This Week in HASS | OpenSTEM Pty Ltd

This Week in HASS – term 1, week 7

This week our youngest students are looking in depth at different types of celebrations; slightly older students are examining how people got around in the ‘Olden Days’; and our older primary students have some extra time to finish their activities from last week.

Foundation to Year 3

In the stand-alone Foundation (Prep) unit (F.1), students are discussing celebrations – which ones do we recognise in Australia, how these compare with celebrations overseas, and what were these celebrations like in days gone by. Our integrated Foundation (Prep) unit (F.5) and students in Years 1 (1.1), 2 (2.1) and 3 (3.1), are examining Transport in the Past – how did their grandparents get around? How did people get around 100 years ago? How did kids get to school? How did people do the shopping? Students even get to dream about how we might get around in the future…

Years 3 to 6

At OpenSTEM we recognise that good activities, which engage students and allow for real learning, take time. Nobody likes to get really excited about something and then be rushed through it and quickly moved on to something else. This part of the unit has lots of hands-on activities for Year 3 (3.5) students in an integrated class with Year 4, as well as Year 4 (4.1), 5 (5.1) and 6 (6.1) students. In recognition of that, two weeks are allowed for the students to really get into making Ice Ages and mud bricks, and working out how to survive the challenges of living in a Neolithic village – including how to trade, count and write. Having enough time allows for consolidation of learning, as well as allowing teachers to potentially split the class into different groups engaged in different activities, and then rotate the groups through the activities over a 2 week period.

The Week in HASS – term 1, week 6

HASS students have a global focus this week. The younger students are looking at calendars, celebrations and which countries classmates are connected to, around the world. Older students are starting to explore what happened at the end of the Ice Age and the beginnings of agriculture and trade. These students will also be applying the scientific method to practical examinations – creating their own mini Ice Ages in a bowl and making mud bricks.

Foundation to Year 3

Our standalone Foundation/Prep classes (F.1) are looking at calendars and celebrations this week, starting to explore the world beyond their own family and gain an identity relative to each other. Integrated Foundation/Prep (F.5) and Year 1 (1.1) classes; as well as Year 1 (1.1), 2 (2.1) and 3 (3.1) classes are examining our OpenSTEM blackline world map and putting coloured dots on all the countries that they and their families are connected to, either through relatives, or by having lived there themselves. It is through this sort of exercise that students can start to understand the concept of the “global family”.

Year 3 to Year 6

Students in years 3 (3.5), 4 (4.1), 5 (5.1) and 6 (6.1) are consolidating their learning and expanding into subjects, such as Science and Economics and Business. The ever-popular Ice Ages and Mud Bricks activity links to core Science curricular strands and allows students to explore their learning in very tactile ways. Whilst undertaking the activity, students make a mini Ice Age in a bowl, attempting to predict what will happen to their clay landscape when it is flooded and frozen, and then comparing these predictions to their recorded observations, during empirical testing. Students also make their own mud bricks by hand, once again predicting how to make the bricks strongest and testing different construction techniques. We have even had classes test the strength of their mud brick walls under simulated flood conditions, working inside a tidy tray.

Students move on from studying the Ice Age, looking at what happened as the climate changed and global sea levels rose. The pressures that these changes brought to people’s lives is examined by looking at the origins of agriculture with domestic plants and animals. Students consider how people needed to wok together to survive. The cooperative Trade and Barter activity allows students to role play life in a Neolithic village. Faced with a range of challenges, such as floods and droughts, students discover how to prioritise their needs for food to survive the winter, against their wants. They also discover that trade, counting and writing all grew out of the needs for people to exchange items and help each other to survive. This activity covers all the basic concepts in the Economics and Business curriculum, whilst providing a context that is meaningful to the students and their own experiences. Replicating the way that people developed trade, counting and writing in the historic period, the students’ experiences during the Trade and Barter activity lay the foundations for a deeper understanding of the basic concepts of Economics and Business.

This Week in HASS – term 1, week 5

This week students are exploring a vast range of topics, across the year levels. From using a torch and a tennis ball to investigate how the Earth experiences Day and Night to case studies on natural disasters, celebrations and indigenous peoples, there is a broad range of topics to spark interest.

Foundation to Year 3

Our youngest students (Foundation/Prep – Unit F.1) are talking about where they, and other members of their family, were born. Once again, this activity gets them interacting with maps and thinking about how we represent locations, whilst reinforcing their sense of identity and how they relate to others. Students in Years 1 to 3 (Units 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1) are using a torch and a tennis ball to investigate how the Earth experiences Night and Day, Seasons, Equinoxes and Solstices. This activity ties in what we experience as weather, seasons and their related celebrations to the Physics of how it all works, allowing students to draw connections between what they experience and what they are learning, and providing essential context for the more abstract knowledge. Teachers can easily tailor this activity to the needs of each class and explore the concepts in as much detail as required.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 to 6 (Units 3.5, 4.1, 5.1 and 6.1) are looking at a range of different case studies pertinent to their year-level curriculum requirements, this week. Year 3 students are examining celebrations in Australia and around the world (the Celebrations Around the World resource has been updated this year, and contains some new material, please check that you have the latest copy, and re-download it if necessary) and Year 4 students examine areas of natural beauty in Australia. Year 5 students are looking at the effects of natural disasters, especially here in Australia. Case studies on floods, such as the Brisbane Floods of 1893, and bushfires, such as the infamous Black Friday fires in Victoria, are available for more in depth study by teachers and students wishing to explore the topic in more detail. Year 6 students are examining Indigenous groups of people from Australia and Asia. A range of case studies are available for this topic, from groups within Australia, holding Native Title, such as the Quandamooka People, to groups from the mountains of Southern China, such as the Yi people. The larger number of case studies available, which can be found in our store resource category Indigenous Peoples, allows for Year 6 students to pursue more individual lines of enquiry, suited to their developing abilities.

This Week in HASS – term 1, week 4

This week the Understanding Our World program for primary schools has younger students looking at time passing, both in their own lives and as marked by others, including the seasons recognised by different Aboriginal groups. Older students are looking at how Aboriginal people interacted with the Australian environment, as it changed at the end of the Ice Age, and how they learnt to manage the environment and codified that knowledge into their lore.

Foundation to Year 3

This week our standalone Foundation classes (Unit F.1) are thinking about what they were like as babies. They are comparing photographs or drawings of themselves as babies, with how they are now. This is a great week to involve family members and carers into class discussions, if appropriate. Students in multi-age classes and Years 1 to 3 (Units F.5, 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1) , are examining how weather and seasons change throughout the year and comparing our system of seasons with those used by different groups of Aboriginal people in different parts of Australia. Students can compare these seasons to the weather where they live and think about how they would divide the year into seasons that work where they live. Students can also discuss changes in weather over time with older members of the community.

Years 3 to 6

Older students, having followed the ancestors of Aboriginal people all the way to Australia, are now examining how the climate changed in Australia after the Ice Age, and how this affected Aboriginal people. They learn how Aboriginal people adapted to their changing environment and learned to manage it in a sustainable way. This vitally important knowledge about how to live with, and manage, the Australian environment, was codified into Aboriginal lore and custom and handed down in stories and laws, from generation to generation. Students start to examine the idea of Country/Place, in this context.

This Week in HASS – term 1, week 3

This is a global week in HASS for primary students. Our youngest students are marking countries around the world where they have family members, slightly older students are examining the Mayan calendar, while older students get nearer to Australia, examining how people reached Australia and encountered its unique wildlife.

Foundation to Year 3

Foundation students doing the Me and My Global Family unit (F.1) are working with the world map this week, marking countries where they have family members with coloured sticky dots. Those doing the My Global Family unit (F.6), and students in Years 1 to 3 (Units 1.1; 2.1 and 3.1), are examining the Mayan calendar this week. The Mayan calendar is a good example of an alternative type of calendar, because it is made up of different parts, some of which do not track the seasons, and is cyclical, based on nested circles. The students learn about the 2 main calendars used by the Mayans – a secular and a celebratory sacred calendar, as well as how the Mayans divided time into circles running at different scales – from the day to the millennium and beyond. And no, in case anyone is still wondering – they did not predict the end of the world in 2012, merely the end of one particular long-range cycle, and hence, the beginning of a new one…

Years 3 to 6

Lake Mungo, where people lived at least 40,000 years ago.

Students doing the Exploring Climates unit (3.6), and those in Years 4 to 6 (Units 4.1, 5.1 and 6.1), are examining how people reached Australia during the Ice Age, and what Australia was like when they arrived. People had to cross at least 90 km of open sea to reach Australia, even during the height of the Ice Age, and this sea gap led to the relative isolation of animals in Australia from others in Asia. This phenomenon was first recorded by Alfred Wallace, who drew a line on a map marking the change in fauna. This line became known as the Wallace line, as a result. Students will also examine the archaeological evidence, and sites of the first people in Australia, ancestors of Aboriginal people. The range of sites across Australia, with increasingly early dates, amply demonstrate the depth of antiquity of Aboriginal knowledge and experience in Australia.

This Week in HASS: term 1 week 2

Foundation to Year 3

Our standalone Foundation (Prep/Kindy etc) students are introduced to the World Map this week, as they start putting stickers on it, showing where in the world they and their families come from – the origin of the title of this unit (Me and My Global Family). This helps students to feel connected with each other and to start to understand both the notion of the ‘global family’, as well as the idea that places can be represented by pictures (maps). Of course, we don’t expect most 5 year olds to understand the world map, but the sooner they start working with it, the deeper the familiarity and understanding later on.

Year 1-3 Building Stonehenge Activity - OpenSTEM History/Geography program for Primary Schools — Students building Stonehenge with blocks

All the other younger students are learning about movements of celestial bodies (the Earth and Moon, as they go around the Sun and each other) and that people have measured time in the past with reference to both the Sun and the Moon – Solar and Lunar calendars. To make these ideas more concrete, students study ancient calendars, such as Stonehenge, Newgrange and Abu Simbel, and take part in an activity building a model of Stonehenge from boxes or blocks.

Years 3 to 6

Our older primary students are going back into the Ice Age (and who wouldn’t want to, in this weather!), as they explore the routes of modern humans leaving Africa, as part of understanding how people reached Australia. Aboriginal people arrived in Australia as part of the waves of modern humans spreading across the world. However, the Australia they encountered was very different from today. It was cold, dry and very dusty, inhabited by giant Ice Age animals (the Demon Duck of Doom is always a hot favourite with the students!) and overall, a pretty dangerous place. We challenge students to imagine life in those times, and thereby start to understand the basis for some of the Dreamtime stories, as well as the long and intricate relationship between Aboriginal people and the Australian environment.