Civics and citizenship / Year 9 / Civics and Citizenship Skills / Questioning and research

Curriculum content descriptions

Develop, select and evaluate a range of questions to investigate Australia's political and legal systems (ACHCS082)

Elaborations
  • selecting key questions to investigate an aspect of Australia’s political and legal systems (for example, the role of juries)
  • posing questions which evaluate Australia’s democracy such as ‘how equal?’, ‘how representative?’ and ‘how accountable?’
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability Personal and social capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Law,  Politics

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Contemporary issues in Civics and Citizenship

This resource is designed to help teachers to think about their own practices and explore a number of common approaches to the discussion of contemporary issues. The resource includes six professional learning modules, with pre-readings, group activities, discussion questions and prompts, plus other resources. Module themes ...

Online

Australian Civics and Citizenship Curriculum Year 9 unit of work

This unit of work explores key concepts relating to Australia's federal Parliament in particular the key question 'What influences shape the operation of Australia’s political system?' It contains lessons and a differentiated assessment item with a marking rubric.

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Cabinet

Cabinet is the top-level decision-making group within the Australian Government. Find out more about who is in Cabinet and how it works with this fact sheet.

Interactive

Federal Parliament history timeline

This interactive timeline explores key milestones in the history of Australia's Parliament that led to federation and how the work of Parliament has influenced Australian democratic development since 1901. The timeline allows users to explore the milestones chronologically or follow thematic trails. Selected milestones ...

Online

Make a law: Senate

Discover how bills—proposed laws—are introduced, debated and voted on in the Senate by turning your class into a Parliament and doing it yourself! This lesson plan outlines the steps to run a role play in the classroom and includes a video illustrating the process, teacher notes, class preparation and plans for making the ...

Online

World War I - the Western Front

In this learning activity students locate and sequence the places where Australians fought and describe the nature of warfare during the Gallipoli campaign. Students and teachers are provided with links to a rich collection of diaries, letters, maps, photographs, artworks, posters and newspapers on the Great War. Students ...

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Gender equality analysis from The Conversation

This is a collection of 40+ articles about gender equality. It includes articles about women in corporate leadership, work-life balance for men and women, policy responses to domestic violence in South Africa, the implications of gender bias in higher education, role of childcare in promoting equality and others. The articles ...

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Refugee analysis from The Conversation

This is a collection of 200+ articles about refugees. It includes articles about the Australian government’s refugee policy over time, policies and approaches internationally, articles on the western Europe migrant crisis of 2015, “explainers” on why refugee intake number vary across Europe, and a long-read essay by Julian ...

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Rogue nation, 2009: Democracy and the colony of NSW

This clip is an excerpt from the 2009 documentary 'Honour among thieves', the first of a two-part television series entitled 'Rogue nation'. In a dramatised re-enactment, British Commissioner John Thomas Bigge investigates the colony of NSW in 1819. He is advised by John Macarthur, a member of the 'exclusives' class of ...

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Rogue nation, 2009: NSW in 1819, convict gulag or place of opportunity?

This clip is an excerpt from the 2009 documentary 'Rites of passage', the second of a two-part series entitled 'Rogue nation'. The clip begins with historian Michael Cathcart providing contextual information about England in the early 1800s. He says that in the midst of the industrial revolution, millions of people were ...

Interactive

Sites2See – origins of Hinduism

Web page containing links to information about the origins of Hinduism through the Indus Valley civilisation, including archaeological sites at Mohenjodaro and Harrapa. Indo-Aryan migration and the Vedic period are included.

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The Conversation: Australian Law

This resource contains a series of explanatory articles about Australian law, and how it interacts with a variety of subjects such as indigenous law, state vs federal, and the constitution. It can be used to develop a broad understanding of Australian law.

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Tour of NSW Government House

This resource is a YouTube playlist containing a series of videos taken as a group of senior high school students are given a guided tour of NSW Government House in 2010. The tour covers primary sources such as architecture, furniture and images significant to the history of Australia and NSW.

Online

Burke and Wills: Then and Now

This is a website about a journey in 2010 that retraced the 1860 Burke and Wills expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Topics include: the landscape, the route, the flora and fauna, Burke’s tree, aboriginal bush foods and various interviews with experts and involved individuals. The resource is presented ...

Online

Seeing the Land from an Indigenous Canoe

This is website about the significant contribution Aboriginal people made in colonial times by guiding European explorers and colonists, stock and goods across the Victorian river systems. The resource includes introductory information and 31 Story Objects in the format of videos, audio, images and text. Each object also ...

Online

Indigenous Stories about War and Invasion

This is a website about Indigenous experiences of invasion and war during the British invasion, World War I and World War II. The resource is presented in three sections: Introductory information; Story Objects; and Story Education Resources. There are eight story objects that tell the stories of individuals, events and ...

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Coming home: an investigation of the Armistice and repatriation

This online text (with downloadable PDF option) provides a series of investigations examining the impact of the war on those who served and those who welcomed them home. The online resource includes teaching activities that encourage students to investigate the roles the Repatriation Commission and the Soldier Settlement ...

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Discovering democracy: human rights

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore the historical development of human rights and how they are upheld in Australia. Complete a related task.

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Discovering democracy: making a nation

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore the similarities and differences between the political systems of Australia and the United States of America. Complete a related task.

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Discovering democracy: getting things done

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore how change can be bought about by people taking action and putting pressure on their elected representatives. The issue of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania is used as a case study. Complete a related task.