Science / Foundation / Science as a Human Endeavour / Nature and development of science

Curriculum content descriptions

Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE013)

Elaborations
  • recognising that observation is an important part of exploring and investigating the things and places around us
  • sharing observations with others and communicating their experiences
  • exploring and observing using the senses: hearing, smell, touch, sight and taste
ScOT terms

Observations (Data),  Perception

Interactive

Chicken farming in the living world: Stage 1

Chickens are fascinating animals and provide students with an interesting subject matter to discuss the many aspects of our living world. This interactive course for students explores the question 'How do humans use plants and animals?' and comprises a series of modules and supporting videos. Students will plan, design ...

Interactive

Environmental and Zoo Education Centres – primary school resources

A collection of digital resources for primary school teachers and students to support teaching and learning from home, with a particular focus on geography, science and history. The resources were developed by Department of Education teachers from 25 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres in NSW and include Google Sites, ...

Online

Planting fruit and vegetables

In this sequence of lessons students grow a plant from seed, capturing each step and decision as an algorithmic process and recording data for future learning.

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 ...

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, ...

Video

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.

Interactive

Sites2See: Forests

Online resources for Primary teachers, parents and students to celebrate and engage with the International Year of Forests 2011. Features selected links to games, information, videos and interactive resources for the study of trees and forests and broader issues of biodiversity and sustainability.

Interactive

Make it go: energy change: assessment

Find out what you know about energy and how it changes. Complete a flow chart to show energy changes by identifying the energy source and the energy output of some machines. View and print a report on your work. This assessment object is one in a series of two objects.

Video

Feathers, Fur and Fins: Observing a kookaburra

Watch a wild kookaburra being fed by hand. Don Spencer handles an injured kookaburra that is being nursed to health. It will be set free once it is well again. See where kookaburras make their homes. Listen to their laughing call.

Video

For the Juniors: Why do cows make milk?

Have you ever wondered why cows make milk? In this clip you will learn the answer to this question. You will also see how cows are milked in a large dairy. Join Bill, a dairy farmer, as he tends to his herd of dairy cows.

Video

For the Juniors: Keeping cool in hot weather

Have you ever wondered why your face turns red when you run around? Discover what's going on under your skin when this happens, and how this helps you keep cool. See some of the clever ways that animals keep cool, too.

Video

For the Juniors: Using and storing water on a farm

Can you imagine a farm with no water? What might happen to the animals and crops? This clip explains how important a water supply is for farmers. You will see some ways that farmers store water, which is especially important when there is limited or no rain.

Video

For the Juniors: How do apiarists farm their bees?

Have you ever wondered what a bee farm looks like? This clip shows how bee farmers (apiarists) look after their bees. Watch the bee hives being opened and see the honey being collected. View the machinery used to collect and bottle the honey.

Video

For the Juniors: Where does honey come from?

Discover where honey comes from. Learn how and why honey is made and how we get different types of honey. See what daily life is like in a bee colony.

Video

Sam the Lamb: properties of wool

This short video, narrated by ‘Sam the Lamb’ and a group of young wool enthusiasts, explores the properties of one of nature’s most versatile fibres. Viewers will discover how wool can stretch and return to its natural shape when worn; why wool is safe to wear around campfires and in the sun, and how wool can manages moisture ...

Video

Sam the Lamb: what is wool?

This short video, narrated by Sam the Lamb and a group of young woolgrowers, explores where wool comes from, how it grows and how it protects sheep in all kinds of weather. Viewers will discover what wool looks it, how it feels and how woolgrowers harvest their sheep’s woolly fleece each year…and how it grows back again.

Video

Feathers, Fur and Fins: Observing an emu

Join Don Spencer as he describes the emu, one of the biggest birds in the world. Watch emus searching for food and taking care of their eggs. Discover what makes the emu different from most other birds.

Video

Different paper plane designs

How many different paper plane designs are there? Lots! Watch as Dylan Parker, paper plane expert, demonstrates some of his favourites. Notice the way the different shapes and features of the planes cause them to move through the air in different ways. Which one do you like the most? Why not have a go at making something similar?

Interactive

Light and shadows

Look at how a tree makes a shadow during a sunny day. Notice that objects always casts shadows that face away from the Sun. Examine how the shape and position of a shadow is related to the time of day and position of the Sun. Explore the shadows cast by different objects such as a bike, an umbrella and a child. Position ...

Online

Primary science: scientific inquiry

These seven learning activities, which focus on 'scientific inquiry' using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers facilitate the procedures ...