Science / Year 10 / Science as a Human Endeavour / Nature and development of science

Version 8
Switch to version 9
View on Australian Curriculum website Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
Curriculum content descriptions

Scientific understanding, including models and theories, is contestable and is refined over time through a process of review by the scientific community (ACSHE191)

Elaborations
  • considering the role of different sources of evidence including biochemical, anatomical and fossil evidence for evolution by natural selection
  • investigating the development of the Watson and Crick double helix model for the structure of DNA
  • investigating the history and impact of developments in genetic knowledge
  • investigating the development of the periodic table and how this was dependent on experimental evidence at the time
  • considering the role of science in identifying and explaining the causes of climate change
  • recognising that Australian scientists such as Brian Schmidt and Penny Sackett are involved in the exploration and study of the universe
General capabilities
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Evaluation,  Theories,  Dissent,  Peer review

Refine by resource type

Refine by year level


Refine by learning area


Refine by topic

Related topic
  • No suggestions

20 direct matches to ACSHE191

Video

Catalyst: Accelerating glaciers in Antarctica

  • TLF-IDM015381

Discover a white world in which glaciers are racing toward the sea at seven times their normal speed. This is what is happening in Antarctica now and the consequences will eventually be felt at your nearest beach. Travel with scientist Dr Paul Williams to see some stunning images of what is occurring around the fringes ...

View detailsView resource
Video

Can photons and atoms generate laser?

  • TLF-IDM019618

Electrons around atoms can absorb and emit photons of particular colours of light – see three different atomic models explain what's going on.

View detailsView resource
Video

When neutron stars collide

  • TLF-IDM018850

Using technologically advanced supercomputers, scientists have developed theories about the creation of black holes deep in outer space. Watch the computer simulation in this clip to see how the collision of two neutron stars produces a gamma ray burst and a new black hole. Discover that our continuing understanding of ...

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Exploring atoms: atom structure

  • TLF-IDL2562

See how scientists such as Ernest Rutherford have investigated the structure of atoms. Explore possible models. Fire charged particles at atoms and find which model best fits the results. This learning object is one in a series of six objects. Three of the objects are also packaged as a combined learning object.

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Tectonics investigator

  • TLF-IDL5826

Investigate the internal structure of the Earth using earthquake measurements. Examine the Earth’s outer layer. Fit the Earth's tectonic plates together like a jigsaw puzzle. Identify how plate movements produce many features of the Earth’s surface. Predict the formation of new volcanic islands. This learning object is ...

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Kamay – looking up

  • 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 ...

View detailsView resource
Video

Atoms of Fire: Vitalism disproved through evidence

  • TLF-IDM015488

Discover how the scientific theory of vitalism, championed by the Swedish chemist Jöns Berzelius, was disproved by his former student Friedrich Wöhler. Find out the way chemists study how the different atoms in organic compounds combine in set ratios depending on the 'valence' of those atoms.

View detailsView resource
Video

Catalyst: Large Hadron Collider discovery, 2012

  • TLF-IDM015514

Have you heard of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)? Watch this clip to find out about a scientific discovery at the LHC that left physicists uncharacteristically emotional. Catalyst's Dr Derek Muller takes you inside the LHC and talks to scientists there about the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it means for our understanding ...

View detailsView resource
Video

Catalyst: Thinning ice sheet

  • TLF-IDM015374

Discover that that the massive ice sheet in East Antarctica has been losing mass since 2006 instead of growing, as was previously thought. Watch animations to see how scientists from NASA and Australia are using satellite technology and aerial monitoring to investigate the thickness of East Antarctica's ice sheet. Find ...

View detailsView resource
Video

Atoms of Fire: Building models of organic molecules

  • TLF-IDM015487

Have you seen the model of long-chain carbon molecules first developed by Friedrich August Kekulé? This model enabled chemists to make a great leap forward in their understanding of the structure of organic molecules. See how to represent the structure of methane, ethane, propane, butane and octane. Find out how to rearrange ...

View detailsView resource
Video

ABC News: 'Junk DNA' not junk after all

  • TLF-IDM017851

Geneticists have long thought that 98 per cent of human DNA was 'junk' (or 'non-coding') DNA. However, recent scientific research suggests that there is much more to this DNA than first thought. Watch this clip to discover more.

View detailsView resource
Video

Catalyst: Tsunami prevention in the Pacific

  • TLF-IDM025356

By investigating sediments and debris left by devastating tsunamis throughout history, Japanese scientists are making discoveries that change the way we understand disaster prevention in the Pacific. Watch as research teams examine rocks and mud layers; create digital simulations of past tsunamis; and investigate the seabed ...

View detailsView resource
Text

Work sample Year 10 Science: Big bang theory

  • TLF-IDA004077

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 10 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 ...

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Biodiversity – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

  • 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.

View detailsView resource
Online

The Conversation: climate change

  • TLF-IDM021557

This resource consists of a series of articles that examine the issue of climate change including explanations of the science, the solutions and the political, social, economic impact that impact climate change has had on the International community and Australia. It can be used to provide examples of discussions in Australia ...

View detailsView resource
Text

Solar wind gives asteroids a tanning

  • TLF-IDM016726

This brief ABC News in Science article from 2009 explains that asteroids become redder the longer they stay out in the sun because of the solar wind. Scientists are using this to try to find our more about our planetary origins.

View detailsView resource
Video

Exoplanets

  • TLF-IDM016772

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst explains that relatively recently times we have got the technology to look for exoplanets. Astronomers have now uncovered more than 350 planets orbiting other stars. These worlds, known as exoplanets, can be pretty weird places. This program discusses a theory to describes ...

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Laptop wrap: Talking Evolution

  • TLF-IDM016331

A page to explore the theory of evolution and the work of Charles Darwin that features video interviews with the scientist Michael Shermer.

View detailsView resource
Video

Monkey Malaria

  • TLF-IDM016586

This 13 minute video segment from Catalyst describes recent research in Borneo investigates malaria that is common to monkeys and humans.

View detailsView resource
Interactive

Science Talk 2007: Tim Entwistle

  • 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 ...

View detailsView resource