Water Cycle & Freshwater Studies

Biological Sciences

Explain the roles and interactions of consumers, producers and decomposers within a habitat and how food chains represent feeding relationships. (AC9S4U01)

Elaborations: Describing how animals, including humans, obtain their food from plants and other animals.

Representing feeding relationships of producers and consumers as a food chain and comparing food chains across different habitats.

Recognising how First Nations Australians perceive themselves as being an integral part of the environment.

Earth and Space Sciences

Identify sources of water and describe key processes in the water cycle, including movement of water through the sky, landscape and ocean; precipitation; evaporation; and condensation. (AC9S4U02)

Elaborations: Identifying local water sources and exploring how they change over time.

Exploring First Nations Australians' connections with and valuing of water and water resource management.

Considering why we are encouraged to save and recycle water, and actions people can take to reduce water consumption and waste.

Science Inquiry

Questioning and Predicting

Pose questions to explore observed patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations. (AC9S4I01)

Planning and Conducting

Use provided scaffolds to plan and conduct investigations to answer questions or test predictions, including identifying the elements of fair tests, and considering the safe use of materials and equipment. (AC9S4I02)

History

The diversity of First Nations Australians, their social organisation and their continuous connection to Country/Place. (AC9HS4K01)

Elaboration: Exploring the connection of First Nations Australians to the land and water and how they manage these resources.

Geography

The importance of environments, including natural vegetation and water sources, to people and animals in Australia and on another continent. (AC9HS4K05)

Elaborations: Explaining how people's connections with their environment can also be aesthetic, emotional and spiritual.

Exploring strategies to protect particular environments that provide habitats for animals; for example, planting bird-attracting vegetation.

Identifying the importance of water to the environment and to sustaining the lives of people and animals.

Health & Physical Education

Making Active Choices

Participate in physical activities in natural and outdoor settings to examine factors that can influence their own and others' participation. (AC9HP4M05)

Making Healthy & Safe Choices

Investigate and apply behaviours that contribute to their own and others' health, safety, relationships and wellbeing. (AC9HP4P10)

Elaborations: Discussing the importance of a sense of belonging & connection in promoting mental health & wellbeing.

Identifying ways they can change their behaviours to support the sustainability of the Earth's systems.

Interacting with Others

Describe how valuing diversity influences wellbeing and identify actions that promote inclusion in their communities. (AC9HP4P05)

Elaboration: Recognising the important role of cultural narratives in describing the diversity, sharing beliefs and practices of First Nations communities.

Select, use and refine personal and social skills to establish, manage and strengthen relationships. (AC9HP4P04)

Elaboration: Discussing how demonstrating respect and empathy for First Nations Australians can build positive relationships.

Biological Sciences

Examine how particular structural features and behaviours of living things enable their survival in specific habitats. (AC9S5U01)

Elaboration: Identify physical and behavioural characteristics that enable a plant or animal to survive.

Earth and Space Sciences

Describe how weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition cause slow or rapid change to Earth's surface. (AC9S5U02)

Elaborations: Identifying types of weathering caused by mechanical means such as by wind abrasion, cycles of extreme heat or cold, and frost wedging; and biological means as by plants & tree roots.

Exploring how erosion can be caused by moving air or moving water and how substances such as surface soil are relocated, and identifying examples of erosion on a local or regional scale.

Analysing the difference between weathering and erosion and comparing the timescales over which these processes can occur.

Investigating how humans have changed local landscapes and predicting the effect these changes might have on rates of erosion.

Science Inquiry

Pose investigable questions to identify patterns & test relationships  & make reasonable predictions. (AC9S5I01)

Elaboration: Acknowledging & using information from First Nations Australians to guide the formulation of investigable questions about structural features & behaviours of living things.

Questioning and Predicting

Pose investigable questions to identify patterns and test relationships and make reasoned predictions. (AC9S5I01)

Planning and Conducting

Plan and conduct repeatable investigations to answer questions, including, as appropriate, deciding the variables to be changed, measured and controlled in fair tests; describing potential risks; planning for the safe use of equipment and materials;  and identifying required permissions to conduct investigations on Country/Place. (AC9S5I02)

Geography

The influence of people, including First Nations Australians and people in other countries, on the characteristics of a place. (AC9HS5K04)

Elaboration: Identifying how First Nations Australian communities altered the environment and sustained ways of living through their methods of land and resource management.

The management of Australian environments, including managing severe weather events such as bushfires, floods, droughts or cyclones, and their consequences. (AC9HS5K05)

Elaboration: Exploring how environments are used and managed, such as the practices and laws that aim to manage human impact, the use of zoning to manage local environments, creation of wildlife corridors and national parks.

Economics & Business

Types of resources, including natural, human and capital, and how they satisfy needs and wants. (AC9HS5K08)

Elaboration: Distinguishing between needs and wants, and how resources might be used more sustainably to meet these needs and wants into the future.

Health & Physical Education

Making Active Choices

Participate in physical activities that enhance health and wellbeing in natural and outdoor settings, and analyse the steps and resources needed to promote participation. (AC9HP6M05)

Making Healthy & Safe Choices

Analyse how behaviours influence the health, safety, relationships and wellbeing of individuals and communities. (AC9HP6P10)

Elaboration: Describing strategies to support a sense of belonging & connection, and recognising the importance of social support for enhancing mental health & wellbeing.

Interacting with Others

Describe and implement strategies to value diversity in their communities. (AC9HP6P05)

Elaboration: Exploring the importance of cultural expressions of First Nations Australians in maintaining a continuing deep connection to Country/Place & its influence on wellbeing. 

Describe and demonstrate how respect and empathy can be expressed to positively influence relationships. (AC9HP6P04)

Elaboration: Recognising how words & labels used regarding First Nations Australians can cause offence and how this awareness can support & strengthen respectful relationships.

Biological Sciences

Investigate the physical conditions of a habitat and analyse how the growth and survival of living things is affected by changing physical conditions. (AC9S6U01)

Elaborations: Identifying the physical conditions in an aquatic or terrestrial habitat and how they change over time.

Investigating First Nations Australians' knowledges and understandings of the physical conditions necessary for the survival of certain plants and animals.

Science as a Human Endeavour

Nature and Development of Science

Examine why advances in Science are often the result of collaboration or build on the work of others. (AC9S6H01)
Elaborations: Investigate how contemporary restorative ecology adapts and builds on the traditional ecological knowledges of First Nations Australians.

Examining why ecologists collaborate with engineers & computer scientists to develop remote sensing techniques, identify patterns in habitat change & make predictions.

Health & Physical Education

Making Active Choices

Participate in physical activities that enhance health and wellbeing in natural and outdoor settings, and analyse the steps and resources needed to promote participation. (AC9HP6M05)

Making Healthy & Safe Choices

Analyse how behaviours influence the health, safety, relationships and wellbeing of individuals and communities. (AC9HP6P10)

Elaboration: Describing strategies to support a sense of belonging & connection, and recognising the importance of social support for enhancing mental health & wellbeing.

Interacting with Others

Describe and implement strategies to value diversity in their communities. (AC9HP6P05)

Elaboration: Exploring the importance of cultural expressions of First Nations Australians in maintaining a continuing deep connection to Country/Place & its influence on wellbeing. 

Describe and demonstrate how respect and empathy can be expressed to positively influence relationships. (AC9HP6P04)

Elaboration: Recognising how words & labels used regarding First Nations Australians can cause offence and how this awareness can support & strengthen respectful relationships.

First Nations communities of Australia maintain a deep connection to, and responsibility for, Country/Place and have holistic values and belief systems that are connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways. (A_TSICP1)

First Nations Australians' ways of life reflect unique ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing. (A_TSIC2)

The significant and ongoing contributions of First Nations Australians and their histories and cultures are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally. (A_TSIP3)

The First Peoples of Australia belong to the world's oldest continuous cultures. First Nations Australians demonstrate resilience in the maintenance, practice and revitalisation of culture and continue to celebrate and share the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures. (A_TSIC3)

All life forms, including human life, are connected through Earth's systems (geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere) on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival. (SS1)

Sustainable patterns of living require the responsible use of resources, maintenance of clean air, water and soils, and preservation or restoration of healthy environments. (SS2)