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