Tag: class museum

This Week in HASS – term 3, week 8

This week our younger students are putting together a Class Museum, while older students are completing their Scientific Report.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Students in Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Units F.3 and F-1.3), as well as those in Years 1 (Unit 1.3). 2 (Unit 2.3) and 3 (Unit 3.3) are all putting together Class Museums of items of historical interest, either found at school or brought from home. Since the activity is similar (although explored to different depths by different year levels), there is the option for teachers to combine efforts across classes, and even across year level to make a more substantial Museum display. The Class Museum is an activity designed to assist students to consider how life has changed and what aspects are similar and different. Students should consider which items are easily recognisable and which are harder to identify. They can practise different points of view by imagining themselves using these objects and living in the past. Teachers can link this back to the stories read in the first weeks of term and allow students to compare their own lives with different types of past experiences of daily and family life. Museum Labels and a resource on Museums are provided to gain an understanding of how and why objects are displayed in museums.

Years 3 to 6

The Foundation of PerthOlder students are completing their main term research projects by finishing their Scientific Reports. This week students are concentrating on finishing their reports, drawing their Conclusions, making sure that their Bibliography is correct and formatting their report, including images, graphs and tables. For Year 3 students (Unit 3.7), the report will cover an aspect of the history of their capital city or local community. Year 4 students (Unit 4.3) are reporting on an investigation into Australia at the time of European contact and the start of European settlement. Students in Year 5 (Unit 5.3) are examining topics from Australian colonial history, and students in Year 6 (Unit 6.3) are researching topics from Federation and early 20th century Australian history. There is plenty of scope for incorporating digital technologies into the final version of the scientific report, especially for students in the upper year levels.  Formatting a document correctly is an essential skill and addresses many aspects of the digital technologies curriculum, adding the possibility of another curriculum section for the teacher to mark as done for the term.

OpenStem’s Understanding Our World program ensures that student’s work for assessment is completed well before the end of term, decreasing the rush to get everything assessed in the final weeks of term. It is our aim to support teachers and facilitate the processes involved in both teaching and assessment.

This Week in HASS – term 3, week 7

This week students are starting the final sections of their research projects and Scientific Reports. Our younger students are also preparing to set up a Class Museum.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students (Unit F.3) also complete a Scientific Report. By becoming familiar with the overall layout and skills associated with the scientific process at a young age, by the time students reach high school the process will be second-nature and their skills fine-tuned. This week teachers discuss how Science helps us find out things about the world. Teachers and students are also collecting material to form a Class Museum. Students in integrated, multi-age classes (Unit F-1.3) and Years 1 (Unit 1.3), 2 (Unit 2.3) and 3 (Unit 3.3) are undertaking a similar set of activities this week, however, in increasing depth as appropriate for each year level, and with different subject matter, according to the class focus. By Year 3 (Unit 3.3), students are writing full sentences and even short paragraphs, focusing on a topic in the local history of their community or capital city, in their Scientific Report.

Years 3 to 6

Students in integrated Year 3/4 classes (Unit 3.7) and those in Year 4 (Unit 4.3), 5 (Unit 5.3) and 6 (Unit 6.3) are concentrating on analysis of data this week, for the final stages of their Scientific Report. It is expected that students have gathered information on their chosen research topic on an aspect of Australian history for the term by now and are analysing this information in order to answer their research questions and start to draw conclusions about their topic. This week’s lessons focus on pulling everything together towards a a full, final report. Teachers are able to quickly identify which students need extra guidance by referring to the Student Workbook, which tracks each student’s progress on a weekly basis. Thus feedback, intervention and additional support can be offered timeously and before the term marks are collated, allowing each student the chance to achieve their best.

Each year level focuses on a different aspect of Australian history and enough topics are supplied to ensure that each student is working on new information, even in multi-age classes. Instead of finding a continual stream of new, novel HASS units, or repeating material some students have covered before, OpenSTEM’s Understanding Our World® program allows teachers to tailor the same units to look different for each year level, thus ensuring that students are practising their skills on new material, as well as covering year-level appropriate skills and content. By the time students are in Year 6, they will have covered the full suite of Australian History up to the 20th century, as well as having studied each continent in turn. Civics and Citizenship and Economics and Business for part of this integrated whole and do not have to be taught separately. They will be ready to enter high school with a full suite of honed research and problem-solving skills, as well as having covered the core material necessary.