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Sniffing out disease lesson

In this lesson, students consider contemporary research approaches to disease identification. First, they conduct an experiment to test how sensitive their sense of smell is and explore how our sense of smell functions. Students then learn about at how animals are trained to use their sense of smell to detect human disease. ...

Downloadable

Unit for Reception to Year 2 Butterflies: Engaging with nature

This unit of work engages students in preparing butterfly gardens in their schoolgrounds. It explores the characteristics of living and non-living things, features of caterpillars and butterflies, the lifecycle of butterflies, survival requirements, and the characteristics of butterfly gardens. The unit includes worksheets, ...

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Travel Times

Life would be very different today if we did not have modern transport. In this activity, students calculate the time it would take for humans to travel long distances through different modes of transport. They then analyse the impact of these technological developments.

Interactive

Indigenous weather knowledge

An interactive map of traditional weather and climate knowledge that has been developed and passed down through countless generations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The site provides descriptions of the sixteen seasonal calendars used by First Nations peoples across Australia.

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Transportation Though the Ages: Science as a human endeavour

Humans are constantly working to develop and improve our technology and understanding. This resource provides step-by-step instructions to help students consider why innovative design and improvement is important. Students firstly identify as many types of transport they can think of and then discuss why new types of transport ...

Downloadable

The Manual: Butterfly Gardening in South Australia

This Manual assists teachers and students establish butterfly gardens in their schoolgrounds. It provides information about butterfly lifecycles, habitats, adaptations, and requirements to live. The manual also provides local Indigenous perspectives of butterflies, along with useful links to websites. The manual accompanies ...

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How to Make Perfect Popcron

This informative digital text about how to make popcorn is for teachers to read aloud to students. The instructions use text and images to list the equipment needed and the steps involved in making popcorn. The resource includes a teaching sequence related to the Big Six components of literacy development (oral language, ...

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Work sample Year 6 Science: Mouldy bread

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 6 Science. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation of ...

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Diabetes type 2 cured by surgery ABC Radio national

Download the audio or view the transcript of this ABC radio program. It is an excellent example of how approaching a problem from a different perspective and with an open mind may result in an amazing solution. Richard Stubbs, and New Zealand scientist, claims type 2 diabetes is a disease of the gut. If his hypothesis is ...

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For the Juniors: Making a rain gauge

How do you feel about the rain? This clip explains why rain is so important to farmers. You will see how to make a rain gauge and use it to measure how much rain falls. Farmers measure rainfall so they know when to do different jobs on their farms.

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Dingo secrets

This 9 minute video segment from Catalyst shows a biologist is finding out about how a family of multi-coloured dingoes is challenging our very idea of these animals. Technology has been invaluable in learning how young dingoes are taught adult behaviour and survival behaviours of the pack.

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Hendra Virus

This 11 minute video segment from Catalyst describes research into the Hendra virus with its high mortality rate and animal vectors.

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Low-carb cars

This ABC In Depth feature article explores the electric car as an alternative to petrol and diesel vehicles, with a brief reference to hydrogen powered cars. This article is comprehensive, but it is dated at 2008.

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Body identity

This eleven and a half minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent example of how science research can change our understanding. Some rare people who actually want their limb removed and will go to extraordinary lengths to do so are now regarded as experiencing a neurological phenomenon rather than a psychological disorder.

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Brainy bees

This six and a half minute video segment from Catalyst shows how understanding bees process information from their compound eyes may help in designing better surveillance systems. This program is useful for discussion of the methods of scientific research into behaviour and perception.

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Researchers find grain's memory gene

This brief ABC News in Science article from 2009 gives an excellent example of responses of plants to temperature change and current Australian science. Plants use a genetic memory to recognise when it is spring and can even count the number of cold days.

Online

Aeronautics

This is a resource for educators detailing student learning programs that explore aeronautics, encouraging them to examine the nature of flight and to experience some real-life applications of mathematics, science and technology. The activities are divided into three chapters: Air, Flight and We Can Fly, You and I. Step-by-step ...

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Earthquakes

This is an online resource about current earthquake activity in Australia and the wider region. The resource provides a map and a satellite image of near real-time earthquake activity in the last seven days. Links on the map provide further details and information about individual earthquake events. The resource also contains ...

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Giant Cuttlefish

This 12 minute video segment from Catalyst outlines the fascinating and unique features of the giant cuttlefish and its mass breeding at Point Lowly. Then it explains how scientists have determined the vulnerability of this species- the fact that the eggs are sensitive to high levels of salinity and the fact that they die ...

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Rat Nav

This 5 minute video segment from Catalyst shows how University of Queensland scientists have created a computer program which mimics the way a rat navigates, in the hope of one day giving future robotic vehicles the ability to explore and map their environments by themselves.