Year 6 Science – Term 2 (WA Curriculum): Chemical Changes in Materials

What this unit covers

In Term 2, Year 6 Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Chemical Changes in Materials”.

Students explore how materials can undergo both reversible and irreversible changes, investigating the differences between physical changes that can be undone and chemical changes that create new substances.

Lesson sequence (8 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Investigating What Happens When Materials Change
2. Exploring Dissolving as a Reversible Change
3. Observing Changes of State: Melting and Freezing
4. Investigating Evaporation and Condensation
5. Discovering Irreversible Changes Through Burning
6. Observing Rusting as an Irreversible Chemical Change
7. Comparing Reversible and Irreversible Changes
8. Testing and Classifying Material Changes

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 2

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 2 runs from Monday 20 April to Friday 3 July — 11 weeks for WA public schools. With 8 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.