Post on 27-Jul-2020
Linking the ‘Big Idea’ and the ‘Blanket Role’ to
ScienceIn the PEEC story The Adventures of Mrs. Muddle-up, Mongo and Maddy, fict ional wildlife
carer Mrs. Muddle-up uses her knowledge of possums and their life stages to care for
orphaned baby possum Maddy. As Wildlife Investigators in their place, the students NEED
TO work as scientists to examine how different living things grow, use their knowledge and
understanding to care for native Australian wildlife in their local natural places, and then
communicate their observations and ideas with others.
Science through the Storythread Four-Chapter Framework
Chapter One – As Wildlife Investigators, students read about wildlife carer Mrs. Muddle-up in the
fic
t
ional story The Adventures of Mrs. Muddle-up, Mongo and Maddy. In response, they begin working
scientific
a
l ly to examine how different living things grow, describing the characteristics and needs of living
things in each life stage, and paying particular attention to native Australian animals.
Chapter Two (Excursion) – At PEEC the students, as Wildlife Investigators, meet Mrs. Muddle-up
who sends them to the forest to continue their examination of living things by ‘seeing the world through
possum eyes’. Afterwards, they draw on their scientific knowledge and experiences to help Mrs. Muddle-
up’s friend Sam solve a potential possum problem.
Chapter Three – Back at school students, as Wildlife Investigators, reflec t on their experiences and
respond by writing letters to the fict ional character Sam. In doing so, students are given the opportunity
to communicate the knowledge and understanding they have gained over the course of their Storythread
experience about what it means to be Wildlife Investigators who use their scientific knowledge to care for
native Australian wildlife in their local natural places.
Chapter Four – Students, as Wildlife Investigators, take action to make life better in their place by
planning and implementing one, or a number of, achievable, student-led environmental projects. This may
include taking action to care for native Australian wildlife in their local natural places and communicating
their observations and ideas with others (see C2C unit below).
Australian
Curriculum
Year 2
Science
KEY
Curriculum
Links
Science
Understanding
Science as a Human
EndeavourScience Inquiry Skills
Biological Sciences -
(Wildlife
Investigators
understand that)
Living things grow,
change and have
offspring similar to
themselves
Nature and Development of
Science – Science involves
(Wildlife Investigators)
asking questions about,
and describing changes in,
objects and events
Use and Influ
e
nce of
Science – People (Wildlife
Investigators) use science
in their daily lives, including
when caring for their
environment and living things
Questioning and Predicting –
(Wildlife Investigators) Respond to and pose
questions, and make predictions about familiar objects
and events
Planning and Conducting (Wildlife Investigators):
· Participate in different types of guided investigations
to explore and answer questions such as
manipulating materials, testing ideas, and accessing
information sources
· Use informal measurements in the collecting and
recording of observations, with the assistance of
digital technologies as appropriate
Processing and Analysing Data and Information -
(Wildlife Investigators):
· Use a range of methods to sort information including
drawings and provided tables
· Through discussion, compare observations with
predictions
Evaluating - (Wildlife Investigators) Compare
observations with those of others
Communicating – (Wildlife Investigators) Represent
and communicate observations and ideas in a variety
of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and
role play
C2C
Year 2
Science
Unit 3:
Good to
Grow
OverviewAssessing Student
LearningSustainability Focus
In this unit, students (as
Wildlife Investigators)
examine how living
things grow. They
investigate and compare
the life stages of different
living things, including
similarities and differences
between
parents and their
offspring. They describe
the characteristics and
needs of living things
in each life stage, and
consider the relevance
of this knowledge to their
everyday lives, including
when caring for living
things in the environment.
Assignment/Project – How does
it grow? Storyboard of life
stages
Students (as Wildlife
Investigators) describe and
represent changes to a living thing
as it grows.
In completing the above project,
students will onsider the ways
in which knowledge of how
living things change through
their life stages is used when
caring for living things and the
environment.
As Wildlife Investigators, in
Chapter Four of this Storythread
(see above page), students
could make life better in
their place by applying this
knowledge and understanding
to take action to care for the
native Australian wildlife in
their local natural places e.g.
by planting a possum tree
or building possum boxes,
and by communicating their
observations and ideas to
others.
Students (as Wildlife Investigators) will
consider the importance of using knowledge of
life stages to inform their actions when caring
for living things in the environment.
C2C
Year 2
English
Unit 5:
Exploring
procedural
texts
Unit 6:
Exploring
informative
texts
OverviewAssessing Student
LearningSustainability Focus
In this unit, students (as
Wildlife Investigators) listen
to, read and view a range
of literary imaginative texts
that contain certain structural
elements and language
features that refle
c
t an
informative text.
Students create, rehearse
and present a procedure in
front of their peers.
In this unit, students (as
Wildlife Investigators)
read, view and listen to a
range of stories to create
an informative text about an
event in a literary text.
Written – Exploring an
Informative Text
Students (as Wildlife
Investigators) use everyday
language features and topic-
specific
vocabul ar y to cr eat e
an informative text from a
narrative text
As Wildlife Investigators,
in Chapter Four of this
Storythread (see above
page), students could take
action to care for the native
Australian wildlife in their
local natural places by
working together to create
and share an informative
text about how to care for
orphaned baby possums.
They could draw on both
the event described in The
Adventures of Mrs. Muddle-
up, Mongo and Maddy and
the knowledge they gained
from meeting a real wildlife
carer on the day of the
excursion.
Inspired by Mrs. Muddle-up’s
creative pretend ‘magic’
recipes, the students could
also create a recipe to help
others care for wildlife.
None specifie
d
C2C
Year 2
Geography
Unit 1:
What is the
Story of my
Place?
&
OverviewAssessing Student
Learning
Sustainability
Focus
In this unit, students (as Wildlife Investigators) will
investigate the inquiry question identifie
d
from the
Australian Curriculum: Geography
· What is a place?
In this unit, students:
· draw on representations of the world as
geographical divisions, and the location of Australia
· understand that each place has a location on the
surface of the Earth which can be expressed using
direction and location of one place from another
· develop questions about places
· use a globe or a map to identify examples of places
that are defin
e
d at di f ferent levels or scales, such
as, personal scale (neighbourhood), local scale
(town, rural area or city), regional scale, national
scale, or region of the world scale
· use a globe, map or other geographical tool to
locate and name the continents, oceans, equator,
and North and South poles
· collect and record geographical data and
information, such as observations and photographs
to identify examples of how places are defin
e
d by
different groups
· represent connections between places by
constructing a map and using symbols
· describe the location and direction of a place.
Portfolio – Collection of
Work
The purpose of this
assessment is for students
(as Wildlife Investigators) to
identify, locate and represent
key observable features of a
place.
As Wildlife Investigators,
in Chapter Four of this
Storythread (see above
page), students could take
action to care for the native
Australian wildlife in their
local natural places by
working together to create
and share a map of the
schoolgrounds modelled
on the map Mrs. Muddle-
up created of her place.
This map could include
recommendations for
connecting and caring to
place, and acknowledge
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander histories and
culture.
None specifie
d
Unit 2:
How are
People
and Places
Connected?
In this unit, students (as Wildlife Investigators)
will investigate inquiry questions identifie
d
from the
Australian Curriculum: Geography
· How are people connected to their place and other
places?
· What factors affect my connection to places?
In this unit, students:
· draw on studies of local places within Australia and
other places throughout the world
· understand that a place is connected to other
places, and people are connected to their place and
places throughout the world
· understand connections between places throughout
the world are affected by distance and accessibility
· pose questions about the connections between
places using the stems of ‘what do I feel’, ‘what
would it be like to’ or ‘what effect’
· collect and record geographical data and
information, for example, a survey, to identify the
ways and frequency of people’s connections to
other places in Australia, the countries of Asia, and
across the world
· collect and record geographical data and
information, such as the stories of Aboriginal
peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to
identify reasons for people’s connection to other
places and its maintenance, for example, through
birth, residence, heritage, and chosen or forced
movement
· compare the influ
e
nce of pur pose, di st ance and
accessibility on connections between people and
places over time
· respond with ideas on how connections with a place
often enable higher levels of care for a place.
Assignment/Project
- Guided Research
(multimodal or oral)
The purpose of this
assessment is for students
(as Wildlife Investigators)
to investigate a place in the
world, including influ
e
nces and
connections
None specifie
d