Grade 2: Science

Here is the Science curriculum for Grade 2 in British Columbia, presented with the content first.

Grade 2 Science Content (BC Curriculum)

The learning standards for Grade 2 Science are organized into four content areas, known as the “Big Ideas.”

1. Living Things and Their Environment

• Core Question: How do living things depend on their environment to meet their basic needs?

• Key Content:

  • Basic Needs: All living things need water, food, and a suitable habitat to survive.

  • Animal and Plant Features: The physical features and behaviors of living things are related to where they live and how they meet their needs (e.g., a beaver’s teeth for cutting wood, a duck’s webbed feet for swimming).

  • First Peoples Knowledge: Learning from First Peoples about the interconnectedness of living things and their environment, and the importance of respecting all life forms.

2. Properties of Matter

• Core Question: What are things made of, and what are their properties?

• Key Content:

  • Physical Properties: Objects and living things can be described and compared based on their physical properties (e.g., size, shape, colour, texture, buoyancy).

  • Material Composition: Objects can be made from one or more materials (e.g., wood, metal, plastic, cloth).

  • Natural and Human-Made: Distinguishing between objects and materials found in nature and those made by humans.

3. Forces and Motion

• Core Question: How can we make things move?

• Key Content:

  • Types of Forces: Exploring different ways to move an object (e.g., pushing, pulling, throwing, dropping).

  • Effects of Forces: Observing how forces can change the speed, direction, or shape of an object.

  • Simple Machines: Recognizing and exploring simple, everyday machines (e.g., levers, ramps, wheels, pulleys) and how they help us to move or lift things.

4. Water Sources and Cycles

• Core Question: Where does water come from, and where does it go?

• Key Content:

  • Local Water Sources: Identifying natural and constructed local water sources (e.g., rivers, lakes, streams, oceans, taps, wells).

  • The Water Cycle: Observing and describing changes to water in the environment (e.g., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, melting, freezing).

  • Conservation: Understanding that clean water is a limited resource and identifying ways to conserve and protect it.

  • First Peoples Knowledge: Learning from First Peoples about the cultural importance of water and traditional practices for its conservation and use.

Curricular Competencies (The “Doing” of Science)

These are the processes and skills students use to learn the science content.

• Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate curiosity and ask questions about familiar objects and events. Make simple predictions about their investigations.

• Planning and Conducting: Make and record observations about the natural and human-built world. Suggest ways to answer their own questions through simple investigations.

• Processing and Analyzing Data and Information: Sort and classify data and information using drawings, pictographs, or provided tables. Experience and interpret the local environment.

• Evaluating: Compare observations with predictions through discussion. Consider some environmental consequences of their actions.

• Applying and Innovating: Contribute to care for self, family, classroom, and school through personal or collaborative approaches. Transfer and apply learning to new situations.

• Communicating: Communicate observations and ideas using oral or written language, drawing, or role-play.

Big Ideas (The Core Concepts)

These are the overarching understandings students will develop.

• Living Things: Living things have life cycles adapted to their environment.

• Matter: Materials can be changed through physical and chemical processes.

• Forces: Forces influence the motion of an object.

• Water: Water is essential to all living things, and it cycles through the environment.

Key Changes & Focus for Grade 2

• A strong emphasis on direct, hands-on observation of the immediate world.

• Moving from general exploration to comparing and contrasting objects and organisms.

• Introduction to the concept of cause and effect (e.g., a push causes motion).

• Laying the foundation for systems thinking by exploring needs and cycles.

• Integrating First Peoples knowledge through stories and principles of respect and interconnection.