Year 9 Term 1 Overview

Year 9 - Term 1 curriculum

English:  In English this term, students will be exploring the genre of dystopian fiction. They will analyse a range of multimodal texts such as: movies, books, graphic novels and short stories as a means of dissecting the different ways authors can create meaning using language, sound and visual features. They will identify and analyse the depiction of a range of dystopian features such as: totalitarian government, fear of government, conformity, constant surveillance, lack of freedoms and censorship. Students will experiment with creating short, precise and impactful meanings by creating their own graphic novels and dystopian fiction text that warns the audience of a consequence our future society might face. 

Humanities: In Term 1 , students will be exploring their rights and obligations as Australian citizens. They will evaluate features of Australia's political system and identify and analyse its  impacts on peoples’ rights as well as Australia's role in the global context. They will understand the purposes of government and be able to compare and contrast different government ideologies across multiple countries. They will conduct research on geopolitical studies and build up their own understanding of politics. Throughout the term, students will develop individual political portfolios on a range of ideologies such as: communism, democracy and socialism in their own choices of format. They will present their political portfolios in class, showing their own personal identities. 

Maths: In Term 1, Year 9 students will consolidate previous mathematical knowledge and further develop skills and application in the following key areas: determine quartiles and range and investigate the effect of individual data values, including outliers on the interquartile range, construct and interpret box plots and use them to compare data sets, compare shapes of box plots to corresponding histograms and dot plots and discuss the distribution of data, use scatter plots to investigate and comment on relationships between numerical variables, investigate and describe numerical and categorical data, simplify algebraic products and quotients using index laws, apply index laws to numerical expressions with integer indices, express numbers in scientific notation, and extend and apply the index laws to variables, using positive integer indices and the zero index.

Science:  In term 1, year 9 students will be furthering their scientific understanding by learning about the composition of atoms and the structure of the periodic table. They will explore the nature of different elements from the periodic table and gain an understanding of the way elements are grouped together. Students will gain an understanding of basic chemical reactions and how atoms of different elements will join together to create entirely new substances. Students will also delve into physical science by exploring the motion of objects and the different forces that act upon them. Through these topics they will continue to utilise and build upon there pre existing inquiry skills through the careful planning and carrying out of investigations, analysing data and drawing conclusions.

The Technologies:  In term 1, year 9 students will be gaining an understanding of proper food handling and how to prevent cross contamination in the kitchen. Students will spend time learning about different cooking techniques and the way in which we properly store and preserve food to reduce contamination and ensure food products do not go off prematurely. Students will also be learning about the importance of different macro and micronutrients, as well as deficiency disease associated with them. Year 9 students will gain a deeper understanding of what constitutes a balanced diet and the different factors that individuals must take into account to ensure a well balanced diet. Students will utilise and expand on there pre existing skills through cooking and baking during practical sessions.