AC9S7U02 Year 7 Science

AC9S7U02 – Year 7 Science: Biological sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Biological sciences

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

use models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow in ecosystems and predict the impact of changing abiotic and biotic factors on populations

Elaborations

• analysing food webs to show feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem and the role of microorganisms
• modelling how energy flows into and out of an ecosystem via the pathways of food webs
• predicting the effects on local ecosystems when living things such pollinators or predators are removed from or die out in an area
• examining how events such as seasonal changes, destruction of habitat or introduction of a species impact abiotic and biotic factors and cause changes to populations
• investigating First Nations Australians’ responses to invasive species and their effect on food webs that many communities are a part of, and depend on, for produce and medicine
• considering how First Nations Australians’ fire management practices over tens of thousands of years have changed the distribution of flora and fauna in most regions of Australia

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.