Units of Inquiry

Overview

These are our Units of Inquiry for 2018.

Term 1: Science - Water works

Water is essential to life. As humans, we not only drink water, we also use it for cooking,

hygiene, recreation and agriculture. Australia is a dry continent with an expanding population,

and how we use water has become increasingly important. Water is a precious resource.

The Water works unit provides opportunities for students to develop an understanding of, and appreciation for, a precious natural resource. Through investigations, students explore how water is used, where water comes from and how to use it responsibly.

Term 2: History - The past in the present.

The history of significant people, buildings, sites or parts of the natural environment in the local community and what it reveals about the past. The importance today of an historical site of cultural or spiritual significance; for example, a community building, a landmark, a war memorial. The impact of changing technology on people’s lives (at home and in the ways they worked, travelled, communicated, and played in the past).

Term 3: Design and Technology - Grand Designs

Students will develop understandings that can explain how people create familiar designed solutions and consider sustainability to meet personal and local community needs.  Students will explore the needs or opportunities for designing structures by visualising, generating, describing, drawing, modelling and exploring properties of materials used to create designed solutions. An inquiry into sustainable designs and structures. How can people create designed solutions that are sustainable and meet personal and local community needs?  How can materials help to create designed solutions?  

Term 4: Physical Science - Push and Pull

Forces are at work in everything we do—we push to open doors, and pull to tie ropes. Gravity

pulls on things to make them fall down or to keep them down. Scientists and engineers study

forces to design better bridges and faster aeroplanes, and to reduce the forces that affect

people in car accidents. The Push-pull unit provides the opportunity for students to explore pushes and pulls. Through investigations, students observe and gather evidence about how these forces act in air and water, and on the ground. Students identify the effect of the pull of gravity and learn that both air and water can ‘push’.

Throughout the Year:  - Digital Technologies

                                                 - Personal and Social Capabilities

NB: You will be notified of excursions when bookings have been confirmed.