This Week in HASS – term 4, week 4

This week our youngest students are looking at Aboriginal Places, while slightly older students are comparing Australia to other places around the world. Our older students are starting their class election segment of work, covering several parts of the Civics and Citizenship, as well as the History, curricula.

Foundation/Kindy/Prep to Year 3

UluruStudents in Foundation/Kindy/Prep (Unit F.4), including those in combined classes with Year 1 students (Unit F-1.4) are focusing on caring for special places by looking at Aboriginal Places around Australia. Students consider their school as a special place, the local area as a place special to the local Aboriginal group, as well as other Aboriginal Places around the country. This section of work can be backed up using the Aboriginal places included in the Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are comparing Australia with places overseas. The places chosen for comparison can be the places from the stories chosen in week 1. Year 1 students compare the landscape, weather, animals and environment between Australia and the other countries and consider how the similarities and differences influence lifestyles. Students in Year 2 undertake similar comparisons, whilst focusing on issues of scale and the impact of degree of urbanisation. Students in year 3 consider how people in each place view their local environment and how different places might be experienced differently by different people.

Years 3 to 6

Ballot boxStudents in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are starting a segment where they will conduct a Class Election. In this first lesson of the 4 lesson activity, students will be selected to campaign for particular issues. These issues should result in actual results for the class in the form of a ‘political promise’, such as a day without homework or a special class activity. It is recommended that the teachers allow students to suggest issues, which can then be negotiated with the teacher. Students will be chosen to lead campaigns on each issue. Students in Years 3, 4 and 5 also consider Environmental Issues, and create a poster highlighting an environmental issue. Students in Year 6 consider Political Issues and make a poster on one of these. Teachers and students will also use resources from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) during the course of this unit. Students also continue to monitor the growth of their plant, as their Scientific Investigation.

 

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 3

This week our youngest students are looking at special places locally and around Australia, slightly older students are considering plants and animals around the world, while our older students are studying aspects of diversity in Australia.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Green turtle over coral reefStudents in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and combined classes with Year 1 (F-1.4) are thinking about special places this week – what places are special to them and their families? What places are special in Australia? This focus gives the teacher a chance to guide the students through the process of considering natural beauty and how we and other agencies, such as the government, can look after special places and places of natural beauty. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their focus on the stories of families from around the world from week 1. This week Year 1 and 2 students are focusing on plants and animals from the places described in the stories in week 1. Students in Year 3 also consider the role of climate in the diversity of plants and animals.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are studying different aspects of diversity this week. Students in year 3 are looking at Aboriginal people and the environment, in the context of climate. Students in Year 4 consider both Aboriginal people and technology with respect to the Australian environment. Students in year 5 are starting to consider how Aboriginal people’s interactions with the environment over millennia have set the stage for the recognition of Native Title in Australia; while students in year 6 examine the history of Aboriginal suffrage and Native Title in Australia. These studies of diversity in Australia provide information for the students to start planning a celebration of identity and diversity in the last week. Students in Years 3 to 6 also continue with their scientific experiment of growing a plant.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 2

This week our youngest students are looking at transport in the past, slightly older students consider places that are special to people around the world and our oldest students are considering reasons why people might leave their homes to become migrants.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Sugarloaf MountainStudents in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.4), as well as those in combined Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 classes (Unit F-1.4), are considering how people used to get around in the past. How did students get to school 100 years ago? Students also think about how these modes of transport moved. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their study of families around the world by looking at places that are special to these families. Students will also find these places on the OpenSTEM® “Our World” Blackline World Map, practising their Geography skills. Different year levels will consider different aspects of these places, for example, year 3 students will consider the distance, both geographic and cultural, between these places and Australia; year 2 students will consider which places are natural and which are built and their significance for the people who live there, while year 1 students will compare these places to places that their own families find special.

Years 3 to 6

Refugee childStudents in Year 3 doing Unit 3.8, Celebrating Diversity, will choose a migrant group to study and consider what it is like for people to leave their home country and move to another place. They will also examine the contributions which their group has made to Australian society and look at celebrations special to that group. Students in Year 4 (Unit 4.4) will consider what factors influence people to leave a place and choose somewhere else to live. Students will also examine contact between different groups in Australia and the influence migrants have had on Australian society. Students in year 5 (Unit 5.4) choose a group of migrants to study and consider the changing factors that have influenced migration to Australia over time. Students in year 6 (Unit 6.4) choose a migrant group to study and consider the conditions in the country of origin of the migrant group, how those conditions influenced the migration of those people and how those factors have changed through the course of Australian history. These examinations prepare students to consider the nature of diversity in Australian society in the next lesson.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 1

The last term of the school year – traditionally far too short and crowded with many events, both at and outside of school. OpenSTEM’s® Understanding Our World® program for HASS + Science ensures that not only are the students kept engaged with interesting material, but that teachers can relax, knowing that all curriculum-relevant material is covered by the middle of the term, ensuring enough time for marking and preparation of reports. Furthermore, following the OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program across an entire year guarantees that your students have met the curriculum requirements for all of History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business (HASS) and Science for the whole year, matched to their year-level, even in multi-year level classes. This term our youngest students are reviewing some of the material covered earlier in the year and then preparing for a Play (with props and dress-ups) matched to this material. Students in Years 1 to 3 examine modern families around the world and then prepare a short presentation or dramatisation based on what they have learned. Older students are studying migrants and cultural identity and using the information to plan an end-of-year celebration of cultural diversity. These students also hold a class election, with preferential voting.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students – those in Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and combined classes with Year 1 (Unit F-1.4) are start the term by reviewing Celebrations (this is a great time to grab that Class Calendar and look ahead to Christmas!). They then examine how people celebrated these occasions in the past. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) start looking at Modern Families Around the World. This resource includes stories about families in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Teachers can choose from these stories to tailor the unit to the class’s needs and interests. Students are encouraged to consider family and community structures around the world and compare them to their own.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) start the year by examining their own Ancestry, prior to looking at Migration and Diversity. Students interact with the OpenSTEM® “Our World” map, in order to gain an understanding of the wide range of places around the world in which Australians have their ancestry. Students in Year 3 will be focusing on diversity in Australian society over the next few weeks and will choose a group of migrants to study in more detail. Resources on several migrant groups are available to complement this unit. Students in Year 4 will focus on Australia’s connections to other parts of the world through time and will study either a group of Aboriginal people, or members of other groups with whom Aboriginal people had early contact, such as Macassan traders, or Europeans. Students in Year 5 will focus on migrants from European countries, such as the Irish, Greek or Italian communities. Students in Year 6 will focus on migrants from Asian countries, such as the Chinese or Vietnamese communities.

Students in Years 3 to 6 will also grow a plant from a seed, as a Science experiment, linked to their HASS studies. Students have the option to choose a plant brought to Australia by the migrant group or other community which they are studying. They will investigate when this plant arrived in Australia, from where it came, what conditions it needs to thrive and what cultural importance it has for the group. The linking of these areas of focus helps add additional relevance and immediacy to the curriculum material for students.

 

Stone Axes and Aboriginal Stories from Victoria

Yarra River
Yarra River. Photo Nick Carson.

In the most recent edition of Australian Archaeology, the journal of the Australian Archaeological Association, there is a paper examining the exchange of stone axes in Victoria and correlating these patterns of exchange with Aboriginal stories in the 19th century. This paper is particularly timely with the passing of legislation in the Victorian Parliament on 21 September 2017, concerning management of the Yarra River. This legislation, the first in Victorian state legislation to include phrases in an indigenous language (Woi-wurrung, the language of the Wurundjeri people – custodians of the Yarra River) recognises the connections between the river and local indigenous people. The Act contains a strategic plan for the river’s management and protection, and provides for a council (the Birrarung – a local indigenous name for the Yarra River – Council), which must include at least 2 traditional owners, to advise and advocate for the river.

Port Phillip 10000 yrs ago
Port Phillip during the Ice Age

The Yarra River runs south-west from the Australian Alps and enters Port Phillip Bay in the city of Melbourne. During the Ice Age, when global sea levels were lower, the river drained directly into Bass Strait (see image to right). Port Phillip bay was flooded by rising sea levels at the end of the Ice Age, reaching its present extent about 8,000 years ago. The bay was briefly drained when the entrance was blocked by a sand bar between 800 and 1,000 CE (about 1,000 years ago). Aboriginal stories recall this well: in 1846, the colonial magistrate, William Hull recorded that local Aboriginal people told him that they:

recollected when Hobson’s Bay [Port Phillip Bay] was a kangaroo ground; they say, “Plenty catch kangaroo, and plenty catch opossum there;” and [an informant] assured me that the passage up the bay, through which the ships came, is the River Yarra, and that river once went out at the heads, but that the sea broke in, and that Hobson’s Bay, which was once hunting ground, became what it is

This detailed knowledge of the now submerged area shows the depth of Aboriginal oral traditions, passed down in stories and lore, as part of their ongoing management of the Australian landscape. Many of these stories had intricate myths, which nevertheless included information on how to manage the environment. It appears that the exchange of axes, initially of stone, and later of iron, was part of these stories. The best raw material for making stone axes (and thus the best stone axes) came from the stone quarry at Mount William, near Lancefield about 78 km north of Melbourne. The local Wurundjeri people made very fine greenstone axes, which were traded over huge distances, some as far as 1,000 km, in the period before Europeans arrived in Australia.

William Buckley
William Buckley

In 1803, the British tried to start a convict settlement on Port Phillip Bay, near modern Sorrento, but within a few months the convicts were moved to Tasmania when a lack of water and conflict with local Aboriginal groups made the settlement unviable. During the upheavals, some convicts escaped, one of whom was William Buckley, who then lived with local Aboriginal people, the Wadawurrung, for the next 32 years. After Melbourne was settled and Buckley had rejoined European society, he worked as a translator for the missionary George Langhorne, who wrote down some of Buckley’s stories. One of these mentioned axes (or “tomahawks”):

There are… two imaginary Beings whom [the Wadawurrung] treat with a certain degree of respect. One of these is supposed to reside in a certain marsh and to be the author of all the Songs which he makes known to them through his Sons. The other is supposed to have charge of the Pole or Pillar by which the Sky is propped. Just before the Europeans came to Port Phillip this personage was the subject of general conversation it was reported among them that he had sent a message to the Tribes to send a certain number of Tomahawks to enable him to prepare a new prop for the Sky as the other had become rotten and their destruction was inevitable should the sky fall on them to prevent this and to supply as great a number of iron Tomahawks as possible

Very similar stories are repeated in a range of sources, including the records of A.W. Howitt, a 19th century anthropologist, who interviewed William Barak, a senior clan head of the Woiwurrung, who had been about 11 years old (and a witness to events) when John Batman signed his treaty with clan leaders. Barak’s uncle was custodian of the Mount William stone axe quarry, a title which Barak later inherited. Howitt recorded:

They believed too that the sky was propped up by poles where it rested on the mountains in the north-east. Before the “white men came to Melbourne” a message was passed from tribe to tribe, until it reached the Wurunjerri, that the props were becoming rotten, and that unless tomahawks were at once sent up to cut new ones, the sky would fall and burst, and all the people would be drowned

Aboriginal stone axe
Aboriginal ground stone axe

A similar story was recorded by Ethel Shaw, the daughter of the station manager at Yelta Station (also a mission) on the Murray River, about 500km north-west of Melbourne, home of the Marawara people, as having been told to her father in the late 19th century. These stories were linked to the flood stories, which are very common in Aboriginal traditions, and relate in great detail which areas were flooded. Various mythological reasons are given for these inundations, including that the sky fell, causing the clouds to burst open when they hit the ground and release all the rainwater in huge floods.

Stories also record the efforts of ancestors to manage the water flow down from the mountains, by cutting channels for water to flow – an activity which is described as “using up too many stone axes”. As custodians of the land, each Aboriginal group had responsibilities related to managing the environment and trying to ensure that it remained healthy and stable. It appears that the need for stone axes in the mountains, some distance from the Mount William quarry, was articulated in stories, which ensured that stone axes were supplied to the mountains, thus helping maintain exchange networks over long distances and ensuring equitable access to resources.

We now know that ground stone axes date back 65,000 years to the earliest evidence of Aboriginal settlement in Australia. Over the millennia, especially following the huge climate changes at the end of the Ice Age, Aboriginal people developed ways of managing the environment and exchanging resources. The framework for these activities was a rich tradition of stories and mythology, which helped people to relate to their world and their role within it. We are still learning to interpret all the information within these stories.

What Makes Humans Different From Most Other Mammals?

Bonobos interacting
Bonobos interacting

Well, there are several things that makes us different from other mammals – although perhaps fewer than one might think. We are not unique in using tools, in fact we discover more animals that use tools all the time – even fish! We pride ourselves on being a “moral animal”, however fairness, reciprocity, empathy and cooperation have been demonstrated in apes and monkeys. Genetically we differ by only 1.09% from gorillas, 1.14% from chimpanzees, 2.46% from Old World monkeys and we share 50% of our DNA with bananas!

Malaria mosquito
Malaria mosquito

Recent research has demonstrated one of the ways that we are unique and this research is being used to help us to understand our human lineage, as well as giving us new insights into some diseases, such as cancer. The key to this discussion is a set of complex sugar chains (or carbohydrates), called glycans, which occur on the surface of cells. In particular, a glycan called Neu5Gc. It seems that at some point in the distant past, the malaria parasite used this glycan to anchor itself to the cells of primates and infect them with malaria, and human ancestors responded by losing the glycan, thus becoming immune to malaria. Unfortunately for us, a new type of malaria found a new glycan to attach itself to (this one is called Neu5Ac), which meant that humans could catch the new strain of malaria. This explains why humans are immune to the strains of malaria which affect great apes, such as chimpanzees, but are susceptible to strains of malaria which don’t affect the apes.

Humans became almost unique amongst mammals in not having the glycan Neu5Gc. It is thought that this mutation occurred between 2 and 3 million years ago and might have contributed to humans developing their own distinct lineage. Part of the glycan also becomes integrated as a molecule in bone, which gave researches hope that they might be able to find traces of the molecule from Neu5Gc in fossil bones. Whilst we have been successful in extracting ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones as old as 430,000 years and from horse bones as old as 700,000 years, fossils that are millions of years old have not been able to yield enough viable DNA using current techniques.

Cave bear skull
Cave bear skull

So researcher Ajit Varki, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, started with 50,000 year old bones from a cave bear, from which they were able to extract the molecule. Varki then approached Maeve Leakey, Director of Field Research at the Turkana Basin Institute, who gave them a fragment of bone from a 4 million year old buffalo-like animal, found in the same layer as some hominin fossils. Once again the researchers were able to extract the molecule left in the bone by Nue5Gc. It is now hoped that they will be able to test fossil hominid bones in order to see which ones lacked Neu5Gc (and are thus likely to be our direct ancestors) and which ones had it.

Modern humans usually do have trace amounts of Neu5Gc, thought to enter our bodies from eating the meat of animals which have the glycan. Our bodies produce a slight immune response to the glycan, which might aggravate diseases such as cancer, opening new avenues for research and proving how research in one area of science, such as paleoanthropology, can have effects in other areas, such as medicine. It might therefore also be possible to see how much meat our ancestors included in their diets – always a controversial topic.