Science / Year 7 / Science Inquiry Skills / Questioning and predicting

Curriculum content descriptions

Identify questions and problems that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on scientific knowledge (ACSIS124)

Elaborations
  • working collaboratively to identify a problem to investigate
  • recognising that the solution of some questions and problems requires consideration of social, cultural, economic or moral aspects rather than or as well as scientific investigation
  • using information and knowledge from previous investigations to predict the expected results from an investigation
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Predictions (Science)

Video

Experimentals: Name these mystery objects

Compete in a game show against characters Einstein and Pythagoras to identify three different mystery objects. Each of the objects is the end product of a science demonstration. Compare your ideas and predictions with the host Bernie Hobbs's identification of the objects and her explanation of the science behind them.

Interactive

Gravity and orbits

This is an interactive teaching and learning resource that years 7 to 10 secondary students can use to simulate the orbits of the Earth, Moon and a space station while altering the physical quantities involved. Orbital pathways, velocity and force vectors can be displayed in either scale or cartoon views. The mass and velocity ...

Video

Electromagnetic Simulation (sk-Intel)

In this resource students explore how an electromagnet works in real life. They can then apply their learning in an electromagnetism game by changing the magnetism of a scrap lifter in a scrap yard and removing various amounts of scrap. The resource demonstrates the connection between the power applied, the number of coils ...

Interactive

iPlan

This resource contains ten IWB flipcharts as well as Flash alternative exercises and models how to plan a scientific investigation, choose the right equipment and follow safe working practices.

Online

Water: learn it for life! - year 7 science

This PDF unit of work is one of a series of resources accessible by searching the list in the series.It includes two teaching and learning sequences: 'Water journeys' focuses on the water cycle, and 'Pure water' focuses on the processes and people involved in creating and managing drinkable water. It provides Australian ...

Text

Work sample Year 7 Science: Water purification

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 7 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 ...

Image

Orrery, c1770 - part 2

This is a mechanical model of part of the solar system, commonly known as an orrery, manufactured by English mathematician and instrument maker Benjamin Martin in about 1770. This bronze model features a cylindrical clockwork mechanism with an orb representing the Sun placed in the centre. Extending from this on an arm ...

Image

Bunyip gold nugget, 1972

This is a gold nugget known as the 'Bunyip nugget'. It weighs 50 ounces (1.55 kg). It was found in the early 1970s by a farmer while ploughing near Bridgewater to the west of Bendigo in Victoria, and was purchased by the National Museum of Victoria (now Museum Victoria) in 1978 for $40,000.

Image

Graptolite fossils - item 1

This is a colour photograph of graptolites fossilised in rock. These are specimens of 'Pendeograptus fruticosus'. The figures visible on the rock are cataloguing numbers.

Image

Feather fossil

This is a colour photograph of a feather fossilised in mudstone. This specimen is from the Koonwarra fossil bed in the South Gippsland region of Victoria. This fossil shows detail of the feather structure, including the central shaft and attached barbs.

Image

Great pampa finch

This is a colour photograph of a preserved great pampa finch ('Embernagra platensis'). The tail of this specimen is missing. Identification labels and cataloguing numbers are attached to the specimen.

Image

Dinosaur fossil bone

This is a colour photograph of a fossil bone set against a black background. This bone is an opalised fossil of a femur, or thigh bone, of a hypsilophodont dinosaur. The blue colouration of this opalised fossil bone is clearly visible.

Image

Ethanol molecule

This is a colour image of a model of a molecule of ethanol, CH₃CH₂OH. In this model, atoms are represented by coloured spheres held together by grey rods that represent covalent bonds. The molecule contains two carbon atoms (the black spheres), one oxygen atom (the red sphere) and six hydrogen atoms (the grey-white spheres).

Image

Bromine monofluoride molecule

This is a colour image of a model of a molecule of bromine monofluoride, BrF. In this model, atoms are represented by coloured spheres held together by grey rods, representing covalent bonds. The bromine monofluoride molecule contains one bromine atom (the brown sphere) and one fluorine atom (the blue-grey sphere).

Image

Gastropod fossil

This is a colour photograph of a fossil of a gastropod 'Tenagodus occlusus', showing the spiralled shell.

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Humpback whale carcass, Tangalooma Whaling Station, c1957 - item 1 of 2

This is a colour photograph showing the carcass of a southern humpback whale ('Megaptera novaengliae') on the wooden slipway of the Tangalooma Whaling Station on Moreton Island in Queensland. The whale is intact with its underside uppermost, showing distinctive colourings and markings, including the ventral grooves. Onlookers, ...

Image

'Classifying the treasures', 1929-31

This is a black-and-white photograph taken by Frank Hurley of an evening scene in the wardroom of the ship 'Discovery' during the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) to Antarctica, 1929-31. The title typed on its cardboard mount calls the picture 'Classifying the Treasures' and indicates ...

Image

Male and female thylacines, 1841

This is a 36 cm x 55 cm hand-coloured lithograph of a pair of thylacines (‘Thylacinus cynocephalus’), commonly called Tasmanian tigers, against a background of small bushes and an open plain.

Image

New Zealand hatchetfish

This is a colour photograph of a New Zealand hatchetfish ('Polyipnus kiwiensis') in a transparent container. The organs responsible for bioluminescence are visible against the black background. The keel-shaped abdomen of the hatchetfish can also be seen.

Image

Oxygen molecule

This is a colour image of a model of a molecule of oxygen, O₂. In this model, two oxygen atoms are represented by red spheres held together by grey rods that represent a double covalent bond.