5. 11 Natural Versus Manufactured
6. 12 Everything Has Mass, Even Air
7. 13 What Stays the Same When a Material Changes State?
8. Dissolving and Materials for Sustainability
9. 14 Dissolving: What Dissolves in Water?
10. 15 Materials and Sustainability

Investigate everyday forces, simple machines, magnetism, light and sound, connecting Energy and forces to the wider field of Physics. Measuring with care is taught in full inside the friction fair test and revisited across the module.

1. Forces and Simple Machines
2. 16 Forces: Push, Pull, Friction and Gravity
3. 17 Friction Fair Test: Which Surface Slows a Car Most?
4. 18 Simple Machines: Levers and Ramps
5. Magnets and Magnetism
6. 19 Magnets and Magnetism
7. Light and Sound
8. 20 Light: How We Actually See Things
9. 21 Light: Shadows and How They Change
10. 22 Sound: Vibrations, Pitch and Volume

From how digital systems work as inputs, processes and outputs, through unplugged computational thinking, to a first run of real coding in Scratch. Pupils write, run and debug real programs, each paired with Investigation Journal recording and Irish context. Longer MakeCode and micro:bit work comes in 6th Class.

1. Digital Systems Around Us
2. 23 Inputs, Processes and Outputs
3. 24 Inside One Simple System: a Closer Look
4. Computational Thinking and Coding in Scratch
5. 25 Computational Thinking Unplugged
6. 26 Coding Sequences and Debugging in Scratch
7. 27 Scratch: Loops and Events
8. Technology in Irish Life
9. 28 Technology in Irish Life: Digital Systems Around Us

Build the foundations of the Stage 4 design process through ties and struts, annotated sketching, strong structures, bridges, and material choice, ending in a two-lesson design-build project on a real local school problem. Longer bird-feeder, mechanisms and capstone work come in 6th Class.

1. Forces in Structures and Communicating Designs
2. 29 Push and Pull: Ties and Struts
3. 30 Sketching and Communicating a Design
4. Strong Structures, Bridges and Material Choice
5. 31 Structures: Where Does It Actually Fail?
6. 32 Structures: Bridges and Load
7. 33 Choosing Materials for a Build
8. Solve a Local Problem: Design-build Project
9. 34 A Local Problem: Define and Design
10. 35 Build the Prototype
11. 36 Test, Improve and Present