Fair testing

ScienceScientific InquiryAges 7–9

Set up simple practical enquiries, comparative tests, and fair tests, understanding the importance of changing only one variable at a time

Teach this topic

Share and support

Teaching Table

Set out your lesson

Practise the bounded task in Fair testing; see exact limits before inferring broader coverage.

Activity

Can name a changed variable and measured outcome; no chemicals, heating or prolonged plant care required.

Policy

Exact directed source edges retained; earlier authorship is not learner attainment.

Materials

These supplied stage cards
Scrap paper and pencil; oral/pointing response where appropriate
Optional short cardboard ramp, stable books for two low heights, light rolled-paper cylinder, ruler/tape and clear floor area; responsible adult checks stability.

Sequence

Read readiness and decide on support without treating prerequisite authoring as learner readiness.
Open Show first and explain its model.
Use Guided Try with support and its separate adult key.
Close Show and guided keys before Try, unless this Try is explicitly supported.
Reflect on an actual attempt, including help used.

No Printer

Use the supplied screen cards; copying the exact task to paper is optional, not required.

Privacy

Use only invented scenarios and optional anonymous local notes. Do not request names, photos, family finances, medical data, accounts or uploads. Stop uncomfortable physical activity.

Use the complete materials on screen or print only the current sheet. Keep adult guidance out of learner view. Retain an earlier model only when the current step supplies it as context.

Teaching limits and safe use

These are finite task opportunities, not proof of mastery. Record what was attempted and what support was used.

Conditional low-risk ramp comparison, not the source's bean-soil practical. Carrying out remains conditional on actual performance; no predicted result is recorded as observed.

Use only invented scenarios and optional anonymous local notes. Do not request names, photos, family finances, medical data, accounts or uploads. Stop uncomfortable physical activity.

Share teaching feedback Continue to your family plan

Entire curriculum

1590 concepts · 8 subjects

Compare teaching approaches

Teaching approaches

Gakuva’s recommended starting approach is selected. You can still compare every option.

1 approach

Selected Default Gakuva

Practise the bounded task in Fair testing; see exact limits before inferring broader coverage.

Family records and proof options

Keep a record of your learning

Save photos, notes, and attendance. Export a proof packet for compliance or portfolio reviews.

Start Family ($12/mo) See sample proof packet

Learning resources

External links for extra practice. They do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.

No additional resources are listed for this topic.

The teaching approach appears above.

Check understanding

Explain what makes a test 'fair' (only one variable changes, everything else stays the same)
Identify the variable to change, the variable to measure, and the variables to keep the same
Set up and carry out a comparative or fair test with support

“If your child wants to find out which soil is best for growing beans, can they set up a fair test where only the soil changes and everything else stays the same?”

Curriculum record

Type: Procedural
Subject: Science
Domain: Scientific Inquiry
Age range: Ages 7–9

Standards

uk-nc-2013:KS2L.Sci.WS.1uk-nc-2013:KS2L.Sci.WS.2