Prep–Year 6 Science familiarisation and planning 2: Curriculum elements

Welcome to the Familiarisation and planning series of online sessions designed to introduce curriculum leaders and teachers to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0: Science Prep–Year 6. In this second session in the series, we will be focusing on the Curriculum elements section of the curriculum. In our first session, we covered the Understand this learning area section of the curriculum and our final session in the series will address planning considerations for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.

Acknowledgment of Country

The QCAA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet today. We pay our respects to their Elders and their descendants who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country, and we extend that respect to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people here today. We thank them for sharing their cultures and spiritualities and recognise the important contribution of this knowledge to our understanding of this place we call home.

Learning goal and success criteria

In Session 2, our learning goal is to understand the implications of changes to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0: Science to plan for the transition in your own context.

You will know you have been successful if you have more knowledge about the Curriculum elements in Version 9.0 of the Science curriculum and can identify actions for planning in your school.

Session 2 outline

This recording is accompanied by a worksheet for you to record your responses to the activities and reflection points throughout the presentation.

If you have not already done so, please take some time now to download or print the Session 2 outline resource.

Outline for Session 2

We will work through these three topics in the session.

Outline for Session 2: Introduction to Australian Curriculum v9.0

We began Session 1 in the series by orienting ourselves to a process we can use to engage with the changes in Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.

Let’s briefly review that process now.

Identifying actions for planning in your context

Here is the approach we proposed to assist schools in their implementation of Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.

In this second session, we are going to be looking at the specific elements of the curriculum that may have an impact on your teaching, learning and assessment.

As we consider this section of the curriculum, focus your thinking on how much you may need to refine, realign, reimagine or remove aspects of your current programs.

Organisation of Science and changes

On screen now, we have the organisation of Science outlining the main changes in structure between Version 8.4 and Version 9.0, which we discussed in more detail in Session 1 in the series.

Outline for Session 2: Curriculum elements

We will now move on to our core focus for this session, the Curriculum elements section.

Organisation of Science

On screen in the shaded box, you will see the sections that form the Curriculum elements. We will work through each of these sections throughout the presentation.

Identifying actions for planning in your context

As we work through the Science Curriculum elements and the changes we can see in Version 9.0, let’s keep our process for identifying actions for planning in mind.

Here is where we can begin to audit our current programs and consider what is the same in Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 and what is different.

Pause and reflect: Similarities and differences

You may wish to construct your own note-taking template like the one indicated on screen to help you identify the similarities and differences you notice in the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 for Science that may shape your planning for the new curriculum.

A table has been provided for you in the Session 2 outline resource referred to at the start of this recording.

Organisation of Science

Let’s start with the level description and achievement standard in the Curriculum elements section.

The level descriptions provide a high-level overview of the learning students should experience each year.

With regards to the achievement standard, schools gather evidence against the relevant achievement standard across the teaching and learning cycle.

Level description: Structure and content

The purpose of the level description is to provide an overview of the learning that students should experience in each year level.

When you read the level descriptions, each one has a consistent structure which can be seen on the screen now.

The information in the year level description provides useful context when reading the achievement standards and content descriptions.

The level descriptions will provide the detail teachers require to determine the level-appropriate experiences for students.

The inclusion of suggested inquiry questions is new. These are not mandatory and may simply spark an idea that suits your context. Some of the inquiry questions may be appropriate as a lesson starter while others may drive an entire unit of work.

These inquiry questions have also been written to support teachers to consider planning a unit of work that integrates the strands.

Science: Achievement standard structure

Let’s move on to the achievement standard.

It is important to note that the organisation of the achievement standard in Version 9.0 has not changed.

The achievement standard continues to have two paragraphs: the first containing Science understanding, and Science as a human endeavour which is knowledge, the second containing Science inquiry which is skills.

You can see the organisation of the achievement standard in this Year 4 example, the first paragraph containing Science understanding and Science as a human endeavour, and the second Science inquiry.

Science: Banded strands

The strands of Science as a human endeavour and Science inquiry are banded.

This means that, with the exception of Prep, the same content descriptions are taught across the two years of the band.

The achievement standard, however, is specific to each year level.

On screen you will see content descriptions and the aligned aspects of the achievement standard for Prep to Year 4.

You can see here that the content descriptions are taught across the band. However, each achievement standard is specific to the year level.

In this progression, you can see the move from informal sharing in Prep to more formal communicating in Year 1 and the introduction of scientific language in Year 2, moving to using scientific language when appropriate in Year 3.

In Year 3, there is also a purpose for communicating in Science. In Year 4, together with a purpose, students are also communicating for an identified audience.

This change in the level of detail is particularly useful when you look at the progression across bands. This will support teachers as they plan opportunities for their students to develop more sophisticated skills of communication.

We will have a closer look the relationship between the banded content and the year level achievement standards in the next session.

Pause and reflect: Achievement standards

We will now pause to reflect on what we have just heard about the changes to the achievement standards.

When you are exploring the changes, how might you approach this with your colleagues?

You may wish to use some of the strategies we have just outlined or download the QCAA resources mentioned for distribution to your teaching teams.

Use the Session 2 outline resource to record your thoughts.

Organisation of Science

Let’s now look at the content descriptions in the strands and sub-strands, which inform teaching and learning and underpin assessment.

Content descriptions specify the knowledge, understanding and skills students learn and that teachers are expected to teach.

Comparison of AC v8.4 to v9.0 documents

All of the significant changes to the content descriptions for Science are shown on comparison documents on the QCAA website.

On screen now is an example of one of these resources.

Let’s unpack this example a little more to help you understand how you can use it in your planning for the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 for Science.

Shown on screen is a snip of the Year 2 document which shows how the changes are colour-coded.

If something has been refined from Version 8.4, it may not be colour-coded, and therefore careful consideration is needed when working through a comparison document.

Of interest, however, is a change you may have noticed: verbs have been included in Science understanding and Science as a human endeavour content descriptions. This invites a more active participation in learning and guides teachers as they plan teaching and learning sequences.

Looking at the content descriptions on screen, you can see that in Version 8.4 there is a statement of fact about light, whereas in Version 9.0 students will be engaged in identifying and describing in relation to sources of light and how shadows are formed and light can be reflected and refracted.

If something has been removed from Version 8.4 and no longer appears in Version 9.0, it has been colour-coded in red.

If there is something new that has been added to Version 9.0, which you will not have done in Version 8.4, then it has been highlighted in green.

Finally, if a content description has moved year levels from Version 8.4 to Version 9.0, it has been highlighted in blue. There will also be a bold note to indicate what year level it has moved from or to.

On screen, you will note that content relating to sound that was in Year 1 in Version 8.4 has moved to Year 2 in Version 9.0.

You will also note that the effect of forces on objects’ motion has moved from Year 2 in Version 8.4 to Year 1 in Version 9.0.

Considerations for implementation year

In the first year of implementation, content movement will mean that some students will be impacted by where the content has moved to.

Think of this as the gaps caused by content being moved to a lower year level or the overlaps caused by content being moved to the next year level.

Both gaps and overlaps will appear as we transition from Version 8.4 to Version 9.0.

The snip on screen shows a resource to support teachers as they plan for this.

This resource has been added to the relevant comparison of Version 8.4 to Version 9.0 documents on the QCAA website.

Pause and reflect: Key messages

What are the key messages from this section of the curriculum that have resonated with you? Take a moment now to note down your key messages from this session.

Outline for Session 2: Formulating next steps

That concludes our review of the Curriculum elements section and the changes to achievement standards and content descriptions for Science.

Let’s pause and recap what we have considered in this second session in our Familiarisation and planning series and what we can do with our new base of knowledge to help us plan for Version 9.0.

Identifying actions for planning in your context

As we have worked through both Sessions 1 and 2, we’ve been in the review and audit phase, considering the similarities and differences we’ve observed in the Understand this learning area and Curriculum elements sections.

Let’s now turn our attention to what these similarities and differences might mean for our teaching and learning, and assessment plans to identify some actions for ourselves from here. With the information you now have from participating in these sessions, you can start to make some decisions about how much you may need to refine, realign, reimagine or remove from your current programs to meet the requirements of the revised curriculum.

Pause and reflect

Based on what you have heard about the changes, where do you need to focus your attention as you plan for the transition to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 for Science?

We’ll now pause for a moment to allow you to start that decision-making process.

Refine

Reflecting on what you’ve heard, and considering your current plans, you may be thinking that implementation of Version 9.0 in your context will largely be about making refinements to what you have already got. You’ve recognised that you have a solid foundation in your current program and the changes in Version 9.0 will only mean minor adjustments to your teaching and learning activities and assessments.

Realign

Alternatively, in other contexts, and perhaps in certain year levels only, you may need to consider realigning your activities and assessment based on changes to the content descriptions and achievement standards we’ve considered in this session.

Reimagine

Perhaps there are certain year levels where you want to reimagine some units.

You may have been reflecting on the changes we’ve discussed in Sessions 1 and 2 and decided it is an opportunity to redesign some teaching and learning activities or assessment tasks.

Therefore, has the Version 9.0 curriculum prompted some new thinking for you about how to move your plans forward?

Remove

Finally, are there some aspects that it will be necessary to remove in order to meet the requirements of the revised curriculum in your context?

Pause and reflect: Identifying actions

You may wish to use the tables in your Session 2 outline to plan your next steps.

Consider your current teaching, learning and assessment plans and use the scale (where 5 equals strongly agree) to evaluate how much you need to refine, realign, reimagine or remove material from your current plans.

Record some notes where you have identified particular actions.

Pause the session recording and take some time to determine where the majority of your work will be as you plan for Version 9.0.

Learning goal and success criteria

As the session comes to a close, let us reflect on our learning goal and success criteria.

We have built our knowledge about Australian Curriculum Version 9.0: Science and identified some actions for planning in our particular school context.

In the next session

That concludes the second session and our discussion on the Curriculum elements section of the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 for Science.

In the final session of our series on Familiarisation and planning, we will be discussing how to plan with the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.

On screen, you will see an infographic that is part of our Elements for effective planning resource.

For the next session

You may wish to access this resource to familiarise yourself with its contents prior to the next session.

On screen, you can see where this resource is available on the QCAA website.

Contact

If you have any queries regarding the information from this session, please reach out to the K–10 Curriculum and Assessment Branch​ with the contact details noted on screen.

We thank you for your time in completing this session and look forward to working with you in Session 3 of the Familiarisation and planning series.

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