Class 6 Science Chapter 1: The Wonderful World of Science Notes

Welcome to science

As human beings, we have always been curious about our surroundings, and we start exploring and asking questions as children. In the Middle Stage of school, this journey continues with a new subject: science. Science is a way of thinking, observing and doing things to understand the world we live in and to uncover the secrets of the universe. It is a big adventure in which we ask questions, explore and try to understand how things work. For this, the most important thing is curiosity, which gives the textbook its name.

Science is everywhere

There is always something new to discover, whether we study tiny grains of sand or huge mountains, a blade of grass or a vast forest. Why do the stars shine? How does a flower know when to open? Science helps us unravel such mysteries, and it is everywhere: from the depths of the ocean to outer space, and from what is cooking in the kitchen to what is happening on the playground. Some of the greatest discoveries have come from unexpected places.

A giant, unending jigsaw puzzle

Science is like a giant jigsaw puzzle that never ends. Every new discovery adds a piece, and every new piece leads to more questions, so there is no limit to what we can find out. Sometimes we find that a piece was put in the wrong place and has to be moved: new discoveries often change our understanding of the world. As we discover more, we also start to see that all these ideas are connected.

What will we explore?

The chapter asks many questions that the rest of the book takes up:

Question in Chapter 1	Where the Curiosity book explores it
How do plants and animals grow? How varied is life on Earth?	Chapter 2, Diversity in the Living World; Chapter 10, Living Creatures
What are our tasty dishes made of?	Chapter 3, Mindful Eating
Why and how does it rain?	Chapter 8, A Journey through States of Water
How do we understand hot and cold?	Chapter 7, Temperature and its Measurement
What are things made of, like paper, a key, a ruler and an eraser?	Chapter 6, Materials Around Us; Chapter 4, Exploring Magnets
How do we separate materials from one another?	Chapter 9, Methods of Separation
How do things move?	Chapter 5, Measurement of Length and Motion
What about our planet’s environment?	Chapter 11, Nature’s Treasures
What about the Sun, the Moon and the stars?	Chapter 12, Beyond Earth

The scientific method

You already find answers like a scientist. Suppose your pen stops writing. You ask, “Why did my pen stop writing?” and guess that the ink has finished. You test the guess by opening the pen and checking the refill. If it is empty, your guess was right. If not, you make another guess, perhaps that the ink has dried up, and test that. This is the scientific method: we observe something, ask a question, guess a possible answer, test the guess through experiments or more observations, and analyse the results to see whether they answer the question. Read more in steps of the scientific method.

We are all scientists

Scientists follow the scientific method to solve problems or discover new things, but anyone who follows it works like a scientist. A cook wonders why the dal spilled out of the cooker: was there too much water? A bicycle repairer tries to find where the air leaked out of a flat tyre. An electrician checks whether a light bulb or its switch is at fault. Learning science builds our ability to solve bigger problems and more mysteries of the universe. Read more in what is science.

Science is done together

Science is rarely done alone: scientists across the world work together, often in large teams. If you cannot find an answer yourself, ask your friends; discovering together is more fun. You will not find answers to all your questions in Grade 6, and that is fine: your journey in science goes on for years. As the chapter says, to be a wise person, you must be a “whys” person. Answers to every activity and question are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 1.