AC9S7H02 Year 7 Science

AC9S7H02 – Year 7 Science: Nature and development of science

Strand

Science as a human endeavour

Substrand

Nature and development of science

This Content Descriptor from Year 7 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 cultural perspectives and world views influence the development of scientific knowledge

Elaborations

• investigating classification systems used by First Nations Australians and how they differ in context and use from those used by contemporary science
• investigating how First Nations Australians have developed sustainable harvesting practices and cultural protocols based on deep ecological understandings
• exploring how the personal beliefs of a scientist may influence the questions they choose to pursue and how they investigate those questions, such as Richard Levins, whose political views led him to focus on population ecology, or Joseph Rotblat, a physicist who refused to work on science that might lead to development of an atomic bomb
• considering why it is important to recognise that different people in society have different perspectives on the introduction of biological controls to eradicate an invasive species
• exploring the work of Wang Zhenyi, an acclaimed female scholar of 18th-century China, including her experiments in studying lunar eclipses
• exploring how David Unaipon, a Ngarrindjeri man from Coorong region of South Australia, used his cultural knowledge and understanding of the aerodynamic properties of boomerangs to conceptualise a ‘vertical lift flying machine’ in 1914

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 7 ASSCIY7

Year 7 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 7 students explain how biological diversity is ordered and organised. They represent flows of matter and energy in ecosystems and predict the effects of environmental changes. They model cycles in the Earth-sun-moon system and explain the effects of these cycles on Earth phenomena. They represent and explain the effects of forces acting on objects. They use particle theory to explain the physical properties of substances and develop processes that separate mixtures. Students identify the factors that can influence development of and lead to changes in scientific knowledge. They explain how scientific responses are developed and can impact society. They explain the role of science communication in shaping viewpoints, policies and regulations. Students plan and conduct safe, reproducible investigations to test relationships and aspects of scientific models. They identify potential ethical issues and intercultural considerations required for field locations or use of secondary data. They use equipment to generate and record data with precision. They select and construct appropriate representations to organise data and information. They process data and information and analyse it to describe patterns, trends and relationships. They identify possible sources of error in methods and identify unanswered questions in conclusions and claims. They identify evidence to support their conclusions and construct arguments to support or dispute claims. They select and use language and text features appropriately for their purpose and audience when communicating their ideas and findings.