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Upcoming free event in Brisbane (24 November): Understanding Our World – showcase @ Seville (Holland Park)

At the start of 2016, Seville Road State School replaced their existing History and Geography units with the integrated Understanding Our World HASS + Science materials developed by OpenSTEM. As this school year draws to a close, we’d like to invite you to come and celebrate the marvellous outcomes that the students and teachers have achieved: Thursday 24 November 2016, 3:30pm.

This is your perfect opportunity to look at the materials and actual class work, as well as ask lots of questions! Meet with Cheryl Rowe (Principal), Andrea Budd (Head of Curriculum), several teachers, OpenSTEM’s Arjen Lentz (Chief Explorer) and Dr Claire Reeler, who leads the Understanding Our World program development.

Join us on Thursday 24 November 2016, 3:30pm at Seville Road State School library!

Free event. RSVP today. Drinks and nibbles will be provided.

You can also download this invite as a PDF leaflet to pass on to others.

What is Understanding Our World ?

Complete integrated units, 4 units per year level
Prep to Year 6, with multi-year level integration:
- P-2: History and Geography + Science
- 3-4: History, Geography and Civics & Citizenship + Science
- 5-6: History, Geography, Civics & Citizenship and Economics & Business + Science
Aligned with the Australian Curriculum for HASS + Science (comprehensive)
Assessment tasks aligned with achievement standards in the Australian Curriculum
Teacher handbooks, student workbooks, assessment guides
Hundreds of beautiful colour resource PDFs with many custom maps and photos
More information: https://openstem.com.au/programs/understanding-our-world

Can’t make it on the 24^th?
Contact OpenSTEM to arrange a visit to your school and discuss implementation options.

New Viking Site in North America

The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America, more than 1000 years ago. The Vikings established settlements and traded with indigenous people in North America for about 400 years, finally abandoning the continent less than 100 years before Columbus’ voyage.

The story of the Vikings’ exploits in North America provides not only additional context to the history of human exploration, but also matches ideally to the study of the Geography of North America, as the names used by the Vikings for areas in North America provide a perfect match to the biomes in these regions.

Long consigned to the realms of myth within Norse sagas, the first archaeological evidence of the truth of the old stories of “Vinland” (Newfoundland) was uncovered by a Norwegian archaeologist in 1960. In recent years archaeologists have uncovered yet more evidence of Viking settlements in North America. OpenSTEM is delighted to share this story of how satellite technology is assisting this process, as we publish our own resource on the Vikings in North America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/science/vikings-archaeology-north-america-newfoundland.html

The site was identified last summer after satellite images showed possible man-made shapes under discoloured vegetation on the Newfoundland coast.

History and Geography for Primary program

OpenSTEM’s History and Geography for Primary program provides an integrated curriculum implementation, which aims to provide holistic learning for students in both Key Learning Areas. By integrating History and Geography, not only is the level of engagement higher, as students are able to gain a more rounded understanding of processes in places through time, but the time needed for teaching is optimised.

With complete lesson plans!

Australian Curriculum

The program is tailored exactly to the requirements of the Australian Curriculum so that all curriculum strands in both curricula are addressed efficiently. The focus is on providing a broad overview of global events and then focussing in on specific issues. A particular focal point, as determined by the Australian Curriculum, is Australian History, with Aboriginal History, sustainability and the environment as important foci as well.

Our Approach

Student engagement is the primary aim of this curriculum implementation and a range of activities ensure that learning takes place in a very hands-on and multimodal way.

Scientific research has identified that children are more engaged, with better retention of information, when a range of input stimuli are provided. In particular, visual and kinaesthetic methods of input have the broadest range of uptake of information in pre-puberty age groups. OpenSTEM’s blend of activities and resources addresses these methods directly.

The material is designed so as to provide for flexibility in use. Teachers can choose to utilise the individual resources within their own teaching framework, or they can choose to use the detailed weekly lesson plans as laid out in the Teacher Handbook. A Student Workbook is also provided, with a continual assessment option, to complete the package.

OpenSTEM uses particular techniques (such as coloured words within the text) which address a range of learning styles and have been shown to increase focus for students with concentration challenges.

Availability

The term 1 teacher units and supporting resources are now available, and already in use by some schools. Additional units and resources are made available progressively during this first year of this program, and updated thereafter.

You may purchase individual teacher units and resource PDFs, or subscribe (from an individual teacher or family to an entire school) and get the teacher units at half price and the resource PDFs for free!

You can also download some sample PDFs (at no cost, no login/details required) so that you are able to see and assess the quality of our materials.

If you need more information and for any questions you may have, please contact us.

Cross-curricular options

OpenSTEM’s History and Geography program provides a range of cross-curricular options. In particular Science extensions are provided to address the Science curriculum. Some aspects of the Mathematics curriculum also follow naturally from this material.

These cross-curricular components help students apply newly learnt concepts and skills in a broader context.

Multi-Year-Level

OpenSTEM materials are designed to be adapted for use in multi-year level classrooms. Suggested implementations for multi-year level classes are provided in the Teacher Handbook for each unit.

In some cases the same resources and topics are used by different year levels and it is the depth of understanding and analysis required which is all that changes between the year levels. The Student Workbook for each unit reflects the differing requirements for different year levels. Using this structure, the teacher is not trying to teach different material simultaneously in order to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Homeschoolers

Homeschooling parents also have great flexibility in their use of this material. The program is designed to be easily adaptable for the homeschooling situation. Parents can choose to use the resources within their own program, or allow the student to explore the material as their interest leads them. Alternatively, the parent can use the Teacher Handbook and Student Workbook to provide a series of lessons, knowing they will thus match all the curriculum requirements.

Non-linear learners can approach the student workbook in a non-linear fashion, referring to the matching resources as required in order to engage with the material. Using this material, the parent can tailor the learning to match the speed, abilities and particular challenges of each student.

The potential for extension and acceleration will suit students with those particular needs, whilst the shift between broad and narrow focus in the resources will provide consolidation for those students who need more time to work through learning material.

Introducing Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity

Oh no! Aunt Madge has gone off on her holiday around the world and left one of her suitcases behind!

She has sent a note to you to please bring her the suitcase, she has also sent a ticket so that you can fly after her to take her the suitcase.

School students need to help Aunt Madge by taking her suitcase to her. She has left a clue to where she is.

This Activity Resource consists of 3 PDFs with instructions, colour photos of locations around the world, a custom map for each location, and detailed descriptions.

Suitable for all school age year levels. We recommend using a globe in the classroom in addition to the OpenSTEM blackline world map so children get used to different projections. For home use, you can also use an atlas or other wall map, of course.

Also used in OpenSTEM’s Integrated History & Geography Program, this is a practical and fun activity to get kids relating to geography and learning about the world. There’s unlimited scope for building on, with (for instance) the child’s own friends and family members travelling or living overseas.

The Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity resource is available FREE for OpenSTEM Subscribers ($25 for non-subscribers). You can also download samples of some of our resources, to see and assess the quality of OpenSTEM materials for yourself before subscribing.

OSDC 2015 talk: Skulling Around – Hands on History

Here’s the video of Claire’s talk at the Open Source Developers’ Conference 2015 (November) in Hobart, TAS.

Open source has opened up huge opportunities for archaeologists. As well as high quality tools for research, we can use open source to engage kids with the past. Addressing the new National Curriculum, we use 3D printed fossil skulls and replicas of archaeological material to give kids a hands-on experience, making the past Funky and Fun!

Archaeologists are usually very good at sharing knowledge with each other and the wider world. Under Creative Commons licences many files are made available, including scans of fossil skulls, artefacts and other archaeological material. Using a suite of open source tools, including a 3D printer, a series of interactive experiences for school children has been developed allowing them hands-on involvement with this material.

The kids love examining the replica fossil skulls in their hands and learning about the changing features through time, as well as learning to measure and compare in a very real sense. These experiences are modern “we had 3D printed stuff in History class!”, engaging and fun for students and teachers alike, bringing the past alive.

This talk refers to some of the materials used in the OpenSTEM Introduction to Archaeology and Fossils Workshop. We have been fortunate to find quite a few more fossil skull models, and have already printed some of those also. The “family” is growing!

OpenSTEM also has an Integrated History/Geography Program for Primary Schools (full set of resources for F-6, including teacher handbooks, student workbooks and assessment guides), available from term 1, 2016.

There were many awesome talks at OSDC 2015 (Youtube playlist). See also the OSDC 2015 program overview.

Archaeological Dig Experience

In this new OpenSTEM workshop developed and run by our resident archaeologist Claire, 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.

History has never been so cool!

Scientific Investigation

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.

For more information, see the Archaeological Dig workshop page.