Viking Science

In this Viking Science lesson planning pack for KS2, your Year 5 or Year 6 class will learn that the Vikings were so much more than just marauding warriors – they used science to make everyday life easier!

Through detailed, engaging slides and challenging, diverse scientific enquiries, children will learn all about how chemistry, biology, physics, technology and engineering helped shape Viking society. Each of these Viking Science lessons includes a choice of unusual, exciting and differentiated scientific enquiry activities to stretch your upper KS2 children and help them become critical, rigorous and curious scientists!

This scheme of work is also part of our Vikings Topic Bundle. Perfect if you are teaching 'The Vikings' as a cross-curricular topic.

Producing and Preserving Food

What foods do you think the Vikings produced and ate? The included slides explain, and challenge children to consider how and why foods needed to be preserved, focusing on milk production and the foods Vikings made from milk. There's a choice of two activities included, where children may either make butter – developing their methods as well as observing and recording changes, or conduct research and gather prior knowledge about modern dairy food production.

View Lesson 1

Micro-organisms

The Vikings used fermentation to make food and drinks – a process that requires micro-organisms. But what are micro-organisms, and how are they both helpful and harmful to us? Explore the microscopic world of bacteria, fungi and other strange, tiny living things and consider both how they affected everyday Viking life, and ours.

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Glue

What would we do without glue? Challenge children to consider the ways in which adhesives are used all around us, then discover another ingenious way the Vikings used milk: to make glue! As with all of the lessons in this Viking Science Complete Series, there's a choice of activities where children may either make and test milk glue, or devise fair tests to compare the strengths of different commercial glues.

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Oil Lamps

How did Viking oil lamps work? What scientific questions can we ask about them? Devise tests to answer scientific questions.

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Absorbent Materials

The Vikings were experts at making the most of the natural materials around them. This included using absorbent moss to make babies' nappies! Challenge children to examine the materials used in the construction of modern, disposable nappies, then devise and carry out scientific enquiries to learn more about the absorbent materials used. Alternatively, challenge children to accurately measure differences in a variety of absorbent materials with the included fair test activity sheet.

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Longboats

What forces act on a non-moving boat in water? What about when it moves? What about if it has to be dragged over land? Viking longboats had to perform well in all these situations – they were amazingly well designed and built! Having learned a bit about buoyancy and the other forces acting on Viking longboats, your class may then devise and conduct tests on simple model Viking boats either in or out of water.

View Lesson 6