Understanding Our World®

The OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® Program for Primary Schools is comprehensive, covering all of the Australian Curriculum v2018/05 Humanities and Social Sciences  (HASS) + Science curricula in Primary Schools:

  • Foundation (K/Prep) to Year 2 covers History and Geography + Science
  • Years 3 and 4 cover History, Geography and Civics & Citizenship + Science
  • Years 5 and 6 cover History, Geography, Civics & Citizenship and Economics & Business + Science

Assessment tasks are aligned with achievement standards in the Australian Curriculum.

There are links to elements of the English and Maths curricula.

Principal Cheryl Rowe of Seville Road State School writes:

We have been working with OpenSTEM this year because we were searching for a program that was relevant, engaging, allowed for higher order thinking and age appropriate pedagogies and provided greater opportunities for inquiry than the C2C units. It certainly provides opportunities for this.

As with anything, it depends on the teacher, but we are very happy with this program – vertical and horizontal alignment, support from OpenSTEM, the curiosity it develops and the sense of community and humanity that is embedded in the units. There are opportunities for “add ons” – an example is the “archaeological dig” our classes participated in. This was a wonderful learning experience that invoked excitement, questioning skills and problem solving.

Save Time, Cover More

Running an integrated program across multiple curriculum areas naturally saves time in the classroom, while at the same time linking in better with the way the real world works.

Year
level		Minimum hours/week
(all History/Geography)		Optimal hours/week
incl. all Science
F0.51
10.51
20.51
312.5
412.5
513
613

As teachers, we definitely save on time both for planning and assessment with the integrated programs as there are fewer separate units to plan for.
— Trent Perry, Year 5/6 Teacher

Interesting & Hands-On

The Understanding Our World program includes a range of hands-on activities to make the subject matter come to life for the students and to address the range of different learning styles, including kinaesthetic, visual/spatial, auditory, textual and tactile learners.

The material is much more interesting. When I discussed a topic later in the term, I found that the students were remembering more.
— Laura Davidson, Year 2/3 Teacher

The program covers the Knowledge and Understanding and Inquiry and Skills strands of the curriculum, focusing on Australian history within a global context. As prescribed in the curriculum priorities, Aboriginal culture and knowledge is an important part of the program.

Exploring Our World: History/Geography (HASS) + Science Program (Primary)

Contents

Using a variety of resources including hands-on experiences and digital technologies, this program covers:

  • movements of people across the world in different time periods;
  • their impact on the environments they encountered;
  • world explorers;
  • Australian pre-history;
  • the settlement of Australia;
  • development of Australian identities;
  • archaeology as a tool for understanding our past.

The more I see our teachers and students work with the program, the more convinced I am that we have a great partnership and are doing the right thing by the kids.
— Cheryl Rowe, Principal

Year 1-3 Building Stonehenge Activity
Year 1-3 Building Stonehenge Activity (Photo: Seville Rd State School)

Availability and Pricing

school iconThe OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program is designed to be run entirely by the classroom teacher or tutor. Units can be purchased separately or discounted through our subscription model, with option for Professional Development introduction and guidance (on-line interactive training, or on-site), and review/feedback sessions each term.

Please download our OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World®- Unit Overview document (PDF).

Getting started

We’d love to welcome you as a new customer!

Ordering one unit allows you to try out our materials with minimal initial outlay. A term unit for one year level costs $49.50 for non-subscribers, easily affordable from a classroom budget! When viewing an individual product or category, the online store will inform you of the possible savings with an active subscription. We believe you won’t regret your first step, and then either you or the school can move up to a subscription before ordering additional units!

After purchase, the PDF materials can be downloaded from the site (optionally many files together in a ZIP). Each PDF is tagged with your name and organisation so it’s clear where the items are licensed to, as well as the year so you can verify they’re current.

Order your unit of choice today!

Did you know?

We operate a Referral system – if you know an existing OpenSTEM customer, ask them for their referral coupon code to receive a 10% discount on your first purchase!

Free Samples

You can download free samples of some of our PDF Resources, a Teacher Handbook and a Student Workbook from our Curriculum Samples page. This does not require a login or any other details.

In addition, every one of our PDFs has a preview of its 1st page (+ the 4th page, if it’s longer) which you can find on any product page.

Unit & Year Bundles

Yr6U3-YoungAustralia-StudentWorkbook-01The Teacher Bundles for these subjects provide teachers with complete bundles:

  • teacher handbook with lesson plans;
  • student workbooks + homework sheets;
  • model answers;
  • assessment guides;
  • a wealth of resource and activity PDFs.

The program reduces my planning time as I only have to plan and research for one integrated unit.
— Trent Perry, Teacher

See the curriculum strands for each unit on our Curriculum Mapping page. Unit content and assessment are up-to-date and aligned with the Australian Curriculum v2018/05.

Multi-Year Units for Small Schools

For very small schools with composite classes of three or more year-levels, we have special multi-year unit bundles available that provide a teacher with a suitable unit across multiple year levels while also delivering pricing appropriate for the school’s small scale. A whole-school implementation can cost as little as $400 + GST.

We currently have multi-year bundles available for three-year composite classrooms Year 1-3 and Year 4-6. Upon request we can also make available bundles for four-year composite classrooms comprising Year F-3 and Year 3-6. We can do this because our materials were specifically designed to enable multi-year integration. A great relief for any teacher!

Year Bundles

Year bundles contain all 4 units for a year level, at a reduced price compared to the individual unit bundles. Units can also be purchased individually (see below).

Foundation Year (Prep/Kindy/Reception) Units

Stand-alone

For integration with Year 1 and above

Year 1 Units

Year 2 Units

Year 3 Units

Stand-alone or for integration with Year 2 and below

For integration with year 4 and above

Year 4 Units

Year 5 Units

Year 6 Units

Contact us for further details about this program, and any questions you might have.

 Additional Resources

OpenSTEM A0 world map 2018-02a

Each class uses an A0 size blackline world map  (as shown above) – printed on strong Tyvek™, this map is available from our store.

Optional Extras

The following options can be added to the basic program, facilitated by OpenSTEM subject matter experts:

  • Archaeology Workshop
    Archaeology Workshop (photo: Seville Rd State School)

    Introduction to Archaeology and Fossils Workshop – an interactive 1.5h experience with our archaeologist for students in all year levels of Primary or High School (maximum 100 students per workshop).
    This workshop discusses the basic concepts in the discipline of archaeology and provides a very brief introduction to palaeontology, with examples of some fossil hominin skulls printed on a 3D printer from scans of actual fossils.

  • DSC_0251 - 20pct
    Learning about grids at the dig.

    Archaeological Dig – in this 6 week program, we set up a mock archaeological dig in a sandpit (or long jump pit) so that students can get a taste of life as an archaeologist.  Much more than just an interactive experience, we run the archaeological dig as a full scientific investigation.  Students cover not only the basics of archaeology, but also how to conduct a scientific investigation.

    The Archaeological Dig program can also be used as an optional extra in History/Geography (HASS) Unit 3 of any year from Foundation to Year 6.  For this case, modified teacher handbooks and student workbooks of Unit 3 are used to fully incorporate the Archaeological Dig program.

Credits

The OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program is developed under the leadership of Dr Claire Reeler.