AC9S5H02 Year 5 Science

AC9S5H02 – Year 5 Science: Use and influence of science

Strand

Science as a human endeavour

Substrand

Use and influence of science

This Content Descriptor from Year 5 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

investigate how scientific knowledge is used by individuals and communities to identify problems, consider responses and make decisions

Elaborations

• considering how decisions are made to farm particular crops or animals depending on local habitats, such as considering their ability to withstand drought or cold weather
• examining how communities use knowledge of erosion processes to design landscape features that reduce erosion in fragile environments
• examining how knowledge of erosion is used by park rangers to design rules such as keeping to the path and not climbing sandstone, and built features such as channel drains on paths, railings and barriers to protect the park environment and First Nations Australians’ heritage sites
• researching the impacts of light pollution and exploring how communities have used scientific knowledge to reduce light pollution, such as through the use of covered bulbs facing downwards in streetlights, automated systems to turn off streetlights and motion sensors on outdoor lights at home and in public places
• investigating how and why people used properties of light to design signal lamps to communicate via Morse code and where they continue to be used

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 5 ASSCIY5

Year 5 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 5 students explain how the form and behaviour of living things enables survival. They describe key processes that change Earth’s surface. They identify sources of light and model the transfer of light to explain observed phenomena. They relate the particulate arrangement of solids, liquids and gases to their observable properties. They describe examples of collaboration leading to advances in science, and scientific knowledge that has changed over time. They identify examples where scientific knowledge informs the actions of individuals and communities. Students plan safe investigations to identify patterns and relationships and make reasoned predictions. They identify risks associated with investigations and key intercultural considerations when planning field work. They identify variables to be changed and measured. They use equipment to generate data with appropriate precision. They construct representations to organise data and information and describe patterns, trends and relationships. They compare their methods and findings to those of others, identify possible sources of error in their investigation, pose questions for further investigation and draw reasoned conclusions. They use language features that reflect their purpose and audience when communicating their ideas and findings.