Science

Science

The Victorian Curriculum: Science has two interconnected strands:

• Science Understanding
• Science Inquiry Skills

As a result of the interconnection between the strands, students learn to understand their world through scientific eyes, and develop skills that they can use to refine their scientific knowledge. They are challenged to explore science and its concepts, as well as uses, by focusing on inquiry-based learning and processes.

The main subject areas that students focus on are Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth and Space Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Science as a Human Endeavour. Learning occurs through different stages, utilising the following structure:

• Engage
• Explore
• Explain
• Elaborate
• Evaluate

Below is an overview of the curriculum focus for each year level, and the students’ focus in understanding their world from a scientific point of view.

Prep – Grade 2

Curriculum focus: Students will develop an awareness of how people use science in their daily lives

Learning will focus on:

• fostering and developing students’ curiosity about their immediate world
• encouragement of asking questions and testing ideas
• exploratory, purposeful play that is central to students’ investigations
• use of senses to observe and gather information
• describe, making comparisons, sort and classify to create order that is meaningful
• students beginning to describe relationships in the world around them
• encouraging students to develop explanatory ideas and test them through further exploration

 Grades 3 – 6

Curriculum focus (Grades 3 and 4): recognising how science knowledge can assist people to understand the effects of their actions

Curriculum focus (Grades 5 and 6): recognising that understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to inform personal and community decisions and to solve problems that directly affect people’s lives

Learning will focus on:

• students developing their ideas about science that relate to their lives, answer questions, and solve mysteries of particular interest to their age group.
• students use a trial and error approach to their science investigations
• progression to a more systematic way of understanding
• the idea of a ‘fair test’ and the idea of variables are developed, as well as other forms of scientific inquiry
• students beginning to understand the importance of measurement in quantifying changes in systems
• students developing explanations about why there are similarities and differences in living things and objects/ events.
• students beginning to understand the complexity of the natural and built world; understanding of the world is enhanced by understanding it as ‘systems’, and how components (parts) within systems relate to each other.
• from evidence through observation, explanations about phenomena can be developed and tested. With new evidence, explanations may be refined or changed.
• through examination of living structures, Earth, changes of solids to liquids and features of light, students will begin to recognise patterns in the world.

At Albert Park Primary School, we aim to ensure that all students have opportunities to learn about scientific concepts in a safe, challenging and engaging environment. The focus throughout the school is for all students to gain a sound understanding of scientific concepts and how these relate to their lives. To assist in this process, we are utilising the Australian Academy of Science - Primary Connections resources, that link science with literacy, and enable students to achieve a comprehensive grasp of the basic scientific principles.

The main features of the Primary Connections program include:

• students developing scientific inquiry and investigative skills
• the curriculum resources, linking science with literacy, have won numerous awards for their success in the classroom
• encouraging ongoing research (for both students and teachers) and enables thorough evaluation at the end of each program.

For further information about this curriculum, refer to the website below.

http://science.org.au/primaryconnections/

Each year level complements the Primary Connections units with additional resources, such as videos, and other engaging mediums, to enable students to gain a more comprehensive understanding of each science unit.

Details about each year level’s Science unit can be found on their year level information pages on this website. Be sure to read them and ask your child’s teacher for further information, if required.

Jeremy Cadusch and Julie-Anne Bouras

Science Leaders