1.Food

• Plant and animal breeding andselection for quality improvement.
• Use of fertilizers, manures.
• Protection from pests and diseases;organic farming.

2.Materials

• Matter: All things occupy space,possess mass. Definition of matter,characteristics of solids, liquids andgases e.g. shape, volume, density.Change of state: freezing, melting,evaporation, condensation, sublimation.Cooling by evaporation. Absorption ofheat.
• Elements, mixtures and Compounds:elements, compounds and mixtures astypes of chemical substances.Types of mixtures; Heterogeneous,homogeneous, colloids, suspensions.
• Combination of substances: Law ofconstant proportion, atomic andmolecular masses. Particle nature,basic units: Atoms and Molecules.
• Mole Concept: Relationship of mole tomass of the particles and numbers.Valency. Chemical formulae of commoncompounds.
• Atomic Structure: Electrons, protonsand neutrons. Atomic number andatomic mass number. Isotopes andIsobars.

3.The World of the Living

• Biological Diversity
  • Diversity of plants and animals: Basicissues in scientific naming. Basis ofclassification, Hierarchy of categories/groups.
  • Plant classification: Major Plant groups(salient features): Bacteria,
  • Halophyte, Bryophyte, Pteridophyte,gymnosperms and Angiosperms.Animal Classification: Major groups of animals (salient features): Non-Chordates up to phyla and non-chordates up to classes.
• Smallest living unit of Life
  • Cell: Cellas a basic unit of life prokaryotic andeukaryotic cells, multicellularorganisms; cell membrane and cell wall,cell organelles, chloroplast,mitochondria, vacuoles, ER, Golgiapparatus. Nucleus, chromosomes,basic structure, number. Tissues,organs, organ system, organism
  • Structure and functions of animal andplant tissues. (Four types inanimals;meristematic and permanenttissues in plants).
• Health
  • Failure of health leading to disease.
  • Disease and its causes.
  • Diseases caused by microbes andtheir prevention: Typhoid, diarrhoea,malaria, hepatitis, rabies, AIDS, TB,Polio.
  • Pulse Polio program.
• Exchange of substances by livingorganisms with the external world:
  • Diffusion/exchange of substancesbetween cells and their environment andbetween the cell themselves in the livingsystem; role in nutrition, water and foodtransport, excretion, gaseous exchange.

4.Moving Things. People and ideas. Motion.

• Motion: displacement, velocity, Uniformand non-uniform motion along a straightline,acceleration, distance-time andvelocity-time graphs for motion anduniformly accelerated motion. Equationsof motion by graphical method. Elementary idea of uniform circularmotion.
• Force and Newton's Laws: Force andMotion; Newton's Laws of Motion. Inertia of body, inertia and mass,momentum, force and acceleration.Elementary idea of conservation ofmomentum, action and reaction forces.
• Gravitation: gravitation, universal law ofgravitation, force of gravitation of theearth(earth's gravity), acceleration dueto gravity, mass and weight, free fall .
• Work, Energy and Power: work doneby a force, energy, power. Kinetic andPotential energy, Law of conservationof energy.
• Floating Bodies: Thrust and Pressure,Archimedes' Principle, Buoyancy. Ideaof relative density.
• Sound; Nature of sound and itspropagation through different media,speed of sound, range of hearing inhumans; ultrasound; reflection of sound;echo and SONAR Structure of theHuman Ear. (Auditory aspect).

5.Natural Resources – Understanding Ecosystem -

• Types of ecosystem - forest, grassland,desert, aquatic, costal, marine
• Interaction between biotic and abioticfactors in an eco-system
• Energy flow and its importance. Cyclesof nutrients in terrestrial and aquatic(fresh water and marine) ecosystems,nature's mechanism in maintainingbalance.

6.Waste Generation and Management

• Sources of waste - domestic, industrial,agricultural and commercial
• Classification of waste: biodegradable non-biodegradable, toxic, non- toxicbiomedical.
• Impact of waste accumulation -Spoilage of landscape, pollution, healthhazards, effect on terrestrial andaquatic (fresh water and marine) life.
• Need for management of waste.
• Methods of safe disposal of wastesegregation, dumping, composting,drainage, treatment of effluents beforedischarge, incineration, use ofscrubbers and electrostaticprecipitators.
• Need for reducing, reusing and recyclingwaste.
• Legal provisions for handling and management of waste.