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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

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 ...

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

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.

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 ...

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 ...

Text

Acidic oceans | Questacon

In this activity, students test the effect of an acid on eggshells and consider how this relates to the shells of marine animals and ocean acidification. The activity includes a list of what is required, suggestions of what to do and notice, questions to ask, an explanation for the underlying science of what students observe ...

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Yeast bubbles | Questacon

In this activity, students grow yeast in different physical conditions to explore how physical environments can effect the growth and survival of living organisms. The activity includes a list of what is required, suggestions of what to do and notice, questions to ask, an explanation for the underlying science of what students ...

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Chillingham Park Cow

This resource includes a template for a scientific research paper. Use it as the basis for students to work scientifically by planning a scientific enquiry and presenting their findings in research paper format.

Interactive

Circuit Construction Kit: DC

This interactive simulation challenges students to build a DC circuit. In the first simulation, students explore building a series or parallel DC circuit with wires, batteries and various components. Students can change the values of resistance and voltage in their circuits to explore the relationship between voltage, current ...

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Exploring Cyclones

In this series of activities students explore the effect of cyclones on habitats. They investigate how cyclones can affect humans, living things and the landscape, identify how natural environmental changes may impact living things, with a focus on coral reefs. They then use data to predict future trends in cyclone activity.

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Survival in Extreme Environments

In this activity, students explore the adaptations that allow animals to survive in extreme environments. Students plan and conduct a hands-on investigation to answer the questions 'Which animal will stay the coolest in a hot environment?' and 'Which animal will stay the warmest in a cold environment?' This resource is ...

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Making Connections: Object and Article Analysis

In this activity, students explore how humans impact the marine ecosystem. They complete an object analysis, where the object is related to or drawn from the marine environment. They then read a media article related to the objects analysed. During their analysis, students are encouraged to identify how the article connects ...

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Spotlight On Survival: Animal Communities in an Arid Environment

This series of activities focus on animal survival in arid environments, where ecosystems are subjected to extremes in temperature and the availability of water. Students investigate the effects of patterns or rainfall and drought on the ecology and consider other challenges such as the impact of feral species or human ...

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Camouflage Capers

In this activity, students investigate camouflage and model the effect of colour on the survival of organisms. Students explore the effects of camouflage on predation and the impact of changing environments on camouflaged organisms. This resource is part of a suite of activities from Queensland Museum focused on habitats ...

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Teaching with videogames: Geography and Environmental Science with TerraNil

In this lesson, students restore environments and ecosystems in a future, desolate planet earth, using existing and imagined technologies with Terra Nil.

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Primary Connections: Circuit breakers

In this sequence of 7 lessons, students learn about the role of the components in an electrical circuit and how they affect the transfer and transformation of energy. Using the context of blackouts, students explore how switches work and prototype backup electrical circuits. Professional learning for teachers is integrated ...

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Adaptive Speciation of Honeybees - Calculate

Using the example of the humble honey bee, this integrated Science and Mathematics unit illustrates the way in which speciation occurs in nature and explains how living things adapt to survive in their environment. In doing so, the unit describes the nature of simple multiplicative number sequences and how simple algebraic ...

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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 ...

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 ...

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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 ...