Year 8 Term 4 Overviews

Year 8 Term 4 Curriculum

English: 

During Term 4, the Year 8 cohort will be exploring different forms of humour and appeals authors’ use in persuasive texts to influence their audience (irony, wordplay, innuendo, parody & engagement) . This exploration will occur through students reading and analysing a variety of multimodal texts such as digital advertisements, print advertisements and spoken word texts (i.e) Ted Talks. Through the exploration of these texts, students will first focus on identifying and recognising different appeals and humour within texts.  Following this, students will further expand their understanding of the devices used by discussing the author’s degree of success in using these devices.  As students solidify their knowledge and understanding of the different devices authors’ use in texts, they will experiment in creating their own pieces of writing with the intention of influencing and persuading their audience. 

Humanities:

Throughout Term 4, students will equip themselves with a thorough understanding of problems for the international community as they prepare themselves to partake in a Model United Nations at the conclusion of the term. To prepare them for this project, students will use an inquiry approach to investigate the United Nations, focusing on its structure, purpose, effectiveness and the goals it has set for itself through the Sustainable Development Goals. Students will investigate the reasons why humans migrate and leave their country, through a deep analysis on the refugee and asylum seeker crisis. They will explore the international community’s role in responding to the needs of asylum seekers, and compare and contrast the approaches members of the global community and the United Nations itself have taken. Students will then be assigned a country to investigate and then represent their viewpoints and needs in a Model United Nations focusing on responding to the refugee crisis.

Health: 

During Term 4, students will start to implement their selected project for community health in pairs or small groups. This project has continued the whole semester, while students will have the opportunity to explore an area of health covered so far in their secondary health unit. The statement that students need to work on is ‘What are some elements that contribute to negative health outcomes to our society?’. Students need to continue to examine one of the following six areas to answer this statement: mental health, physical health, nutrition, digital safety, substances, and relationships. In this project, they will take their individual roles and responsibilities to promote a successful group work. Students will have a deeper research of their selected topic and plan and use strategies to enhance the health, safety, and wellbeing of their communities. Moreover, they will also develop their personal and social skills by actively contributing to group discussions and interacting with others outside the classroom. Opportunities for students to implement their project include designing workshops, creating websites and posters and other forms to educate others about their selected topic. By the end of this term, groups will be creating an engaging presentation to display their health focus and an evaluation of the effectiveness of their project.

Maths: 

In term 4 students will be looking at two final units of learning before their exam window begins. Students will start the term with chance and probability where they will look at a range of skills and concepts. These include using complementary probability to solve the sum of probabilities, representing events in two way tables and venn diagrams and describing events using the language of ‘and,’ ‘given’ and ‘or.’ Students will then revisit linear relationships to consolidate their understanding of linear graphs and solve linear equations algebraically and graphically. In week 5 students will engage in their first round of exams. Students will receive their results and goals to work on in the lead up to exams in round 2. Each class will also focus on units of learning that need to be consolidated prior to round 2, which will be informed by data from the round 1 exam. To finish the term students will engage in a variety of maths problem solving tasks, investigations and projects to apply their skills and concepts to a range of real world settings. 

Science: 

In Term 4, students will be exploring the world of chemicals. Students will understand the characteristics of different states of matter, including solids, liquids, and gases. They will learn that these properties can be explained by understanding how particles in these states move and are arranged. This knowledge will help students understand and predict the behaviour of various materials based on their particle arrangements. In the next stage, Students will delve into the distinctions between elements, compounds, and mixtures. They will do so by employing a particle model to describe the composition of substances. Students will be able to learn laboratory techniques and skills required to perform experiments safely using various chemicals. Students will explore the concept of chemical change, where substances undergo reactions to form new substances with distinct properties. This term of learning will make students aware of potential hazards and encourage them to take appropriate precautions to prevent accidents while dealing with chemicals.

Technologies (Digital and Design): 

Students will continue on their learning journey at Wyndham Technology School. They attend a hybrid program that runs off campus at Wyndham Technology school and on-campus classrooms in the technologies. Year 8 students will explore three fields of Technology, Game development, designing a racing car and developing systems engineering skills on rotation. In the first program, they will focus on creating an industry-standard game engine. Students will create their own 3D game using Unreal Engine. They will be able to customise their game by creating 3D CAD models. Students will also create promotional material for their game which will all be exhibited in a virtual game expo. In the second program, students will work on F1 in school programs. They will create their miniature compressed-air-powered cars. Students will assess cars' aerodynamics before they make 3D CAD models of vehicles. Afterwards, students will  3D print and race their cars.

 In the third program, students are generally challenged to make something that can move in some way. It involves learning 3D CAD modelling. They will 3D print or laser cut their models. Coding a microcontroller and learning the basics of electronic circuits as a motor is part of the program. Through this embedded program, they can understand and spark their interest in the latest technology fields.