This term we will be studying biological sciences. Biological sciences involves the study of life and living organisms, including their physical/chemical structure, function, development and evolution.

Foundation students will investigate external features of plants and animals and describe ways they can be grouped based on these features. This will include:

• observing fruits and vegetables and identifying them as parts of plants such as roots, flowers, fruits or leaves

• recognising humans as animals, describing external features of humans and exploring similarities and differences compared with other animals

• using magnifying glasses or digital cameras to observe and identify external features of plants including seeds, flowers, fruits and roots, or of animals such as eyes, body covering, legs and wings

• sorting collections of model animals and explaining different grouping strategies

• recognising First Nations Australians’ use of observable features to group living things

• exploring how First Nations Australians’ observations of external features of living things are replicated in traditional dance.

Junior Primary students will identify the basic needs of plants and animals, including air, water, food or shelter, and describe how the places they live meet those needs. This will include:

• identifying the places where plants and animals live, including in our homes, local areas such as ponds, national parks, gardens or zoos

• identifying what they do to look after pets or plants at home and grouping these activities

• identifying and comparing the needs of a variety of plants and animals, including humans, based on their own experiences

• creating dioramas of a place a plant or animal lives, and identifying the features that enable it to meet its needs

• recognising how First Nations Australians care for living things

• exploring why caring for plants and animals is important including as sources of food and fibre.

Middle Primary students will explain the roles and interactions of consumers, producers and decomposers within a habitat and how food chains represent feeding relationships. This will include:

• describing how animals, including humans, obtain their food from plants and other animals

• observing living things in a local habitat and categorising them as producers, consumers or decomposers

• researching the different types of decomposers and their importance within a habitat

• representing feeding relationships of producers and consumers as a food chain and comparing food chains across different habitats

• recognising how First Nations Australians perceive themselves as being an integral part of the environment.

• investigating the impact of introduced predators such as foxes on small mammal species in Australia

• researching how the removal of a food source from within a habitat, such as through an insect or rodent infestation, affected other living things within that habitat

Upper primary students will investigate the physical conditions of a habitat and analyse how the growth and survival of living things is affected by changing physical conditions. This will include:

• identifying the physical conditions in an aquatic or terrestrial habitat and how they change over time

• investigating how changes to physical conditions such as salinity, soil type, sunlight or temperature affect plant growth

• examining how changes in physical conditions such as temperature, light availability and rainfall affect animals, such as corals, honey bees or flying foxes, and predict impacts of these changes

• investigating changes in physical conditions that are the result of human activity and exploring the impact of these on living things, such as the impact of urban lighting on nocturnal and migratory animals

• examining how changes in physical conditions such as temperature, light availability and rainfall affect animals, such as corals, honey bees or flying foxes, and predict impacts of these changes

• investigating changes in physical conditions that are the result of human activity and exploring the impact of these on living things, such as the impact of urban lighting on nocturnal and migratory animals

• investigating the effect of physical conditions on the growth of bread mould colonies in sealed plastic bags

• recognising that environmental conditions can affect stages of life, such as ponds drying up, seeds requiring water to germinate, or temperatures being too hot or cold for eggs to hatch

• investigating First Nations Australians’ knowledges and understandings of the physical conditions necessary for the survival of certain plants and animals

During Term 2 we will be looking at the Chemical Sciences. Chemical sciences refers to the study of matter; dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions.

Foundation students will be investigating how objects can be composed of different materials and describing the observable properties of those materials. This will include: 

• observing and manipulating objects to identify the materials they are made of and recognising that some objects are made of more than one type of material

• recognising that tools such as magnifying glasses enable more-detailed observations

• sorting and grouping materials based on observed properties such as colour, hardness, texture and flexibility

• creating a display of different materials, naming each material and exploring language to describe properties of materials

• using a digital camera to collect images of objects on a materials scavenger hunt

• investigating the ways in which First Nations Australians make utensils for different purposes by combining different materials.

Junior Primary students will be investigating how everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways. This will include:

• exploring how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples apply physical changes to natural materials to render them useful for particular purposes

• predicting and comparing how the shapes of objects made from different materials can be physically changed through actions such as bending, stretching and twisting

• exploring how materials such as water, chocolate or play dough change when warmed or cooled.

Middle Primary students will be investigating the properties of natural and made materials including fibres, metals, glass and plastics and consider how these properties influence their use. This will include:

• identifying and naming materials in the classroom, and grouping objects made of similar materials or combinations of materials

• exploring vocabulary for describing properties; observing different fibres, metals, glass and plastics; and using appropriate terms to describe, compare and contrast their properties

• investigating familiar objects, such as shoes, drink containers or backpacks, examining the combination of materials from which they are made and suggesting reasons for those combinations based on properties of materials

• considering how First Nations Australians use materials for different purposes, such as tools, clothing and shelter, based on their properties

• designing, building and testing an object or structure for a specific purpose, such as a tent, lunchbox or bird feeder

• investigating which materials can be recycled and researching alternatives for materials such as single use plastics.

Upper Primary students will be investigating reversible changes, including dissolving and changes of state, and irreversible changes, including cooking and rusting that produce new substances. This will include:

• discussing what makes a change reversible or irreversible, using everyday examples

• examining the substances produced in cooking and rusting and comparing them with the original substances

• comparing how the amount of heat energy added affects whether a change in state or an irreversible change occurs

• describing how dissolved substances are reclaimed from solutions

• exploring how reversible changes can be used to recycle materials

• investigating First Nations Australians’ knowledges of reversible processes such as the application of adhesives and of irreversible processes such as the use of fuels for torches.

During Term 1 we will be looking at the Physical Sciences. Physical sciences refers to the study of nature and properties of matter and energy. Physical Sciences includes, heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism, forces, forms of energy, and the structure of atoms.

Reception students will be investigating how objects move and how factors including their size, shape or material influence their movement. This will include: 

• observing how toys move, and grouping them based on their movement

• observing and describing ways different and unusually shaped objects such as blocks, tubes or eggs move when rolled down a slope

• comparing the way different-sized, similar-shaped objects such as tennis balls, golf balls, marbles or basketballs roll and bounce

• exploring how the material a ball is made from affects the way it moves, such as plastic, foam, cloth or rubber balls on a surface

• exploring how the size and shape of traditional instructive toys used by First Nations Australians influence their movement.

Junior Primary students will explore different actions to make sounds and how to make a variety of sounds, and recognise that sound energy causes objects to vibrate. This will include:

• building vocabulary for describing sound, such as loudness and pitch, and comparing sounds made by musical instruments

• exploring different ways to produce sound using familiar objects and actions such as striking, blowing, scraping, plucking and shaking

• exploring how traditional musical instruments used by First Nations Australians produce their characteristic sounds

• observing vibrations produced by a twanged ruler held on a desk and experimenting with different ways of holding or positioning the ruler to produce observably different vibrations and sounds

• investigating how sound energy makes things vibrate such as when speaking, using tuning forks or observing music speakers

• investigating which materials best muffle sound

• designing and making instruments that produce different sounds, such as drums, rain makers, thongophones or box guitars

• discussing situations in which they have heard echoes and exploring how humans with vision impairment and other animals such as dolphins and bats use echolocation to locate objects in their environments.

Middle Primary students will identify how forces can be exerted by one object on another and investigate the effect of frictional, gravitational and magnetic forces on the motion of objects. This will include:

• exploring the effect of magnets on other magnets and how magnetic forces can pull objects from a distance

• exploring the positive and negative effects of friction on their everyday experiences, such as how friction causes objects to slow down and stop

• recognising that gravity is the force that pulls all objects to towards the centre of Earth and that gravitational force acts on an object regardless of whether it is moving or not moving

• observing how the pushing force of a liquid enables an object to float

• investigating the effect of forces on the movement of objects in traditional First Nations Australians’ children’s instructive toys and games

• examining shoe sole design and identifying patterns in sole design and use related to friction

• watching a video of astronauts walking on the moon or dropping objects on its surface, and discussing the force they are observing.

• exploring how force arrows can be used to represent the direction and magnitude of forces acting on an object

Upper Primary students will investigate the transfer and transformation of energy in electrical circuits, including the role of circuit components, insulators and conductors. This will include:

• identifying necessary components for an electric circuit such as a source of electrical energy and conducting material such as metal wires

• constructing a real or virtual circuit to examine requirements to allow the flow of electricity, including exploring the construction and role of switches

• constructing representations of electrical circuits and their components using accepted conventions

• examining the purpose of different components such as switches and bulbs and exploring use of ammeters to measure current

• investigating different electrical conductors and insulators and examining why they may be used

• exploring how electricity is used in the home and identifying electrical hazards and safety measures used to mitigate these hazards.