Term Three Physical Sciences Overview
Exploration Learning Community Physical Sciences
Focus Question: What causes objects to move in different ways?
In this unit, students will explore the way objects move and relate changes in motion to push and pull forces. They will also investigate how technologies use forces to create movement in designed solutions, designing and making a toy that can be pushed or pulled out of recycled materials.
Students will also develop their science inquiry skills and understanding of science as a human endeavour, students will share and reflect on observations and ask and respond to questions about familiar objects and events.
Discovery Learning Community Physical Sciences
Focus Question: Where does light come from?
In this unit the students identify light as a source of energy. They understand that we use our eyes to detect light. The students explore light from various sources. They identify the sun as a source of light, and sort other sources of light as either natural or made by people.
The students work scientifically by participating in a guided investigation to see how light travels in a straight line. They predict, observe and explain how certain materials can stop light.
Curiosity Learning Community Physical Sciences
Focus Question: How can objects affect other objects with or without touching them?
In this Science and Technology unit, students will learn that objects move as a result of a push or pull force. Students will understand that forces can be exerted by one object on another through direct contact or from a distance. Students will question, explore and experiment, investigating different types of forces, including gravitational force and magnetism.
Challenge Learning Community Physical Sciences
Focus Question: What types of energy transformations can be observed? How can electricity be used in a product or system?
This Physical Science Unit for Challenge Learning Community students has a dual focus: The different forms of energy and how they can be transferred and transformed, and the generation, transfer and use of electricity in our daily lives. Intercultural understanding is developed as they consider how essential electricity is to their daily life, and the lives of people in another country. Personal and social capabilities and ethical understandings are developed as they consider how electricity has transformed household life and the consequences of generating electricity from renewable or non-renewable sources. Students use practical science skills to investigate electrical circuits and perform an experiment to test a hypothesis. Addressing technology outcomes, students also design, test and evaluate a brief requiring them to create a working electrical model of a house.
Thanks
Joanne Gianino
Science Specialist