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New Dates for Earliest Archaeological Site in Aus!

This morning news was released of a date of 65,000 years for archaeological material at the site of Madjedbebe rock shelter in the Jabiluka mineral lease area, surrounded by Kakadu National Park. The site is on the land of the Mirarr people, who have partnered with archaeologists from the University of Queensland for this investigation. It has also produced evidence of the earliest use of ground-stone tool technology, the oldest seed-grinding tools in Australia and stone points, which may have been used as spears. Most fascinating of all, there is the jawbone of a Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine (which was found across continental Australia during the Ice Age) coated in a red pigment, thought to be the reddish rock, ochre. There is much evidence of use of ochre at the site, with chucks and ground ochre found throughout the site. Ochre is often used for rock art and the area has much beautiful rock art, so we can deduce that these rock art traditions are as old as the occupation of people in Australia, i.e. at least 65,000 years old! The decoration of the jawbone hints at a complex realm of abstract thought, and possibly belief, amongst our distant ancestors – the direct forebears of modern Aboriginal people.

Placing the finds from Madjebebe rock shelter within the larger context, the dating, undertaken by Professor Zenobia Jacobs from the University of Wollongong, shows that people were living at the site during the Ice Age, a time when many, now-extinct, giant animals roamed Australia; and the tiny Homo floresiensis was living in Indonesia. These finds show that the ancestors of Aboriginal people came to Australia with much of the toolkit of their rich, complex lives already in place. This technology, extremely advanced for the time, allowed them to populate the entire continent of Australia, first managing to survive in the hash Ice Age environment and then also managing to adapt to the enormous changes in sea level, climate and vegetation at the end of the Ice Age.

The team of archaeologists working at Madjebebe rock shelter, in conjunction with Mirarr traditional owners, are finding all sorts of wonderful archaeological material, from which they can deduce much rich, detailed information about the lives of the earliest people in Australia. We look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Students who are interested, especially those in Years 4, 5 and 6, can read more about these sites and the animals and lives of people in Ice Age Australia in our resources People Reach Australia, Early Australian Sites, Ice Age Animals and the Last Ice Age, which are covered in Units 4.1, 5.1 and 6.1.

This Week in HASS – term 3, week 2

This week older students start their research projects for the term, whilst younger students are doing the Timeline Activity. Our youngest students are thinking about the places where people live and can join together with older students as buddies to Build A Humpy together.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Students in stand-alone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.3), or those in classes integrated with Year 1 (Unit F-1.3) are considering different types of homes this week. They will think about where the people in the stories from last week live and compare that to their own houses. They can consider how homes were different in the past and how our homes help us meet our basic needs. There is an option this week for these students to buddy with older students, especially those in Years 4, 5 and 6, to undertake the Building A Humpy activity together. In this activity students collect materials to build a replica Aboriginal humpy or shelter outside. Many teachers find that both senior primary and the younger students get a lot of benefit from helping each other with activities, enriching the learning experience. The Building a Humpy activity is one where the older students can assist the younger students with the physical requirements of building a humpy, whilst each group considers aspects of the activity relevant to their own studies, and comparing past ways of life to their own.

Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.3), 2 (Unit 2.3) and 3 (Unit 3.3) are undertaking the Timeline Activity this week. This activity is designed to complement the concept of the number line from the Mathematics curriculum, whilst helping students to learn to visualise the abstract concepts of the past and different lengths of time between historical events and the present. In this activity students walk out a timeline, preferably across a large open space such as the school Oval, whilst attaching pieces of paper at intervals to a string. The pieces of paper refer to specific events in history (starting with their own birth years) and cover a wide range of events from the material covered this year. Teachers can choose from events in Australian and world history, covering 100s, 1000s and even millions of years, back to the dinosaurs. Teachers can also add their own events. Thus the details of the activity are able to be altered in different years to maintain student interest. Depending on the class, the issue of scale can be addressed in various ways. By physically moving their bodies, students will start to understand the lengths of time involved in examinations of History. This activity is repeated in increasing detail in higher years, to make sure that the fundamental concepts are absorbed by students over time.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 to 6 are starting their term research projects on Australian history this week. Students in Year 3 (Unit 3.7) concentrate on topics from the history of their capital city or local community. Suggested topics are included for Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart, Perth and Canberra. Teachers can substitute their own topics for a local community study. Students will undertake a Scientific Investigation into an aspect of their chosen research project and will produce a Scientific Report. It is recommended that teachers supplement the resources provided with old photographs, books, newspapers etc, many of which can be accessed online, to provide the students with extra material for their investigation.

Students in Year 4 (Unit 4.3) will be focusing on Australia in the period up to and including the arrival of the First Fleet and the early colonial period. OpenSTEM’s Understanding Our World® program encompasses the whole Australian curriculum for HASS and thus does not simply rely on “flogging the First Fleet to death”! There are 7 research themes for Year 4 students: “Australia Before 1788”; “The First Fleet”; “Convicts and Settlers”; “Aboriginal People in Colonial Australia”; “Australia and Other Nations in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries”; “Colonial Children”; “Colonial Animals and their Impact”. These themes are allocated to groups of students and each student chooses an individual research topic within their groups themes. Suggested topics are given in the Teacher Handbook, as well as suggested resources.

Year 5 (Unit 5.3) students focus on the colonial period in Australia. There are 9 research themes for Year 5 students. These are: “The First Fleet”; “Convicts and Settlers”; “The 6 Colonies”; “Aboriginal People in Colonial Australia”; “Resistance to Colonial Authorities”; “Sugar in Queensland”; “Colonial Children”; “Colonial Explorers” and “Colonial Animals and their Impact”. As well as themes unique to Year 5, some overlap is provided to facilitate teaching in multi-year classes. The range of themes also allows for the possibility of teachers choosing different themes in different years. Once again individual topics and resources are suggested in the Teacher Handbook.

Year 6 (Unit 6.3) students will examine research themes around Federation and the early 20th century. There are 8 research themes for Year 6 students: “Federation and Sport”; “Women’s Suffrage”; “Aboriginal Rights in Australia”; “Henry Parkes and Federation”; “Edmund Barton and Federation”; “Federation and the Boer War”; “Samuel Griffith and the Constitution”; “Children in Australian History”. Individual research topics and resources are suggested in the Teachers Handbook. It is expected that students in Year 6 will be able to research largely independently, with weekly guidance from their teacher. OpenSTEM’s Understanding Our World® program is aimed at developing research skills in students progressively, especially over the upper primary years. If the program is followed throughout the primary years, students are well prepared for high school by the end of Year 6, having practised individual research skills for several years.

This Week in HASS – term 3, week 1

Today marks the start of a new term in Queensland, although most states and territories have at least another week of holidays, if not more. It’s always hard to get back into the swing of things in the 3rd term, with winter cold and the usual round of flus and sniffles. OpenSTEM’s 3rd term units branch into new areas to provide some fresh material and a new direction for the new semester. This term younger students are studying the lives of children in the past from a narrative context, whilst older students are delving into aspects of Australian history.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

The main resource for our youngest students for Unit F.3 is Children in the Past – a collection of stories of children from a range of different historical situations. This resource contains 6 stories of children from Aboriginal Australia more than 1,000 years ago, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient China, Aztec Mexico and Zulu Southern Africa several hundred years ago. Teachers can choose one or two stories from this resource to study in depth with the students this term. The range of stories allows teachers to tailor the material to their class and ensure that there is no need to repeat the same stories in consecutive years. Students will compare the lives of children in the stories with their own lives – focusing on different aspects in different weeks of the term. In this first week teachers will read the stories to the class and help them find the places described on the OpenSTEM “Our World” map and/or a globe.

Students in integrated Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 classes (Unit F-1.3), will also be examining stories from the Children in the Past resource. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.3), 2 (Unit 2.3) and 3 (Unit 3.3) will also be comparing their own lives with those of children in the past; however, they will use a collection of stories called Living in the Past, which covers the same areas and time periods as Children in the Past, but provides more in-depth information about a broader range of subject areas and includes the story of the young Tom Petrie, growing up in Brisbane in the 1840s. Students in Year 1 will be considering family structures and the differences and similarities between their own families and the families described in the stories. Students in Year 2 are starting to understand the differences which technology makes to peoples’ lives, especially the technology behind different modes of transport. Students in Year 3 retain a focus on local history. In fact, the Understanding Our World® units for Year 3, term 3 are tailored to match the capital city of the state or territory in which the student lives. Currently units are available for Brisbane and Perth, other capital cities are in preparation. Additional resources are available describing the foundation and growth of Brisbane and Perth, with other cities to follow. Teachers may also prefer to focus on the local community in a smaller town and substitute their own resources for those of the capital city.

Years 3 to 6

Opening of the first parliament — First Australian Parliament

Older students are focusing on Australian history this term – Year 3 students (Unit 3.7) will be considering the history of their capital city (or local community) within the broader context of Australian history. Students in Year 4 (Unit 4.3) will be examining Australia in the period up to and including the first half of the 19th century. Students in Year 5 (Unit 5.3) examine the colonial period in Australian history; whilst students in Year 6 (Unit 6.3) are investigating Federation and Australia in the 20th century. In this first week of term, students in Years 3 to 6 will be compiling a timeline of Australian history and filling in important events which they already know about or have learnt about in previous units. Students will revisit this timeline in later weeks to add additional information. The main resources for this week are The History of Australia, a broad overview of Australian history from the Ice Age to the 20th century; and the History of Australian Democracy, an overview of the development of the democratic process in Australia.

The rest of the 3rd term will be spent compiling a scientific report on an investigation into an aspect of Australian history. Students in Year 3 will choose a research topic from a list of themes concerning the history of their capital city. Students in Year 4 will choose from themes on Australia before 1788, the First Fleet, experiences of convicts and settlers, including children, as well as the impact of different animals brought to Australia during the colonial period. Students in Year 5 will choose from themes on the Australian colonies and people including explorers, convicts and settlers, massacres and resistance, colonial animals and industries such as sugar in Queensland. Students in Year 6 will choose from themes on Federation, including personalities such as Henry Parkes and Edmund Barton, Sport, Women’s Suffrage, Children, the Boer War and Aboriginal experiences. This research topic will be undertaken as a guided investigation throughout the term.

HASS Additional Activities

OK, so you’ve got the core work covered for the term and now you have all those reports to write and admin to catch up on. Well, the OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® HASS plus Science material has heaps of activities which help students to practise core curricular skills and can keep students occupied. Here are some ideas:

Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity

Aunt Madge is a perennial favourite with students of all ages. In this activity, students use clues to follow Aunt Madge around the world trying to return her forgotten suitcase. There’s a wide range of locations to choose from on every continent – both natural and constructed places. This activity can be tailored for group work, or the whole class, and by adjusting the number of locations to be found, the teacher can adjust to the available time, anywhere from 10-15 minutes to a whole lesson. Younger students enjoy matching the pictures of locations and trying to find the countries on the map. Older students can find out further information about the locations on the information sheets. Teachers can even choose a theme for the locations (such as “Ancient History” or “Aboriginal Places”) and see if students can guess what it is.

Ancient Sailing Ships Activity

Sailing Ships (History + Science) — Science

Students in Years 3 to 6 have undertaken the Ancient Sailing Ships activity this term, however, there is a vast scope for additional aspects to this activity. Have students compared the performance of square-rigged versus lateen sails? How about varying the number of masts? Have students raced the vessels against each other? (a water trough and a fan is all that’s needed for some exciting races) Teachers can encourage the students to examine the effects of other changes to ship design, such as adding a keel or any other innovations students can come up with, which can be tested. Perhaps classes or grades can even race their ships against each other.

Trade and Barter Activity

Students in years 5 and 6 in particular enjoy the Trade and Barter activity, which teaches them the basics of Economics without them even realising it! This activity covers so many different aspects of the curriculum, that it is always a good one to revisit, even though it was not in this term’s units. Students enjoy the challenge and will find the activity different each time. It is a particularly good choice for a large chunk of time, or for smaller groups; perhaps a more experienced group can coach other students. The section of the activity which has students developing their own system of writing is one that lends itself to extension and can even be spun off as a separate activity.

Games from the Past

Students of all ages enjoy many of the games listed in the resource Games From The Past. Several of these games are best done whilst running around outside, so if that is an option, then choose from the Aboriginal, Chinese or Zulu games. Many of these games can be played by large groups. Older students might like to try recreating some of the rules for some of the games of Ancient Egypt or the Aztecs. If this resource wasn’t part of the resources for your particular unit, it can be downloaded from the OpenSTEM® site directly.

Class Discussions

The b) and c) sections of the Teacher Handbooks contain suggestions for topics of discussion – such as Women Explorers or global citizenship, or ideas for drawings that the students can do. These can also be undertaken as additional activities. Teachers could divide students into groups to research and explore particular aspects of these topics, or stage debates, allowing students to practise persuasive writing skills as well.

Adding events to a timeline, or the class calendar, also good ways to practise core skills.

The OpenSTEM® Our World map is used as the perfect complement to many of the Understanding Our World® units. This map comes blank and country names are added to the map during activities. The end of term is also a good chance for students to continue adding country names to the map. These can be cut out of the resource World Countries, which supplies the names in a suitable font size. Students can use the resource World Maps to match the country names to their locations.

We hope you find these suggestions useful!

Enjoy the winter holidays – not too long now to a nice, cosy break!

This Week in HASS – term 2, week 9

The OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® units have only 9 weeks per term, so this is the last week! Our youngest students are looking at some Aboriginal Places; slightly older older students are thinking about what their school and local area were like when their parents and grandparents were children; and students in years 3 to 6 are completing their presentations and anything else that might be outstanding from the term.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy

Students in the stand-alone Foundation/Prep/Kindy class (Unit F.2) examine Aboriginal Places this week. Students examine which places are special to Aboriginal people, and how these places should be cared for by Aboriginal people and the broader community. Several of the Australian places in the Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity can be used to support this discussion in the classroom. Students in an integrated Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 class (Unit F.6), as well as Year 1 (Unit 1.2), 2 (Unit 2.2) and 3 (Unit 3.2) students consider life in the times of their parents and grandparents, with specific reference to their school, or the local area studied during this unit. Teachers may wish to invite older members of the community (including interested parents and/or grandparents) in to the class to describe their memories of the area in former years. Were any of them past students of the school? This is a great opportunity for students to come up with their own questions about life in past times.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Year 3 (Unit 3.6), 4 (Unit 4.2), 5 (Unit 5.2) and 6 (Unit 6.2) are finishing off their presentations and any outstanding work this week. Sometimes the middle of term can be very rushed and so it’s always good to have some breathing space at the end to catch up on anything that might have been squeezed out before. For those classes where everyone is up-to-date and looking for extra activities, the Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity is always popular with students and can be used to support their learning. Teachers may wish to select a range of destinations appropriate to the work covered during the term and encourage students to think about how those destinations relate to the material covered in class. Destinations may be selected by continent or theme – e.g. natural places or historical sites. A further advantage of Aunt Madge is that the activity can be tailored to fit the available time – from 5 or 10 minutes for a single destination, to 45 minutes or more for a full selection; and played in groups, or as a whole class, allowing some students to undertake the activity while other students may be catching up on other work. Students may also wish to revisit aspects of the Ancient Sailing Ships Activity and expand on their investigations.

Although this is the last week of this term’s units, we will have some more suggestions for extra activities next week – particularly those that keep the students busy while teachers attend to marking or compiling of reports.

This Week in HASS – term 2, week 8

This week we are starting into the last stretch of the term. Students are well into their final sections of work. Our youngest students are thinking about how we care for places, slightly older students are displaying their posters and older students are giving their presentations.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students doing the stand-alone Foundation/Prep/Kindy unit (F.2) are thinking about how we look after different places this week. Students in integrated Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 classes, doing Unit F.6, are displaying their posters on an issue in their local environment. These posters were prepared in proceeding weeks and can now be displayed either at school or in a local library or hall. The teacher may choose to invite parents to view the posters as well. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.2), 2 (Unit 2.2) and 3 (Unit 3.2) also have posters to display on a range of issues, either at the school, in a local place, such as a park, or even a local heritage place. Discussions around points of view and the intended audience of the posters can help students to gain a more in-depth understanding and critique their own work.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.6), 4 (Unit 4.2), 5 (Unit 5.2) and 6 (Unit 6.2) are in the second of 3 weeks set aside for their presentations. The presentations cover a significant body of work and thus a 3 weeks of lessons are set aside for the presentations, as well as for finishing any other sections of work not yet completed. Year 3 students are considering extreme climate areas of Australia and other parts of the world, such as the Sahara Desert, Arctic and Antarctica and Mount Everest, by studying explorers such as Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, Robert Scott and Pawel Strzelecki. Year 4 students are studying explorers and the environments and animals of Africa and South America, such as Francisco Pizarro, the Giant Vampire Bat, Vasco Da Gama and the Cape Lion. Year 5 students are studying explorers, environments and animals of North America, such as Henry Hudson, Hernando de Soto and the Great Auk. Year 6 students are studying explorers, environments and indigenous peoples of Asia, such as Vitus Bering, Zheng He, Marco Polo, the Mongols and the Rus.