Science / Year 9 / Science as a Human Endeavour / Nature and development of science

• TLF-IDM025852

This resource explores the navigation techniques used during the journey of the Endeavour and contrasts these with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander navigational and astronomical systems that have been in place for many thousands of years. This learning sequence contains activities suitable for Year 7 - Year 10 science ...

• TLF-IDM015380

What can science tell us about the major cause of bushfires in Australia's past? How can it help us predict future bushfires? Two scientists discuss evidence related to bushfire regimes (bushfire patterns, types and intensity). Please note that this clip contains recent images of homes destroyed by fire that may disturb ...

• TLF-IDM016453

An interview and lab tour with Vaughan Macefield, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). Vaughan talks to students and their teacher from Quakers Hill High School about his work studying nerves and their function in the human body.

• TLF-IDM016472

This six and a half minute video segment from Catalyst explains Earthshine as light from our own Earth reflected back from the Moon's dark side. A PhD student is studying it to learn about how light reflects from a planet that contains liquid water as well as land. Her work may one day lead to the discovery of other planets ...

• TLF-IDM016406

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst describes how researchers from Monash University have hard evidence that cloud seeding can produce good amounts of extra rainfall. Data collected over a long period of time has give hope to scientists and environmentalists who are trying to reduce the impacts of droughts ...

• TLF-IDM017570

Travel back in time in outback Australia and investigate the giant lumbering beasts of the past - the megafauna. Visit a fossil site in Cuddie Springs, New South Wales, where megafauna bones have been discovered. Explore the connection between Aboriginal peoples and megafauna, and theories for the extinction of Australia's ...

• TLF-IDM016629

This 5 minute video segment from Catalyst highlights the vulnerability of some of our ecosystems and the way abiotic factors can have a dramatic effect. It also exemplifies the difficult process of having new scientific ideas accepted.

• TLF-IDM020880

This biodiversity learning resource guides students through an extended school based investigation. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and reflect on their success and their learning.

• TLF-IDM016773

An interview and tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney and its herbarium with Dr Tim Entwistle, a plant scientist and the NSW Government Botanist. Tim talks to a pre-service teacher from Macquarie University about his love of plants, in particular freshwater algae. In the herbarium we find out why it is so important ...

• TLF-IDM016154

This seven and a half minute video segment from Catalyst outlines how the discovery of stem cells in the brain marks a potential breakthrough in understanding the process of ageing in the brain. If brain stem cells can be regenerated through exercise or mental activity, can ageing be delayed?