1. Animals Including Humans
Year 5
Working Scientifically:
Planning an Investigation

2. Lesson 2 Bones

3. What will you learn today?
Name a variety of animals, including humans, that have a skeleton.
Name the functions of the skeleton.
I can identify independent and dependent variables.

4. Key words for today Bones Calcium Control Dependent variable Fair Test
Functions
Independent Variable
Joint
Scientific enquiry
Skeleton
Variable

5. Draw a skeleton
Put a piece of wallpaper on the floor and draw around one of your friends.
Draw where you think bones should go. Think about their size and shape.
Label any bones you know on your drawing.
When everyone is finished, go and see each group’s drawings. You can leave post-it note comments about their skeleton drawing and add any additional information you know about bones!

6. Some things to think about….
Which are the largest and smallest bones in your body?
Why do bones need to be strong?
What are bones made from?
Find a friend who broke their bone and ask them how they did it. Find out how broken bones are fixed.

7. X-Rays An X-Ray is a picture of bones.
They are taken with an X-Ray machine, usually if someone has broken a bone.
Look at your X-Ray pictures.
Which parts of your body do you think your bones protect? See if you can match the organ picture cards with the X-Rays.

8. What are you going to do today?
Science Lab A (Part 1): What are bones are made of?
Science Lab A (Part 2): Planning an investigation
Science Lab B: Make a moving skeleton
Science Lab C: Animal and human bones
Science Lab D: People and bones

9. Lab A (Part 1): What are bones made of?
Wear safety gloves for this investigation.
Look at the bones in the beakers. Beaker A has bones in water. Beaker B has a bones in vinegar.
Take both sets of bones carefully out of the beakers and put them on a paper towel. Make sure you don’t mix them up.
Examine the bones. How are they similar? How are they different?
What has happened to the bones in the vinegar? What conclusion can you make?
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

10. Lab A: What are bones made of?
Bones are made from calcium. Calcium makes bones strong.
Calcium is a chemical element. It’s actually a metal! It can be found in different minerals, such as limestone.
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

11. Lab A (Part 2) Planning an Investigation
Look at the bones from Lab A again.
You are going to plan an investigation to find out the answer to this question:
Which bone is the strongest?
Plan a fair test to answer this question, including:
Your independent variable
Which variables you will keep the same
Your dependent variable
What kind of numerical data you will collect
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

12. Lab A (Part 2) Record your learning
These are the possible variables in my investigation about the strongest bone:
Independent variables:
Dependent variables:
Ask the children to write this in their books. This relates to their working scientifically learning objective.

13. Lab B: Make a moving skeleton
You are going to make a moving skeleton to show the position of the joints.
Research the following joints, where they are found and how they work:
ball and socket
hinge
gliding
fixed
pivot
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

14. Lab B: Make a moving skeleton
Now that you know all the different types of joints, you can make your skeleton.
Draw your skeleton on the card and cut out the bones.
Use the split pins to connect the bones
Make a video of your skeleton moving and name all the types of joints
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

15. Lab C: animal and human bones
You are going to find out about the similarities and differences between the skeletons of different animals, including humans.
Activity A
Look at the skeleton and skull models. Match the bones with the labelling cards.
Activity B
Use the skeleton cards to compare the skeletons of different animals and humans.
Group the animals by the kind of skeleton they have.
Choose two different animals. Compare and contrast their skeletons.
Create a table to show the similarities and differences between the two skeletons.
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

16. Lab D: people and bones
Research why people who do these jobs need to know about bones:
Archaeologist
NASA space scientist
Osteopath
Radiographer
Orthopaedic surgeon
Write a short job description of each job (25 words maximum)
The Lab instruction slides can be printed (and laminated) for the children. This will allow them to work independently

17. Challenge! Challenge 1: Find out about osteoporosis.
What is it? Who gets it? How is it treated? How can you avoid getting it?
Challenge 2:
How could you improve your diet to make sure your bones are healthy? Write a short paragraph and list any foods you think you should eat more of.
In general, larger animals have a slower resting heart rate than smaller ones

18. What did you learn today?
Using what you have learned today, write down 3 questions with their correct answers on
post-it notes.
Ask your partner your questions, and swap.
When you have finished, ask these questions:
Did you and your partner answer the questions correctly?
How could you improve your answers?
This is an opportunity for the learning to be assessed.

19. How did you get on?
My Learning Objectives
What do I think?
What does my friend think?
What does my teacher think?
I can name a variety of animals including humans that have a skeleton.
I can name the functions of the skeleton.
I can identify independent and dependent variables.
This is an opportunity for the learning to be assessed.
Self/Peer/Teacher assessment opportunity. Ask the children to draw or stick this in their books. Use your marking policy to agree how you will show whether the objective has been achieved, exceeded or working towards.