Manitoba · Grade 6 Science · Full implementation 2026/27
Manitoba's renewed Grade 6 Science, explained for the teacher planning it
Manitoba's renewed Kindergarten to Grade 10 Science curriculum is in full implementation in the 2026/27 school year. In Grade 6 the four old clusters are gone: five strands of learning outcomes run through the whole year, and the 17 Scientific Knowledge outcomes cover forces and energy, the Earth, Moon and Sun, and heredity, diversity and fossils. Here is what changed, every Grade 6 outcome in the curriculum's own words, and one way to lay out the ten months.
Milestone Teachers · Manitoba Grade 6 Science teaching materials · Last reviewed
Official Manitoba sources linked · Suggested September–June sequence · Independent teacher-created resources
Free: Seasons Explorer, a 3D seasons lab · Read the official Grade 6 document
- 5 strands, A to E
- 31 Grade 6 learning outcomes
- 17 Scientific Knowledge outcomes
- 2026/27 full implementation
What changed from the four clusters
This comparison sets the renewed Grade 6 document beside the previous program's four Grade 6 clusters, which Manitoba now lists under archived implementation supports. It compares how the year is organized, not every outcome.
| Previous program | Renewed program |
|---|---|
| Four clusters, each taught as a unit: Diversity of Living Things, Flight, Electricity and The Solar System. | Five strands of learning outcomes, meant to be woven together through every learning experience. |
| The content came already grouped into clusters. | Scientific Knowledge outcomes are grouped by big ideas of science, not into units, and teachers are encouraged to regroup, reorganize and reorder them. |
| Flight was a cluster of its own. | Forces start from gravity and the forces that oppose it; lift is one example, with the normal force, buoyancy and tension. Buoyancy has an outcome of its own. |
| Electricity was a cluster of its own. | Electricity is taught within energy: stored energy, energy transfer, battery circuits and electrical safety. |
| The Solar System was a cluster of its own. | Space centres on the Earth-Moon-Sun system: how the length of a day, month and year are set, and what causes the seasons. |
| Diversity of Living Things was a cluster of its own. | Living things are taught through inheritance and how species change over time: offspring and parents, classification, fossils and what makes a species. |
- 2025-26: Renewed K to 10 Science documents posted for voluntary implementation.
- 24 Aug 2026: Date of the current Grade 6 document (its PDF properties). Check you have this version.
- 2026/27: Full implementation: the renewed curriculum is the program in every Grade 6 class.
Read the outcomes the way the document asks: anything listed under "Include the following" is compulsory content, and anything under "Examples" is a suggestion for learning.
The five strands
Strands A to D are not units. They describe how students do science all year, so plan them as threads through every topic. Strand E is the content, and the document itself says its outcomes are not prescriptive clusters or units.
Contains information from the Government of Manitoba, licensed under the OpenMB Information and Data Use License (Manitoba.ca/OpenMB). OpenMB licence.
Strand A: Indigenous Knowledge Systems
How First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities observe and interpret the world, apply scientific principles and create technologies.
SCI.6.A.1 Indigenous ways of knowing in science
Demonstrate an understanding of different First Nations, Métis, and Inuit ways of knowing, being, and doing by exploring Indigenous methods of observing and interpreting the world, applying scientific principles, and creating technologies within local traditional and contemporary contexts (e.g., wholistic, reciprocal, interconnected, and sustainable ways; land-based learning; outdoor learning; intersections with Western science).
Strand B: Science Identity
Every learner sees themselves as someone who can take part in science.
SCI.6.B.1 Agency, identity and belonging in science
Develop a sense of agency, identity, and belonging in science by • cultivating natural curiosity about the world • acquiring scientific skills and fostering scientific attitudes • building a personal connection to nature • establishing links between science concepts and personal experience • recognizing that everyone can contribute to science
Strand C: Practical Science
Taking action on STSE issues, measuring, safe practices and equipment, and science in careers and hobbies.
SCI.6.C.1 Take action on a real STSE issue
Take class, group or personal action on a local, provincial, Canadian or global STSE (Science, technology, society and the environment) issue.
Examples (suggestions): • Reduce litter in a local stream, pond or river. • Audit energy use of the classroom or school (heating, lighting, appliances) and promote actions to reduce energy consumption. • Analyze biodiversity in the school yard or local environment (insects, plants, birds) and take action to increase species diversity. • Investigate the life cycle of electronic devices and promote ways to reduce electronic waste (recycling and reuse). • Evaluate how seasonal changes in daylight affect physical activity, sleep, and well-being and recommend strategies to support healthy daily routines.
SCI.6.C.2 Measure with the right tools and units
Measure using the appropriate techniques, tools, and units. (Bold indicates items introduced for the first time at this grade level.)
Include the following (compulsory): • Tools: calendar, clock, ruler, pan balance, balance, volumetric vessels, spring scale, voltmeter, ammeter (multimeter) • Attributes: length, mass, volume, time, temperature, speed, force, electric potential, current (Note: DC low voltage only, i.e., battery power) • Units: length (km, m, cm, mm), mass (kg, g), volume (L, mL), time (h, min, s), temperature (°C), speed (km/h, m/s), force (N), current (A), potential (V) • Skills and understanding of scientific measurement: measure and estimate using standard SI tools and units; select measurement tools; display quantitative data (charts, line graphs, tables, etc.); recognize importance of standard units; convert between SI length, time, and volume units; understand meaning of SI prefixes and their symbols (micro, milli, centi, deci, deka, hecto, kilo, mega)
SCI.6.C.3 Scientific and engineering practices, done safely
Apply a range of scientific, technological or engineering practices (e.g., asking questions, identifying problems, observing, experimenting, measuring, classifying, collecting and analyzing data, engaging in scientific debate and argumentation, communicating results, designing and building) in a manner that demonstrates respect and ensures personal safety and the safety of others.
Examples (suggestions): • Participate in learning experiences that include an Indigenous community member (e.g., Elder, Knowledge Holder; Knowledge Keeper) to share knowledge, experience, or teachings related to the curriculum. • Use the design process to construct a prototype that can fly and meet specific performance criteria. • Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky. • Construct simple circuits to demonstrate how electrical energy can be controlled to produce light, heat, sound, motion, and magnetic effects. • Compare closely related animals that live in different parts of the world, and propose explanations for any differences in their structures and behaviours. • Demonstrate work habits that ensure personal safety, the safety of others, and consideration for the environment.
SCI.6.C.4 Use materials and equipment safely
Use various materials and scientific equipment appropriately, competently, and safely while carrying out various scientific practices.
Examples (suggestions): telescope, hand lenses, binoculars, electrical circuit components, fossils, glassware, craft and recycled materials, classroom materials, materials from nature, logbook, diagrams, charts, graphs, spreadsheets, safety procedures
SCI.6.C.5 Science in careers, hobbies and activities
Make connections between scientific ideas and a range of careers, hobbies and activities.
Examples (suggestions): astronomer, teacher, geneticist, pilot, ship’s captain, oceanographer, climate scientist, energy engineer, museum curator, rigger, balloonist, sailor, model rocketry, crop farmer, star gazing, Indigenous storytelling related to seasons and life, fossil hunting, swimming, basketball, lacrosse, snowshoeing, skiing, snowboarding
Strand D: Nature of Science (Grades 3 to 6 Band)
The purpose, methods, applications and implications of scientific inquiry.
SCI.6.D.1 Science explains nature
Demonstrate the understanding that science attempts to develop explanations for phenomena in nature.
SCI.6.D.2 Explanations are built from data
Demonstrate the understanding that developing scientific explanations involves systematically collecting data through observations and measurements or using data from other sources.
SCI.6.D.3 What a hypothesis is
Demonstrate the understanding that a hypothesis is a prediction about what is happening, or what might happen, based upon theory, research, past experience, observations, or other evidence.
SCI.6.D.4 Evidence supports or refutes a prediction
Demonstrate the understanding that the data that scientists look for is guided by a theory or a hypothesis, and the evidence they find supports or refutes their predictions.
SCI.6.D.5 Engineering applies science
Demonstrate the understanding that engineering is the application of scientific principles and approaches to solving problems, often resulting in new technology that furthers scientific discovery.
SCI.6.D.6 Problems have many possible solutions
Demonstrate the understanding that when solving problems, there may be many possible solutions, each with associated implications, requiring both critical and creative thinking in choosing the best solution.
Examples (suggestions): functionality, sustainability, economic considerations, ethics, impacts on all organisms and all parts of the ecosystems
SCI.6.D.7 Technology can help and harm
Demonstrate the understanding that technologies may have both beneficial and detrimental social and environmental consequences.
Strand E: the 17 Scientific Knowledge outcomes
Forces and energy (E.1 to E.7)
Inquiry question from the document: What causes events to happen?
- Big idea of force: Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.
- Big idea of energy: The total amount of energy in the universe is always the same but can be transferred from one energy store to another during an event.
SCI.6.E.1 Gravity pulls toward Earth's centre
Demonstrate the understanding that the gravitational force of Earth pulls objects (near Earth’s surface) toward the planet’s centre.
SCI.6.E.2 Forces that oppose gravity
Demonstrate an understanding of forces that oppose gravitational force.
Examples (suggestions): lift, normal force, buoyancy, tension
SCI.6.E.3 Buoyancy
Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the principles of buoyancy.
Include the following (compulsory): opposing forces, Archimedes Principle, volume, density, mass.
SCI.6.E.4 Stored energy
Demonstrate the understanding that objects can have stored energy.
Examples (suggestions): chemical, food, kinetic, thermal, gravitational, solar, electrical, elastic
SCI.6.E.5 Energy transfer makes things happen
Demonstrate the understanding that stored energy can be transferred, and this causes events to happen.
Examples (suggestions): create or transfer heat, illuminate a bulb, run a motor, grow and repair living tissue
SCI.6.E.6 Energy in battery circuits
Demonstrate the understanding that in battery-powered circuits, as electricity flows, energy is transferred from the battery to components in the circuit and ultimately to the environment.
Include the following (compulsory): chemical energy (batteries), charge, conductor, circuits, energy change from one form to another.
SCI.6.E.7 Electrical safety
Demonstrate an understanding of safety precautions associated with electricity.
Examples (suggestions): household appliances, batteries, circuits
Planning tip: Buoyancy (E.3) is the one outcome here with a long compulsory list: opposing forces, Archimedes Principle, volume, density and mass. Give it a design challenge and a second period. Circuits (E.6) and safety (E.7) pair naturally: build the circuit, then ask what makes it safe.
Earth, Moon and Sun (E.8 to E.11)
Inquiry question from the document: How are time and the motion of the Solar System related?
- Big idea of space science: Our Solar System is a very small part of one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
SCI.6.E.8 Rotation and the length of a day
Demonstrate an understanding of the rotational motion of Earth, and its role in defining the length of a day.
Include the following (compulsory): day and night, sunrise, sunset, rotation.
SCI.6.E.9 Month, year and seasons
Demonstrate the understanding that the meaning of human time systems is tied to the motions of Earth around the Sun and the Moon around Earth.
Include the following (compulsory): month, year, seasons (solstice, equinox), revolution, orbit.
SCI.6.E.10 Tilt, orbit, daylight and the seasons
Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship among the tilt of Earth’s axis, revolution around the Sun, number of daylight hours, and seasonal change.
SCI.6.E.11 The Sun as a star
Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of the Sun as a star like billions of others, and as the central source of energy, light, and gravity in the Solar System.
Include the following (compulsory): heat, Moon phases.
Planning tip: Every outcome here asks for evidence gathered over time: sunrise and sunset, a month of Moon phases, a noon shadow. Start the logs in the first week so students have their own data by the time they reach the seasons (E.10).
Heredity, diversity and fossils (E.12 to E.17)
Inquiry question from the document: How are organisms similar and different from each other?
- Big idea of genetics: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
- Big idea of evolution: The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.
SCI.6.E.12 Offspring resemble their parents
Demonstrate the understanding that organisms resemble their parents in both plants and animals because genetic information is passed from one generation to the next.
Examples (suggestions): plant and animal offspring
SCI.6.E.13 Genes, environment and learning shape traits
Demonstrate the understanding that the traits, skills, and behaviours exhibited by organisms result from some combination of genetic, environmental, social, and learned components.
Examples (suggestions): bird songs, migrations, web building, nest building
SCI.6.E.14 Diversity and classification
Demonstrate the understanding that there is a wide variety of organisms in the world, which are systematically categorized by scientists.
Include the following (compulsory): physical traits, taxonomy, dichotomous key.
SCI.6.E.15 Fossils as evidence of change
Demonstrate the understanding that fossils provide evidence of how organisms have changed over time.
Examples (suggestions): animal fossils, plant fossils, micro fossils
SCI.6.E.16 What a species is
Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of plant and animal species.
Include the following (compulsory): viable offspring, hybrids (e.g., grolar/pizzly bear, mule, coy-dog, coy-wolf, liger, hybrid crops).
SCI.6.E.17 Offspring are similar, not identical
Demonstrate the understanding that sexual reproduction of animals and plants produces offspring that are similar to but not identical to their parents.
Planning tip: Two compulsory lists anchor this group: the dichotomous key and taxonomy (E.14), and viable offspring and hybrids (E.16). Classification practice with real local organisms makes the later species questions concrete.
A year at a glance
This order is our suggestion, not a required sequence: Manitoba encourages teachers to regroup and reorder the Strand E outcomes. It starts with space in the fall, when students can log the days getting shorter, keeps circuits indoors in winter, and leaves living things for spring. Strands A to D run through every month.
| Month | Topic group | Outcomes | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | Earth, Moon and Sun | E.8 | Day and night, sunrise and sunset, and Earth's rotation. Start a sunset log and the science notebooks you will use all year. |
| October | Earth, Moon and Sun | E.9, E.11 | Revolution and orbit: how a month and a year are set. Keep a month-long Moon phase diary. |
| November | Earth, Moon and Sun | E.10, E.11 | Tilt, orbit and daylight hours: what really causes the seasons. The Sun as a star. |
| December | Forces and energy | E.1, E.2 | Gravity pulls toward Earth's centre, and the forces that oppose it: the normal force, tension and lift. |
| January | Forces and energy | E.3 | Buoyancy: opposing forces, Archimedes Principle, volume, density and mass. A boat-building design challenge. |
| February | Forces and energy | E.4, E.5 | Stored energy, and how transferring it makes events happen. |
| March | Forces and energy | E.6, E.7 | Battery circuits and electrical safety. Choose an issue for the class action project, such as the classroom's energy use. |
| April | Heredity, diversity and fossils | E.12, E.13 | Offspring resemble parents, and traits come from a mix of genetic, environmental, social and learned components. |
| May | Heredity, diversity and fossils | E.14, E.15 | Classifying organisms with a dichotomous key; fossils as evidence of how organisms have changed. |
| June | Heredity, diversity and fossils | E.16, E.17 | Species, hybrids and viable offspring, and why offspring are similar but not identical. Share the action project. |
All year: Indigenous ways of knowing (A.1), science identity (B.1), an action project on a real issue (C.1), measuring and safe practice (C.2 to C.5), and the nature of science (D.1 to D.7).
Free: Seasons Explorer
A free 3D seasons lab, no login: Earth's tilted orbit, real Winnipeg and Churchill daylight for 2026 from the National Research Council Canada, a noon shadow stick and a what-if tilt control. Built for SCI.6.E.10. About Seasons Explorer.
Units for this year
Ready-to-teach units from Milestone Teachers for the Scientific Knowledge topic groups, each available as a Milestone Teachers download.
- Manitoba Grade 6 Science NEW Curriculum Space Unit | Earth, Moon & Sun. SCI.6.E.8 to E.11: day and night, the length of a day, month and year, Moon phases, the Sun as a star, and the cause of the seasons. 8 lessons: 84 slides, a 65-page student workbook, an 80-page accommodated edition, a 37-page teacher guide with answer key, and an offline copy of Seasons Explorer. See the current price and currency on the product page before purchasing.
- Manitoba Grade 6 Science NEW Curriculum Forces & Energy | Buoyancy & Circuits. SCI.6.E.1 to E.7: gravity and the forces that oppose it, buoyancy and density, stored energy and transfer, battery circuits and electrical safety. 10 lessons: 80 editable slides and 211 PDF pages (a 73-page student workbook, a 97-page accommodated edition, a 40-page teacher guide with answer keys and a 1-page START HERE guide), plus structured offline reading versions and the Circuits & Buoyancy Lab. Teacher keys and speaker notes are separate from student reading files. See the current price and currency on the product page before purchasing.
- Manitoba Grade 6 Science NEW Curriculum | Heredity, Diversity & Fossils Unit. SCI.6.E.12 to E.17: offspring and parents, traits, classification and dichotomous keys, fossils, species and hybrids. 10 lessons: 80 slides and 208 PDF pages (a 74-page student workbook, a 94-page accommodated edition, a 39-page teacher guide with answer key and a 1-page START HERE guide), plus an offline copy of the Classify & Fossils Lab. See the current price and currency on the product page before purchasing.
- Manitoba Grade 6 Science NEW Curriculum Full Year Bundle | 3 Units. All 17 Scientific Knowledge outcomes, SCI.6.E.1 to E.17. The three units above in one resource bundle: Forces & Energy, Earth, Moon & Sun, and Heredity, Diversity & Fossils, each its own download with its own offline interactive. See the product page for the current price and currency. See the current price and currency on the product page before purchasing.
Try a complete lesson free
A year-at-a-glance plan for all 17 Scientific Knowledge outcomes and Lesson 6, "What Causes the Seasons? Testing an Idea," exactly as it appears in the Earth, Moon & Sun unit: student pages at two reading levels, the teacher plan and answer key, and the lesson's 12-slide deck. Free ZIP: a 23-page PDF and a 12-slide teaching deck. Manitoba Grade 6 Science NEW Curriculum | FREE Year Plan + Seasons Lesson (free resource).
What this guide is not
An independent planning guide, not a Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning publication, and it does not speak for the Government of Manitoba. It quotes the Grade 6 learning outcomes; read the full document for the strand introductions and the global competencies before you plan assessments. The topic groups follow the document's big ideas; the order of the year is ours.
Sources
- Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning: Science: Grade 6 (English Program), the curriculum document
- Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning: Framework for Learning: curriculum implementation status
- Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning: Science: what's new (2025-26 voluntary implementation)
- Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning: Grades 5 to 8 Science: A Foundation for Implementation (the previous clusters, archived)
- Government of Manitoba: OpenMB Information and Data Use Licence
Contains information from the Government of Manitoba, licensed under the OpenMB Information and Data Use License (Manitoba.ca/OpenMB).
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