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HASS F-6 / Year 5 / Skills / Questioning and researching

Curriculum content descriptions

locate, collect and organise information and data from primary and secondary sources in a range of formats (AC9HS5S02)

Elaborations
  • finding information in primary sources about the past (for example, maps, stories, songs, music, dance, diaries, official documents, artworks, artefacts, newspapers of the day, advertisements) and about geography (for example, fieldwork and photographs), and from secondary sources (for example, books, internet articles, maps, plans and reports in digital and non-digital form)
  • using geospatial tools such as a globe, wall map or a digital application to collect information; for example, to identify the influences of people on the characteristics of places in other countries, or the location of information they have collected through fieldwork
  • conducting surveys or interviews to gather primary data that support decision-making processes when investigating an issue, and summarising the key points or particular points of view; for example, surveying the views of conflicting parties in a planning or environmental dispute
  • categorising information using digital and non-digital graphic organisers, such as flow charts, consequence wheels, futures timelines, Venn diagrams, decision-making matrixes and bibliography templates, for an appropriate purpose; for example, creating flow charts that show the steps in an electoral process such as a class vote or a local council election, or the sequence of steps to rehabilitate a natural area, or the sequence of actions in achieving a civic goal
  • constructing timelines, maps, tables and graphs using appropriate digital applications and cartographic conventions, such as border, source, scale, legend, title and north point, to display data and information; for example, the movement of peoples over time in a colony, a sequence of key events, the population growth of an Australian colony, cultural and religious groups in Australia at different times, information on needs and wants
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Chronological order,  Historical sources,  Data representation,  Maps (Geographic location),  Data collection,  Information retrieval

Interactive

Magna Carta: The story of our freedom

This is a resource about the Magna Carta (Great Charter) agreed between King John and his rebellious barons in 1215, and its influence on the development of human rights and democratic freedoms to the present day. The resource consists of an animated chronological infographic, a video (4:11 min) with audio description and ...

Video

My Place - Episode 15: 1868: Minna, The legend of Bloody Mary

This 3-minute film clip is from the ABC My Place series and tracks the experiences of young girls Minna and Adelaide in 1868 in Australia. In this clip, the children play the nineteenth century game 'Bloody Mary' and scare each other with stories about what she is like. Minna is offered some money for a dare. There is an ...

Audio

Hey History Episode 4: Gold fever

What were the Gold Rushes? Why did people from all over the world get ‘gold fever’? What was life like on the Ballarat goldfields of Victoria, on Wada Wurrung Country? With so many different groups of people, how did everyone get along? Did First Nations people mine gold too? What was the Eureka Stockade? How did the Gold ...

Text

Years 5–6: Collaborative project

In this scope and sequence unit students use critical thinking to evaluate information online as they conduct research on their digital project, which also gives them opportunity to practise agreed online behaviours and protocols.

Text

Making Maps

In this teaching activity, students explore cartography and the role of a cartographer. They will analyse map features and discuss how maps have changed over time. Then they’ll create a papier-mâché map representing a route from one destination to another.

Text

Colonial Australia: defining moments, 1788–1900

This module provides resources and interactive classroom activities for studying colonial Australia in the nineteenth century. Students engage with texts, images, and objects to learn about the significant events and people that shaped the Australian colonies, and the effects of colonisation on the environment. The resource ...

Interactive

Sustainable transport – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

This sustainable transport 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

Waste and materials – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

This resource guides students through an extended school-based or local investigation focussed on waste and materials using the five-step sustainability action process. The resource supports the investigation of a real-world issue or problem. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate ...

Interactive

Thermal comfort – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

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

Kitchen gardens – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

This resource guides students through an extended school-based or local investigation focussed on kitchen gardens using the five-step sustainability action process. The resource supports the investigation of a real-world issue or problem. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and ...

Interactive

Biodiversity – sustainability action process (Years 3–6)

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.

Text

Whose Country: exploring First Nations peoples languages map (7-13yrs)

Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages can help children build their understanding of land, water and people. This activity helps to assist the identification of the language group/s on which the school, youth group or home is situated. To understand local perspectives and support these activities, ...

Text

Race, rights & rivalries

This resource explores the history of Broome and the rich multicultural community that supported its pearling industry. The site features a virtual museum providing a range of primary source material including photographs, newspaper extracts, historical documents, video and audio recordings. The site explores the history ...

Interactive

World heritage: Kakadu information display

Look at descriptions of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Help a park ranger to sort facts and pictures for an information display. Use a model structure, sample text and images to build a description for visitors. Include sections on the park's location, wildlife and cultural importance.

Interactive

Rainforest: make a walking track

Mark the route for a walking track on a map of a rainforest. Choose a section of track based on instructions about distances, compass directions and grid references. Keep adding sections of track to get to the rest house. As you go, look up the meaning of tricky words.

Image

Sled dogs at the South Pole, 1911

This is a 1911 black-and-white sepia-toned photograph, taken by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) at the South Pole, of a dog team hitched to a loaded sled on the snow. A figure dressed in Arctic-style cold weather gear stands beside the sled and a Norwegian flag is stuck in the snow. Apart from three other dogs tethered behind ...

Image

Pacific Islander labourers outside slab-hut dwellings, late 1800s

This is a black-and-white photograph showing indentured Pacific Islanders and their families posing by their slab-hut homes, probably on a coastal Queensland sugar plantation. They are wearing Western-style clothes, with the women in long skirts and the men wearing jackets and trousers. The huts appear to have been constructed ...

Image

Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895

This is a black-and-white photograph showing nine Pacific Islander men using picks and axes to clear undergrowth and small trees from a clearing in a thickly vegetated area at Farnborough in central Queensland. The men are bare-chested, hatless and barefoot, with some wearing sarong-like garments. A white man stands in ...

Image

Pacific Islanders arriving at Bundaberg, 1895

The black-and-white photograph shows Pacific Islander men and women arriving in the sugar port of Bundaberg after being recruited to work as indentured labourers on Queensland's sugar plantations. The posed shot shows more than 60 Pacific Islander men, women and boys and one European on the deck of a schooner at the dock. ...

Image

John Forrest's 1874 expedition

This is a 52.5 cm x 69 cm, black-and-white photoengraving, of John and Alexander Forrest, James Sweeney, James Kennedy, Tommy Windich and Tommy Pierre with their horses after crossing the Great Victoria Desert in 1874. On the far right is the Overland Telegraph Line, about 120 kilometres north of Coober Pedy in South Australia. ...