Year 8 Term 3 Overview

Year 8 Term 3 Curriculum

English: During Term Three, Year 8 students will explore the text ‘A Long Walk to Water’, by Linda Sue Park. This text is a true story written about the main character, Salva dut; journaling his incredible life as one of The Lost Boys of Sudan. This story goes in depth and talks about the many hardships Salva and his family experienced, from fleeing their home country of Sudan and settling in a Kenyan refugee camp, only to eventually begin a new life in America. During discussions of this text, students will recognise and explain differing viewpoints represented in text. In exploring these viewpoints, students will unpack how texts can draw on different historical, social and cultural contexts, which reflect and uncover the values of individuals and groups involved. This text exploration will eventuate in students writing a full personal analysis of the text, drawing on the following elements discussed within - characters, author’s message, vocabulary, mood, theme portrayal and reader engagement. 

Humanities: This term students will build on their prior knowledge of Medieval, Roman, Ancient Chinese and modern society with new information of Ancient Mongol and Italian Renaissance. In history students will focus on studying the varying beliefs, power structures, motivations and attitudes, lifestyles and values of previous great empires and societies groups. In geography, the cohort will describe ways to enhance and improve the social, environmental and economic factors within a place for a range of groups. They will consider the economic, environmental and societal needs of a variety of demographics and analyse data to consider if our community has what it needs to thrive. We’re excited to blend history and geography in a final project which will see students design and present their own ‘ideal society’. The project will require students to collect, record, analyse and explain geographical and historical data, including changes to data over periods of time. Students will be required to justify their choices by using historical and geographical language to explain the impact their society will have on individuals as well the how effectively they have used the land. 

Health: During Term 3, students will start designing a project for community health in pairs or small groups. This project will continue 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 choose and 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 creating an engaging presentation of their findings. The health project will be meaningful for not only the students themselves but also the whole school, community, and society. 

Maths: This term in maths, students will be using the current understanding of measurement and geometry to discover, prove and generalise new discoveries within 2D and 3D shape. Students will be establishing formulas for areas of the different quadrilaterals, for the circumference and area of circles and the volume of rectangular and triangular prisms. Students will establish these formulas by using current knowledge, manipulating shapes physically, drawing pictures and modelling their thinking algebraically to prove these formulas. Once established, students will consolidate their understanding by using the formulas to solve a variety of measurement problems and master their knowledge by solving unfamiliar and meaningful problems such as investigations and open ended problem solving tasks. Following this unit, students will then revisit financial maths where they will deepen their understanding of percentage increases and decreases, alongside percentage of profit, loss and error. Students will revisit the index laws and apply the notation and laws to different contexts before finally returning to algebra, where they will reestablish and master their understanding of factorising and expanding algebraic expressions. 

Science: This term in science, students will continue to explore and deepen their understanding of the biological sciences. Students will be connecting their prior knowledge of cells to the level of organisation within a cell. Students will explain how cells combine to create different structures and systems of function in order to create an organism. Students will explore the different human body systems including the digestive, respiratory, circulatory and reproductive systems. Students will consolidate their understanding through different application tasks and experiments including the dissection of organs. Students will finalise the term by exploring in great detail a body system of a different organism and compare and contrast this body system with a human. Students will present their findings to the class. 

Technologies (Digital and Design):  Students will attend a hybrid program that runs off campus at Wyndham Technology College and on-campus classrooms this term in the technologies. Year 8 students will explore three fields of Technologies, 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.