Grade 6 · Science

Grade 6 science

Grade 6 science ranges widely: how living things are grouped, what keeps a plane in the air, how electricity flows through a circuit, and why the Moon changes shape. Here is what it covers, where kids usually get stuck, and one way to help.

What your child learns this year

Topics differ by province and state, but most grade 6 classes cover several of these:

Biodiversity. The variety of living things, how scientists group them, and why variety matters.
Flight. The forces on anything that flies, and how wings and shapes use them.
Electricity. Static electricity, series and parallel circuits, and using energy wisely.
Space. The solar system, the Moon's phases, eclipses, and the seasons.
Doing science. Planning fair tests, measuring carefully and drawing conclusions from data.

In the US, states that follow the Next Generation Science Standards teach grades 6 to 8 as one band, so grade 6 topics vary from school to school.

Where kids usually get stuck

1Thinking the bulbs use up the current. In a series loop the same current flows through every bulb at once; none is used up along the way.
2Thinking Earth's shadow makes the Moon's phases. Half the Moon is always lit by the Sun. The phases are how much of that lit half we can see from Earth.
3Thinking summer comes when Earth is closest to the Sun. The seasons come from the tilt of Earth's axis. Canada's winter is actually when Earth is closest.

One of Pip's tricks

One path or many paths

Use it when telling a series circuit from a parallel circuit, or predicting what happens when one bulb goes out.

Trace every path the current can take from the battery and back.
One single path through all the devices is a series circuit: one break, and everything stops.
Separate branches, each making its own loop with the battery, make a parallel circuit: one branch can break while the others keep working.

Watch it work. In a string of lights, one bulb burns out and all the others go dark. One broken bulb stopped every bulb, so the current had only one path through all of them. One path means a series circuit.

Why it works: current only flows around a complete loop, so in series every device shares one loop and a single break stops them all, while each parallel branch is a loop of its own.

Try three

Tap a choice to see if it is right, with the reason.

1.One bulb in a string of lights burns out and all the others go dark. Series or parallel?
2.One lamp in your house burns out and the others stay on. Series or parallel?
3.What causes the Moon's phases?

How Sparkpip fits in

Pip, Sparkpip's tutor, works through questions like these with your child one small step at a time, using ways of thinking like the one above.

Start free See how it works

Your curriculum

Sparkpip is built on the grade 6 science curriculum for your province or state. The official pages:

Also: Grade 5 science · Grade 7 science · Grade 6 math · Grade 6 English