Red Cliffs Secondary College Senior School Handbook

Unit 3 and 4 Subject Offerings

Choosing Your Subjects. 

All of your Year 12 subjects must be completed as a Unit 3-4 sequence – this means that whatever you chose for Unit 3, you have to continue for Unit 4.
You need to choose 5 subjects (10 units).

Step 1: Choose your English

Completing an English subject is compulsory. You can choose to do English or Literature – or you can do both. If you are unsure, talk to your English teacher.

ENGLISH: 

Unit 3

Focus:  Reading and responding to texts analytically and creatively.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Reading and creating texts
  • Analysing argument

Unit 4

Focus:  Comparing the presentation of ideas, issues and themes in texts.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Reading and comparing texts
  • Presenting argument

LITERATURE:

Unit 3:  Form and transformation

Focus:  How the form of a text affects meaning, and how writers construct their texts.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Adaptations and transformations
  • Creative Responses to texts

Unit 4:  Interpreting texts

Focus:  Developing critical and analytical responses to texts.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Literary Perspectives
  • Close Analysis

Step 2:  Choose your Mathematics

Completing a Mathematics subject is not compulsory, however, if you are unsure, talk to your mathematics teacher.

FURTHER MATHEMATICS:

Unit 3 & 4:

Focus:  Further Mathematics Units 3 and 4 extends upon the work done in Further Mathematics Units 1 and 2.  Further Mathematics consists of two areas of study, a compulsory core area of study to be completed in Unit 3 and an applications area of study to be completed in Unit 4. The core comprises ‘Data analysis’ and ‘Recursion and financial modelling’.  The application comprises ‘Matrices’ and ‘Networks and decision mathematics’.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Data analysis
  • Recursion and financial modelling
  • Matrices
  • Networks and decision mathematics

MATHEMATICAL METHODS:

Unit 3 & 4: 

Focus:  Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4 extends the introductory study of simple elementary functions of a single real variable to include combinations of these functions, algebra, calculus, probability and statistics and their applications in a variety of practical and theoretical contexts. Assumed knowledge and skills for Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4 are contained in Mathematical Methods Units 1 and 2 and will be drawn on, as applicable, in the development of related content from the areas of study and key knowledge and skills for the outcomes of Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Functions and graphs
  • Algebra
  • Calculus
  • Probability and statistics

SPECIALIST MATHEMATICS: 

(must be done in conjunction with Mathematical Methods)

Unit 3 & 4:

Focus:  Specialist Mathematics Units 3 and 4 assumes familiarity with the key knowledge and skills from Mathematical Methods Units 1 and 2, the key knowledge and skills from Specialist Mathematics Units 1 and 2 topics 'Number systems and recursion' and 'Geometry in the plane and proof' and concurrent or previous study of Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4.  In Unit 3 a study of Specialist Mathematics would typically include content from ‘Functions and graphs’ and a selection of material from the ‘Algebra’, ‘Calculus’ and ‘Vectors’ areas of study. In Unit 4 this selection would typically consist of the remaining content from the ‘Algebra’, ‘Calculus’, and ‘Vectors’ areas of study and the content from the ‘Mechanics’ and ‘Probability and statistics’ areas of study.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Functions and graphs
  • Algebra
  • Calculus
  • Vectors
  • Mechanics
  • Probability and statistics

Step 3: Choose the rest of your subjects:

Remember - There are no ‘rules’ about what you have to choose as your remaining subjects. 
BUT – If you want to do a University course, you MUST check any prerequisites that you will need.
Usually, students will continue with subjects that they have already completed at Unit 1 and 2. 
Below, you will find the other Unit 3 & 4 subjects offered at Red Cliffs Secondary College next year, listed in alphabetical order. Remember – you can only do a total of 5 subjects, so if you have chosen English and Further Mathematics (for example), you can only pick 3 more.
Vocational Education and Training subjects have (VET) in their title, with a fuller description in the VET Subjects section.

ACCOUNTING:

Unit 3:  Recording and reporting for a trading business

Focus:  Financial accounting for a single activity trading business as operated by a sole trader with emphasis on the role of accounting as an information system.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Recording financial data
  • Balance day adjustments and reporting and interpreting accounting information

Unit 4:  Control and analysis of business performance

Focus:  Providing an extension of the recording and reporting processes from Unit 3 and the use of financial and non-financial information in assisting management in the decision-making process.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Extension of recording and reporting
  • Financial planning and decision making

BIOLOGY:

Unit 3: How do cells maintain life?

Focus: Understanding the workings of the cell from several perspectives. 

AREAS OF STUDY:

What is the role of nucleic acids and proteins in maintaining life?

How are biochemical pathways regulated?

 

Unit 4: How does life change and respond to challenges?

Focus: The continual change and challenges to which life on Earth has been, and continues to be, subjected to. 

AREAS OF STUDY:

How do organisms respond to pathogens?

How are species related over time?

How is scientific inquiry used to investigate cellular processes and/or biological change?

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT:

Unit 3:  Managing a business

Focus:  Exploring the key processes and issues concerned with managing a business efficiently and effectively to achieve the business objectives.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Business foundations
  • Managing Employees
  • Operations Management

Unit 4:  Transforming a business

Focus:  Reviewing key performance indicators to determine current performance and the strategic management necessary to position a business for the future.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Reviewing performance – the need for change
  • Implementing change

CHEMISTRY:

Unit 3:  How can chemical processes be designed to optimise efficiency?

Focus:  Energy options and the chemical production of materials with reference to efficiencies, renewability, and the minimisation of their impact on the environment.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • What are the options for energy production?
  • How can the yield of a chemical product be optimised?

Unit 4:  How are organic compounds categorised, analysed and used?

Focus:  Investigating the structural features, bonding, typical reactions, and uses of the major families of organic compounds, including those found in food.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • How can the diversity of carbon compounds be explained and categorised?
  • What is the chemistry of food?
  • Practical Investigation

APPLIED COMPUTING: DATA ANALYTICS:

Unit 3:  Data Analytics

Focus:  In this unit students apply the problem-solving methodology to identify and extract data through the use of software tools such as database, spreadsheet and data visualisation software to create data visualisations or infographics. Students develop an understanding of the analysis, design and development stages of the problem-solving methodology.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Data analytics
  • Data analytics: analysis and design

Unit 4:  Data Analytics

Focus:  In this unit students focus on determining the findings of a research question by developing infographics or dynamic data visualisations based on large complex data sets and on the security strategies used by an organisation to protect data and information from threats.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Data analytics: development and evaluation
  • Cybersecurity: data and information security

DANCE:

Unit 3:  Dance

Focus:  Choreography, rehearsal and performance of a solo dance work and involvement of the execution of a diverse range of physical skills and actions drawn from all movement categories. 

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Dance perspectives
  • Choreography, performance, and dance-making analysis
  • Dance technique, performance and analysis

Unit 4:  Dance

Focus:  Choreography, rehearsal, and performance of a unified solo dance work.

AREAS OF STUDY

  • Dance perspectives
  • Choreography, performance, and dance-making analysis

FOOD STUDIES:

Unit 3:  Food in daily life

Focus:  The many roles and everyday influences of food.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • The science of food
  • Food choice, health and wellbeing

Unit 4:  Food issues, challenges, and futures

Focus:  Debates about global and Australian food systems.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Environment and ethics
  • Navigating food information

HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:

Unit 3:  Australia’s health in a globalised world

Focus:  Health, wellbeing, and illness as multidimensional, dynamic, and subject to different interpretations and contexts.

AREAS OF STUDY: 

  • Understanding health and wellbeing
  • Promoting health and wellbeing

Unit 4:  Health and human development in a global context

Focus:  Health, wellbeing and human development in a global context.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Health and well-being in a global context
  • Health and the Sustainable Development Goals

HISTORY: REVOLUTIONS:

Unit 3 & 4:  Revolutions

Focus:  The significant historical causes and consequences of political revolution.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Causes of revolution
  • Consequences of revolution

LEGAL STUDIES:

Unit 3:  Rights and justice

Focus:  Methods and institutions in the justice system and their appropriateness in determining criminal cases and resolving civil disputes.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • The Victorian criminal justice system
  • The Victorian civil justice system

Unit 4:  The people and the law

Focus:  How the Australian Constitution establishes the law making powers of the Commonwealth and state parliament, and how it protects the Australian people through structures that act as a check on parliament in law making.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • The people and the Australian Constitution
  • The people, the parliament, and the courts

MEDIA:

Unit 3:  Media narratives and pre-production

Focus:  Stories that circulate in society through media narratives. Use of the pre-production stage of the media production process to design the production of a media product for a specified audience.

AREAS OF STUDY: 

  • Narrative and Ideology
  • Media production development
  • Media production design

Unit 4:  Media production and issues in the media

Focus:  Production and post- production stages of the media production process, bringing the media production design created in Unit 3 to its realisation.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Media Production
  • Agency and control in and of the media

MUSIC: PERFORMANCE:

Unit 3 & 4:  Music Performance

Focus:  Building and refining performance and musicianship skills.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Performance
  • Preparing for performance
  • Music language

PHYSICAL EDUCATION:

Unit 3:  Movement skills and energy for physical activity

Focus:  Bio mechanical and skill acquisition principles used to analyse human movement skills and energy production from a physiological perspective.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • How are motor skills improved?
  • How does the body produce energy?

Unit 4:  Training to improve performance

Focus:  Analysis of movement skills and application of relevant training principles and methods to improve performance within physical activity at an individual, club, and elite level. 

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • What are the foundations of an effective training program?
  • How is training implemented effectively to improve fitness?

PHYSICS:

Unit 3:  How do fields explain motion and electricity?

Focus:  The importance of energy in explaining and describing the physical world.

AREAS OF STUDY: 

  • How do things move without contact?
  • How are fields used to move electrical energy?
  • How fast can things go?

Unit 4:  How can two contradictory models explain both light and matter?

Focus:  The use of wave and particle theories to model the properties of light and matter.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • How can waves explain the behaviour of light?
  • How are light and matter similar?
  • Practical Investigation

PRODUCT DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY: TEXTILES or WOOD:

Unit 3:  Applying the product design process

Focus:  Design and development of a product that addresses the personal, local, or global problem (such as humanitarian issues), or that meets the needs and wants of a potential end-user/s.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Design for end-user/s
  • Product development in industry
  • Designing for others

Unit 4:  Product development and evaluation

Focus:  Making comparisons between similar products to help evaluate the success of a product in relation to a range of product design factors.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Product analysis and comparison
  • Product manufacture
  • Product evaluation

PSYCHOLOGY:

Unit 3:  How does experience affect behaviours and mental processes?

Focus:  Macro- and micro- level functioning of the nervous system to explain how the human nervous system enables a person to interact with the world around them.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?
  • How do people learn and remember?

Unit 4:  How is wellbeing developed and maintained?

Focus:  The nature of consciousness and how changes in levels of consciousness can affect mental processes and behaviour.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • How do levels of consciousness affect mental processes and behaviour?
  • What influences mental wellbeing?
  • Practical Investigation

SOCIOLOGY:

Unit 3:  Culture and ethnicity

Focus:  Expressions of culture and ethnicity within Australian society in two different contexts – Australian Indigenous culture, and ethnicity in relation to the experience of migrant groups in Australia.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Australian Indigenous culture
  • Ethnicity

Unit 4:  Community, social movements, and social change

Focus:  Inclusion and exclusion within communities and how factors can change the experience of a community.  In-depth study on how specific historic or current social movements are made or are making social change.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Community
  • Social movements and social change

STUDIO ARTS:

Unit 3:  Studio practices and processes

Focus:  The implementation of an individual studio process leading to the production of a range of potential directions.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Exploration proposal
  • Studio process
  • Artists and studio practices

Unit 4:  Studio practice and art industry contexts

Focus:  Planning, production and evaluation required to develop, refine, and present artworks that link cohesively according to the ideas resolved in Unit 3.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Production and presentation of artworks
  • Evaluation
  • Art industry contexts

THEATRE STUDIES:

Unit 3:  Pre-modern theatre styles and conventions

Focus:  In VCE Theatre Studies, students interpret scripts to produce theatre for audiences, specialising in two production areas.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Stage theatre
  • Interpret and present theatre works
  • Analyse and evaluate theatre works

Unit 4:  Studio exploration and concepts

Focus:  Students will study a scene and an associated monologue.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Research and present theatrical possibilities
  • Interpret a monologue
  • Analyse and evaluate professional theatre works

VISUAL COMMUNICATION AND DESIGN:

Unit 3:  Visual communication and design practices

Focus:  The processes designers employ to structure their thinking and communicate ideas with clients, target audiences, other designers and specialists.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Analysis and practice in context
  • Design industry practice
  • The brief and generating ideas

Unit 4:  Visual communication and design development, evaluation, and presentation

Focus:  Development of design concepts and two final presentations of visual communications to meet the requirements of the brief.

AREAS OF STUDY:

  • Development, refinement, and evaluation
  • Final presentations