AC9S10U03 Year 10 Science

AC9S10U03 – Year 10 Science: Earth and space sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Earth and space sciences

This Content Descriptor from Year 10 Science provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

describe how the big bang theory models the origin and evolution of the universe and analyse the supporting evidence for the theory

Elaborations

• describing the major components of the universe using appropriate scientific terminology and units including astronomical units, scientific notation and light-years
• constructing a timeline to show major changes in the universe which are thought to have occurred from the Big Bang until the formation of the major components such as stars and galaxies
• examining how stars’ light spectra and brightness is used to identify compositional elements of stars, their movements and their distances from Earth
• explaining how each different type of evidence, such as cosmic microwave background radiation, red or blue shift of galaxies, Edwin Hubble’s observations and proportion of matter in the universe, provides support for the acceptance of the big bang theory
• researching First Nations Australians’ knowledges of celestial bodies and explanations of the origin of the universe
• identifying the different technologies used to collect astronomical data and the types of data collected
• exploring recent advances in astronomy, including the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, and astrophysics, such as the discovery of gravitational waves, dark matter and dark energy; and identifying new knowledge which has emerged

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 10 ASSCIY10

Year 10 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 10 students explain the processes that underpin heredity and genetic diversity and describe the evidence supporting the theory of evolution by natural selection. They sequence key events in the origin and evolution of the universe and describe the supporting evidence for the big bang theory. They describe trends in patterns of global climate change and identify causal factors. They explain how Newton’s laws describe motion and apply them to predict motion of objects in a system. They explain patterns and trends in the periodic table and predict the products of reactions and the effect of changing reactant and reaction conditions. Students analyse the importance of publication and peer review in the development of scientific knowledge and analyse the relationship between science, technologies and engineering. They analyse the key factors that influence interactions between science and society. Students plan and conduct safe, valid and reproducible investigations to test relationships or develop explanatory models. They explain how they have addressed any ethical and intercultural considerations when generating or using primary and secondary data. They select equipment and use it efficiently to generate and record appropriate sample sizes and replicable data with precision. They select and construct effective representations to organise, process and summarise data and information. They analyse and connect a variety of data and information to identify and explain patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies. They evaluate the validity and reproducibility of methods, and the validity of conclusions and claims. They construct logical arguments based on analysis of a variety of evidence to support conclusions and evaluate claims. They select and use content, language and text features effectively to achieve their purpose when communicating their ideas, findings and arguments to diverse audiences.