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This resource is designed to engage Year 9 and 10 students as well as their teachers in the process of Scientific modelling. Scientific modelling and designing experiments are extremely important for students to understand as they head towards years 11 and 12 and beyond.

 

The aim of this sequence is to help breakdown the stigma that surrounds scientific research as being different to what students may do in a classroom.

 

Students engage with published scientific papers and map them out to identify the connections between the processes that researchers undertake when conducting and publishing research. This process allows students to see that the basic structure that all scientists follow is the same.

 

These activities were designed with the help of researcher and Deakin Academic Dr. Jillian Healy whose research is the perfect model to show students. Though the content of her research may be beyond students we have been able to work together to design a series of activities that guide students to think scientifically as well as design their own investigations. These activities are aligned to the Victorian Curriculum through the Level 9 and 10 Science inquiry skills as well as Science understanding in Biological sciences and Science as human endeavour. Ethical capabilities are incorporated in to this sequence amongst the others to get a well-rounded sequence.
 

Curriculum Links:

Science Understanding:

- Advances in scientific understanding often rely on developments in technology and technological advances are often linked to scientific discoveries (VCSSU115)

- The values and needs of contemporary society can influence the focus of scientific research (VCSSU116)

- Scientific understanding, including models and theories, are contestable and are refined over time through a process of review by the scientific community(VCSSU114)

- Multicellular organisms rely on coordinated and interdependent internal systems to respond to changes to their environment (VCSSU117)

 

Science Inquiry Skills:

- Formulate questions or hypotheses that can be investigated scientifically, including identification of independent, dependent and controlled variables (VCSIS134)

- Select and use appropriate equipment and technologies to systematically collect and record accurate and reliable data, and use repeat trials to improve accuracy, precision and reliability (VCSIS136)

- Construct and use a range of representations, including graphs, keys, models and formulas, to record and summarise data from students’ own investigations and secondary sources, to represent qualitative and quantitative patterns or relationships, and distinguish between discrete and continuous data (VCSIS137)

- Analyse patterns and trends in data, including describing relationships between variables, identifying inconsistencies in data and sources of uncertainty, and drawing conclusions that are consistent with evidence (VCSIS138)

 

General Capabilities:

- Ethical Understanding: Advances in scientific understanding often rely on developments in technology and technological advances are often linked to scientific discoveries

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