Curriculum

Term 4 Inquiry Units

As we begin an exciting term 4 with many engaging and inspiring learning experiences, the inquiry topics that will be taught during term 4 are:

Foundation:

Essential Question: What might animals need to survive?

Curriculum Areas: Biological Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Significance, Form and Function

Line of Inquiry Statement:

Students will become curious and build upon their knowledge and understanding of what animals need in order to survive.

Grade 1:

Essential Question: How do the elements of physical science (light, sound, push and pull) affect and assist in our daily lives?

Curriculum Areas: Physical Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Discovery, Innovation and Application.

Line of Inquiry Statement: Students will be curious about our natural and human-made world and connect the elements of physical science (light, sound, push and pull) with their impacts on everyday life. They will communicate new learning and discoveries based on their own investigations and create artefacts to demonstrate their understanding.

Grade 2:

Essential Question: How can we take clues from nature to help us solve problems?

Curriculum Areas: Biological Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Systems and interconnections

Line of Inquiry Statement: Learners are inspired to be curious about the features of living things and investigate how technology & design mimic nature through: picture story books, non-fiction texts, film, live and digital incursions and local excursions. Students will connect to this learning by building on their prior knowledge and own observations of the natural world. Students will use knowledge from the Biological Sciences to inspire Design Technology. Learners will communicate an understanding of how people take inspiration from nature to design solutions to solve real world problems. Learners will create artefacts that demonstrate critical and creative thinking in the initial and the final collaborative design tasks which include an example of biomimicry.

Grade 3:

Essential Question:  What is matter?

Curriculum Areas: Chemical Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Systems and energy.

Line of Inquiry Statement: Learners will investigate into the application of heat and identify what heat does for us? How it can be applied and what can it be used for? They will connect this to the devastation that heat can create and inquire into the impact this can have in local and national communities as well as around the world.

Grade 4:

Essential Question: What moves?

Curriculum Areas: Physical Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Force, motion and energy.

Line of Inquiry Statement: Learners will be curious and investigate into a range of science experiments that involve force, motion and energy and the impacts this can have on an object. Learners will make connections to Newton's 3 laws of motion (Inertia, acceleration and interaction)

Grade 5:

Essential Question: What is the purpose of chemical science?

Curriculum Areas:  Chemical Science, Critical and Creative Thinking and Ethical Capabilities.

Concept/Big Ideas: Stability and change.

Line of Inquiry Statement: Students will be curious about this unit through the answering of true/false questions about many old or new scientific theories. They will be connected to this unit through surveys where they can identify their favourite foods, drinks and products, and comment on how these are kept fresh or at the optimum temperature etc. They will be able to communicate the purpose of science, how to conduct a scientific investigation and why changes have occurred. They will create an investigation to test a personal scientific theory and a live/pre-recorded video to present their findings. 

Grade 6:

Essential Question: Why does the Earth move?

Curriculum Areas:  Earth, Space Science and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Concept/Big Ideas: Interconnections and science systems.

Line of Inquiry Statement: Learners will be curious about not just how the Earth moves, but why it moves.  We want them to connect all of the different ways in which the world is in motion, to understand that they are never really “still”.  We want them to make connections between the everyday phenomena they are familiar with (eg. Weather, Natural Disasters and Mountains) and the truly extraordinary causes behind them.