How do people grow and change?

Preparation

For the investigation worksheet, pupils will need equipment such as a tape measure or height chart to measure their height.

Ensure pupils understand the meaning of ‘needs’.

Curriculum links

Working scientifically

• Gather and record data to help in answering questions.

Animals, including humans

• Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults.

Suggested teaching strategies

• Demonstrate to pupils how you have grown and changed using personal experience as an example. Ensure that pupils are aware that all adults were once babies.
• Utilise the turn and talk strategy with each developmental stage, to allow pupils to connect their own personal experience to each developmental stage and compare it to their peers.

Introduction

Show pupils some pictures of people at different ages: baby, child, adolescent, adult, elderly person (or ideally, pictures of one person at different stages of life). Compare the appearance of the people in the different stages. Discuss what has changed, both in appearance and what they think each person can do. Ask the pupils what could affect the change and growth of a person.

Display the digital lesson on your smartboard to introduce how humans change.

The summary and worksheet pages should be used together.

Development

Provide pupils with the summary and worksheet to complete.

The investigation worksheet is designed to help the pupils understand how they have grown and changed, and predict how they will continue changing. By comparing the change in height with others in the classroom, they will also understand that people change and grow at different rates. Encourage pupils to think of how tall their parents are, and use the measuring tape or chart to help them estimate their own height at age 30.

Differentiation

• Pupils requiring additional support to grasp the concept of growth may benefit from images or age progression videos that show the same person over a lifetime.
• Parents could also be asked to provide images from their youth to show how someone in the pupil’s life has changed.
• As an extension to this lesson, pupils could write a letter to their 30-year-old self describing what they are like now. They should include information about their age, height, shoe size, physical features, likes, dislikes, and questions for their future self that could be used to show how they have grown and changed.

Conclusion

Pupils share their drawings with each other and justify why they think they will look that way.

Assessment

Worksheet answers
1. Teacher check
2. 5, 1, 3, 2, 4 (Learnt to walk, learnt to dress themselves, lost a tooth, started secondary school, learnt how to drive)
3. Teacher check
4. Teacher check. Answers could include they both need care, perhaps they cannot do much by themselves, they might not be able to move around well.
5. Teacher check. Answers should include that people don’t get the things they need, they might not grow as well or as much as they could, they might not be able to do as many things or be as strong.
6. Teacher check
7. Teacher check. Answers should indicate that the pupils’ parents will play an important part in the way they grow and change. Pupils who have carers or are adopted might state that these adults will also play a part in their development.

Investigation worksheet answers
1. Teacher check. Pupils should at this age vary in height from 108–142 centimetres, so answers should be somewhere in the range of a 58–92 cm increase in height.
2.–5. Teacher check