Justification of Australian Curriculum Links – Science Year 5

Australian Curriculum link/content descriptor Justification

Science Understanding
Biological Sciences
Living things have structural features and
adaptations that help them to survive in their
environment
Science Inquiry Skills
Questioning and predicting
With guidance, pose clarifying questions and
make predictions about scientific investigations
In Ecosystem in a bottle, students learn about
how to care for living things and the features
and adaptions needed to help their plant
survive.
The irrigation challenge, is a direct example of a
man-made adaption made so plants can survive
without rain for long periods of time.
Students can ask the Bundaberg fruit and
vegetable growers questions to clarify their
understanding and design choices in each
design challenge.

Evaluating As students design, they will need to reflect on

Reflect on and suggest improvements to
scientific investigations
Communicating
Communicate ideas, explanations and
processes using scientific representations in a
variety of ways, including multi-modal texts
Science as a Human Endeavor
Use and influence of Science
Scientific knowledge is used to solve problems
and inform personal and community decisions
Science Inquiry Skills
Planning and conducting
Identify, plan and apply the elements of
scientific investigations to answer questions
and solve problems using equipment and
materials safely and identifying potential risks
any mistakes they make to improve their
overall product and achieve an effective
irrigation system/ecosystem design.
In groups, students will communicate their
ideas with one another and after they have
created their designs, will explain what they
have achieved and how they achieved it. The
mini irrigation and ecosystems are scientific
representations of what they have been
learning about.
Each design challenge is set up with a problem-
based scenario and the students are designing
the solution informing their personal
knowledge and possibly the community
decisions through the experts seeing their
designs and considering them on a larger scale.
Within each design challenge, students are
practicing safe use of materials and equipment
to solve the problems of the given scientific
investigations into providing irrigation and a
sustainable ecosystem.

Therefore, the STEM event covers each of these relevant year 5 science content descriptors for
students through completing the Irrigation and Ecosystem in a Bottle design challenges. This leads all
students towards achieving the relevant Year 5 Science Achievement standards:

Students analyse how the form of living things enables them to function in their environments.
Students discuss how scientific developments have affected people’s lives, help us solve problems
and how science knowledge develops from many people’s contributions.

(Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2020)