Humanities and social sciences / Year 6 / Knowledge and Understanding / Economics and business

Curriculum content descriptions

The reasons businesses exist and the different ways they provide goods and services (ACHASSK151)

Elaborations
  • identifying why businesses exist (for example, to produce goods and services, to make a profit, to provide employment) and investigating the different ways that goods and services are provided to people such as through shopping centres, local markets, online, small independent stores, remote community stores
  • explaining the difference between not-for-profit and for-profit businesses
  • distinguishing between businesses in the primary, secondary and tertiary industry sectors and discussing what they produce or provide (such as agriculture and mining; textiles and food; and information, tourism and telecommunications)
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
ScOT terms

Industries,  Companies,  Electronic commerce,  Production (Economics)

Video

Exploring sustainable practices in food and fibre production:producer video

This is a video about how trees are grown and harvested by Green Triangle Forest Products and how facial tissues are made at Kimberley-Clark's South Australian mill. In the first part of the video, Linda Maddern Marketing Manager for Green Triangle Forest Products describes the size and importance of Australia's forestry ...

Video

Investigating key Australian approaches to producing cotton, timber and wool: producer video

This is a video about short wool sheep breeds and how their wool is used at the MiniJumbuck factory at Narracorte South Australia to make quilts, underlays and pillows. Sheep are seen on farms as merino sheep producer Thyne McGregor and Southdown breeder Dee Nolan discuss the strengths of each type of wool and how each ...

Video

Rugby Farms vegetable farm - different roles of employees

This is a short clip about a large business producing vegetables in Stanthorpe, Queensland for local and international markets. In this clip, a business manager describes the size of the business in terms of number of employees and physical area. It also shows three employees, a staff trainer, an agronomist and a boiler ...

Video

Get Shucked Oysters

This is a short clip about a Tasmanian oyster farmer producing and serving farm-fresh oysters on site on Bruny Island. In this clip, oyster farmer and business owner, Joe Bennett, describes how he established his business from very small beginnings and has grown it to satisfy consumer demand. Watch to find out how this ...

Video

Prawn Farming

This is a short clip in which Gold Coast prawn farner, Nick Moore, describes the prawn farming industry, the business he manages, and the high standards of the Australian industry. Nick, explains why this business is more like agricultural farming than fishing and how his qualifications and experience more closely match ...

Online

MoneySmart: It's raining cats and dogs...and chickens?

This is a year 6 mathematics unit of work about keeping pets. The unit is intended to take about 12 hours of teaching and learning time, and is recommended for near the end of the school year. It consists of an introduction, seven sets of student activities, and teacher notes. The student activities include building a word ...

Video

CERES Environment Park

This is a video about the sustainable not-for-profit agribusiness operated by the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES) in inner Melbourne. CERES Environment Park runs an organic farm, fruit and vegetable delivery business, and delivers educational programs to schools. Presented by the ...

Video

Cascades Nursery - focus on growing trees

This is a video about tree grower Mandy McCorkindale and how she and her husband propagate, grow and sell 300 different trees at Cascades Nursery at Batlow, New South Wales. It shows footage of their activities in various parts of the nursery as she outlines the advantages of buying advanced trees that have been hardened ...

Video

Meet the Fremantle Port Hostesses

In the 1960s, Marie Novak and Pauline Noble worked for the Fremantle Port Authority as hostesses, welcoming new migrants who arrived by ship. Why were hostesses needed? How do Marie and Pauline describe their time as hostesses? Compare the migration experiences of Marie's and Pauline's families. How did their backgrounds ...

Video

Becoming a Wine Maker

This is a short clip in which a winemaker describes his job and industry including some of his daily tasks, the location of the winery in south-east Queensland’s Granite Belt Region, and the role of that winemaking plays in the agrifoods industry. The winemaker, Peter, works at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism and ...

Audio

Radio National: Peter Lalor's Bakery Hill speech

What events led to the attack on the Eureka Stockade (Eureka rebellion) on the Ballarat goldfield in 1854? This audio clip examines the famous Bakery Hill speech by activist Peter Lalor. Listen to Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter discuss the effect that the speech had on the assembled miners. Find out why this is considered a key event ...

Video

Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing

This is a video of a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk by Professor Marla Spivak about the dramatic decline in the number of bees. The 16-minute video begins with a discussion of why humans should care about bees, including their critical importance for the world's food supply. Professor Spivak explains that ...

Text

Royal Australian Mint: learning

This website provides a range of resources and activities and activities for students and teachers about the history of Australian currency, the minting process and Australia's decimal currency. Of note is an interactive slideshow with high resolution images of currencies from Indigenous barter systems to modern Australian ...

Video

The British arrive in Tasmania

Learn why, in 1803, the British established a colony in Tasmania, at Hobart Town. Find out about the hardships faced by the convicts and early colonists and the early industries that helped some of them prosper. Find out about the effect that displacement had on the local palawa people.

Video

What do authors do besides writing – they farm truffles?

This is a video about author and farmer SD Gentill and how she combines writing with growing black truffles. It consists of an interview in which she answers questions posed by Will, a young boy. To a background of scenes from her Snowy Mountains farm and a Brisbane restaurant she supplies, Gentill explains how truffles ...

Interactive

Decimal currency

This interactive slideshow from the Royal Australian Mint provides a series of high resolution images and brief descriptions of the transition from pre-decimal to decimal currency in Australia.

Text

Cotton Australia fact sheets

This library provides a series of one to two page fact sheets on a range of topics related to the Australian cotton industry including: an overview of the industry, history of the cotton industry in Australia and in the world; economics of Australian cotton; biotechnology; climate challenges and cotton; properties of cotton ...

Interactive

Gold rush: level 2

Dig for gold on the Ballarat goldfields in 1865. Try your luck at alluvial or shaft mining. Buy a miner's permit, tools and enough supplies to last a month. Discover how hard life was on the goldfields. Explore a map showing the countries migrants left to join the gold rush in Australia. Find out which towns developed due ...

Image

Australian gold diggings, c1855

This is an oil painting measuring 70.5 cm x 90.3 cm, painted about 1855 by Edwin Stocqueler (1829-1895), showing men working on the Bendigo gold field in Victoria. The men are panning, puddling and cradling for gold on both sides of a stream in a tent-dotted valley. The valley is stark, with only a few trees remaining. ...

Video

Magical Land of Oz: Join the Numbat Taskforce!

Numbats are native Australian marsupials that can be found in Western Australia and South Australia. Unfortunately, their numbers are declining rapidly. What are the causes? What can we do to combat this and protect these unique Australian animals? Find out what one community group, the Numbat Taskforce, is doing to help ...