Science / Year 7 / Science Inquiry Skills / Evaluating

Curriculum content descriptions

Use scientific knowledge and findings from investigations to evaluate claims based on evidence (ACSIS132)

Elaborations
  • using the evidence provided by scientific investigations to evaluate the claims or conclusions of their peers
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Evidence,  Evaluation

Text

ACMF: Effects of selective breeding

This resource is a web page providing information about an experiment on the growth rate of different chicken breeds carried out by students at James Ruse Agricultural High School in NSW, which shows the influence of selective breeding on chicken weight. It includes a side-by-side column graph comparing the weight of egg ...

Interactive

Science under the microscope

A student-focused mobile web application that tests students? knowledge of the NSW Science curriculum. It will reuse videos and other components of 2010 Murder under the Microscope (Shockwave on the Shoreline) to provide a series of clues that unfold as the student answers science questions correctly. After receiving all ...

Video

Daniel O'Doherty

This 5 minute video segment from Catalyst describes how a school student conducted his own scientific investigation. Daniel O'Doherty was intrigued to find out what was the carbon impact of travel to and from school each day, and what could be done to reduce this impact. His project won the 2008 Action Against Climate Change ...

Interactive

Aim to Sustain

Students identify and explore ways in which human activity can threaten biodiversity and the health of our planet. Students are encouraged to take positive action to promote sustainability. The four resources: Get the message, Help a habitat, Alien invaders and A world of difference include videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets ...

Interactive

Aim to sustain: Get the message

This resource is a subset of the larger resource, Aim to Sustain. As such it includes the culminating activity in which students study and make artworks that communicate an environmental message about single use and disposable plastics. The resource includes links to video, a slideshow, worksheets and links to further interactive ...

Interactive

Aim to sustain: A world of difference

Students explore what is happening at an individual, community and global level and plan actions they will take. These may range from taking a quiz to sharing knowledge about being 'green' at home, through to planning a conference session to deliver to other students. The resource includes videos, SMART notebooks, worksheets ...

Online

MoneySmart: Should I drink bottled water?

This unit of work gives students opportunities to develop an understanding of the importance of water for the environment and potable water for human consumption. Students will consider water availability and use from an individual, national and international perspective; explain the natural processes in the water cycle ...

Interactive

Thermal comfort – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

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

Interactive

Biodiversity – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

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.

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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 ...

Video

Four Corners: Fire management strategies

What role do fire-behaviour specialists and ecologists have in fire management? Watch this clip to find out about issues relating to fire management in Australia, in particular prescribed burning.

Video

Catalyst: How will fire change the climate?

Considering the impact of a changing climate on the severity and frequency of fires is one thing, but how about the impact of fires on climate? Why does Professor David Bowman describe this scenario as a 'fire spiral'? What are the consequences of a world with fewer forests? As Professor Craig Allen explains, drought and ...

Video

Catalyst: The home of Australian science

Australia has a long and proud history of excellence in science. How should we celebrate this? Watch this clip to find out about an Australian organisation that recognises and promotes outstanding scientific achievement. You'll also find why its Canberra headquarters is referred to as 'the flying saucer'!

Video

Four Corners: Increasing threat of megafires

Many scientists believe we are already experiencing megafires and that they will continue to increase in the future. In this clip you will hear from Australian scientists at the forefront of fire research. Discover what they have to say about the causes, projections, and consequences of an increased megafire threat.

Video

Catalyst: Supercapacitors: new battery technology

Discover how nanotechnology is contributing to the creation of new, improved batteries that may soon be used in all our mobile phones and portable music devices - even in cars and trams. Catalyst's Tanya Ha looks at how traditional batteries produce electricity and how their efficiency may be increased by tiny devices known ...

Video

Testing the 5-second rule

When it comes to dropping food, have you heard of the 5-second rule? Or the 3-second rule? Watch this video to learn what really happens when you drop food. In order to cause disease, what must bacteria do? What circumstances allow bacteria and viruses to contaminate food more successfully?

Video

Could you make a unicorn by crossing DNA?

Good question! Find out whether this is possible by watching as biologist at MIT, Dr Sera Thornton explains. What is a genome? And why do genomes need to be decoded? If the rhino genome was successfully decoded and the part that described the rhino horn was isolated, what would the process be for creating a unicorn?

Video

Experimentals: Do different things fall faster?

Want to find out what happens when you drop a watermelon and an apple from the top of a building? In this clip, Bernie Hobbs and Ruben Meerman, investigate whether the mass of an object influences how fast it falls. Bernie and Ruben ride the 'Giant Drop' at Dreamworld, drop a watermelon and apple from an eighth floor balcony, ...

Video

Anatomy of a raindrop

The water cycle is the circulation of water on, in and above Earth and it involves a number of stages and changes of state. This clip describes the water cycle and also how modern technology has contributed to our understanding of the shape of raindrops and its relationship to precipitation. Discover how raindrop shape ...

Video

Catalyst: Aboriginal fire knowledge reduces greenhouse gases

Come on an eye-opening trip to Western Arnhem Land in northern Australia to find out how Aboriginal fire-control techniques are used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes.On the trip you will also find out how exploding ping-pong balls are used to create low greenhouse gas firebreaks at the right time ...