Regenerating Australia - The Importance of Planting Native Plants

Australian curriculum content descriptions: 

Year 5 Science:

• Year 5 Science: Biological Science – Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment (ACSSU043)
• Interpret data and information displayed in a range of formats to identify, describe and compare distributions, patterns and trends, and to infer relationships (ACHASSI100).

Year 6 Science:

• Year 6 Science: Biological Science – The growth and survival of living things are affected by physical conditions of their environment (ACSSU094).

Syllabus outcomes:  ST3-10LW, ST3-11LW.

General capabilities: Literacy, Numeracy and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.1, OI.2, OI.3.

Relevant parts of Year 5 achievement standards:
Students analyse how the form of living things enables them to function in their environments. Students follow instructions to pose questions for investigation and predict the effect of changing variables when planning an investigation. They use equipment in ways that are safe and improve the accuracy of their observations. Students construct tables and graphs to organise data and identify patterns in the data. They compare patterns in their data with predictions when suggesting explanations. They describe ways to improve the fairness of their investigations and communicate their ideas and findings using multimodal texts.

Relevant parts of Year 6 achievement standards:
Students describe and predict the effect of environmental changes on individual living things. Students explain how scientific knowledge helps us to solve problems and inform decisions and identify historical and cultural contributions.

Students follow procedures to develop investigable questions and design investigations into simple cause-and-effect relationships. They identify variables to be changed and measured and describe potential safety risks when planning methods. They collect, organise and interpret their data, identifying where improvements to their methods or research could improve the data. They describe and analyse relationships in data using appropriate representations and construct multimodal texts to communicate ideas, methods and findings.

Unit of work: Plants

Teaching Time: 120 minutes.

Level of teacher scaffolding: High – support student movement around the classroom during learning activities, and facilitate class discussions.

• Access to the film Regenerating Australia
• Dropper (to collect water drops) – one per student or pair
• Plant Identifier App for Phone – optional
• Plastic freezer bags – two per student
• Regeneration Factsheet – one copy per student.

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• Communication
• Creativity
• Critical thinking
• Social skills

Regenerating Australia is a Regen Studios film developed and produced in association with WWF-Australia. Cool.org and Regen Studios would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of Shark Island Foundation, Documentary Australia Foundation, and our philanthropic partners in the development of these teaching resources.