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Science / Year 6 / Science Inquiry Skills / Questioning and predicting

Curriculum content descriptions

With guidance, pose clarifying questions and make predictions about scientific investigations (ACSIS232)

Elaborations
  • refining questions to enable scientific investigation
  • asking questions to understand the scope or nature of a problem
  • applying experience from previous investigations to predict the outcomes of investigations in new contexts
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Predictions (Science),  Research questions

Video

Catalyst: Living in space

Do you know that people have been living and working in space for more than 10 years? The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth more than 300 kilometres above us. Watch this clip to discover what life is like in space and the type of research that is conducted there.

Interactive

DIY pH Indicator

This resource contains lessons plans containing instructions and teachers 'notes for an activity based on the natural pH indicator present in red cabbage leaves. It can be extracted following these explicit and clear directions included for this activity. This indicator solution changes colour from purple to bright pink ...

Online

Saving our Soils

This is a unit of work about the characteristics of soil and the important role soil plays in supporting life on Earth. The unit is divided into seven activity sequences that explore the definition of soil; the characteristics of soil types; the effects of soil nutrients on plant growth; and the role of ground cover in ...

Interactive

Syllabus bites: Electricity

This resource is designed to support science teachers in addressing concepts in electricity in the BOS NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum in Science - Stage 3. Making decisions about the use of electricity is approached from an understanding of circuits, sources and sustainability.

Video

Robot biomimicry

This 9 minute video segment from Catalyst shows how inspiration from the world of animals has helped in the mechanical design of robots and adhesive materials.

Downloadable

Water is special

In this lesson sequence, students explore what water is and how it behaves as it changes from ice to liquid water to water vapour. The purpose of this lesson sequence is to give students a mental picture of water molecules. Learning about how these molecules behave when water is heated and cooled can help them to understand ...

Text

Work sample Year 6 Science: Mouldy bread

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 6 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 ...

Text

Indigenous Astronomy and the Solar System

In this classroom activity, students will come to understand some of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander names of the planets, their movement across the sky, and the concepts of ecliptic, zodiac, and retrograde motion. They will focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander observations of these things and discuss ...

Downloadable

Unit for Year 5 to 6 Butterflies: Engaging with nature

This unit of work engages students in preparing butterfly gardens in their schoolgrounds. It explores scientific entomology, features of insects (including butterflies), the contributions that butterflies make to a healthy environments, and the characteristics of butterfly gardens. The unit includes worksheets, assessment ...

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.

Image

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 ...