Science Unit of Work

School name: Team teaching: Year Level: 3/4 Duration: 4 sessions

Holy Child Primary School Session 1: Belinda and Patricia
Session 2: Andrea and Anna
Session 3: Tatiana and Taylor
Session 4: Monica and Nathalie

Classroom: Highly multicultural

A: Overall aim of the unit

At the end of this unit students will be able to recognise how our actions may pollute and impact negatively on our
environment and the wider world.
Lesson plan- Session: 3

Name of the school Year Level: 3/4

Holy Child Primary School Name and Surname: Tatiana Barbari and Taylor

Aim:
For student to gain an understanding of how human actions impact the water source and the environment.
a. LEARNING OUTCOMES: c. ASSESSMENT TO BE COLLECTED:

 Gain an understanding of what water pollution is/

 Gain insight into how human impact changes the natural Formative assessments will be taken as constructivist
environment. learning requires assessing over a period of time to
 Understand that water pollution is a global issue. understand how their learning has grown (Skamp, 2004). As
students participate in group discussions, ideas discussed in
Victorian Curriculum will be recorded (Fleer, 2015). These ideas and
Capabilities: observations will be collected onto a Vee diagram provided
in prior lessons to allow students to log their ongoing
 Critical and creative thinking thoughts and ideas (Liu, 2009).
 Ethical
 Intercultural During the experiment, students will discuss ideas as they
 Personal and social attempt to filter the water and that they can't fully clean the
polluted water. Conclusions will be made as why it's not
possible to clean the polluted water.
 Students will be assessed as they practice
 relationship skills and responsible decision making,
this will be recorded through observations.
 Direct observations will be taken as students will
Science Inquiry Skills discuss the connection between the tuning in activity
and the experiment.
Questioning and predicting  Students understanding of sustainability will be
- With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can assessed by collecting samples of quotes from the
be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen students.
based on prior knowledge (VCSIS065)  Students’ Vee diagrams will be collected and
observed by educators at the end of the lesson
(appendix 2)
Science understanding
 Students will be asked to record one new thing they
Science as a human endeavour
have taken for the lesson to assist in educators
- Science knowledge helps people to understand the effects of
understanding what students took away from the
their actions (VCSSU056
lesson.

Communicating

- Represent and communicate observations, ideas and findings

to show patterns and relationships using formal and informal
scientific language (VCSIS072)

School priorities:

- School Concepts Level Focus - Sustainability all levels and

Identity level 1.
- SEL Competencies - Responsible decision making and
Relationship skills.
- The Principles of Learning and Teaching 1-6.
 b. TEACHING APPROACH CHOSEN:

During this lesson students will be encouraged to explore and

develop their own ideas through experimentation and group
discussion. This inquiry based approach allows for students to solve
the problem presented to them in a way that is engaging and
facilitates learning (Ross, Skinner & Fillippino, 2005). In addition to
this this lesson is designed to be taught with an environmental
psychology in mind. This will stimulate students thinking about how
their and human interactions can affect the environment (Kollmuss &
Agyeman, 2002). These teaching approaches have been selected
because not only do they most benefit the students but they also fall
in line with the Victorian curriculum.

d. SPECIFIC AND DETAILED ACTIVITIES

Teacher will: introduce each other.

Teacher will: ask the students if they brought their tool box.
Teacher will: remind students of what is the tool box.
Teacher will: give a short summary of what they'll be doing today. The lesson will begin with the students observing photos, next in
pairs they will be doing an experiment and the lesson will end with a discussion.
Teacher will: ask students to sit in their groups.
Tuning in:
Teacher will: give each group one photo (appendix 3).
Teacher will: give students two minutes to discuss in their groups the photo. Students will be prompted to talk about not only what
they see in the images but also what they think it may mean.
Students will: From this, each group will show everyone the photo and tell the classroom what they’ve observed in the photo and
what they think it represents.
Teacher will: tell the students that each photo is from different country in the world.

Teacher will: ask critical thinking questions:

What’s one thing all the photos have in common? (if the concept of water pollution has not been mentioned by students)
Does anyone know what water pollution means?
Has anyone seen an example of water pollution in Australia or in any other parts of the world? if so were?
In your group, discuss which natural places are the most common for water pollution?

Experiment
Activity adapted from (n.d) Protecting our Water Resources: Students Activities for the Classroom.

PART 1:

Teacher will: Instruct students, in pairs to collect their materials. (Plastic cups, paper strips sand, vinegar, detergent, pencil
shavings).
Teachers will: encourage students to record observations in Vee diagram session 3 section.
Teacher will: encourage students to participate in discussion as they are adding the materials into the plastic cup.
Students will: observe the polluted water and record observations in Vee diagram session 3 section:
PART 2:
Teacher will: ask one group at a time to come up and collect the tell materials needed for the next part of the experiment.
Students will: grab one plastic cup, spoons, coffee filter and cotton ear buds in order to attempt to clean the polluted water using
any method the think will be successful.
Teacher will: encourage students to record observations in Vee diagram session 3 section.

Discussion:
Teacher will: ask critical thinking questions:
Was anyone successful at cleaning the polluted water?
Why they were or weren’t successful?
What does this experiment show them?
Can we relate this experiment to the real life?
Is this water healthy for humans, animals and plants to drink?
What effect might this have on our animals and the ecosystem they live in?
What can we do to ensure it doesn’t get this way?
Assessment:
Teachers will: Use post experiment discussion time to record any observations or quotes that help to demonstrate that students
have met the learning outcomes
Students will: discuss connection between the photos shown earlier and the experiment.
Students will: Students’ Vee diagrams will be collected and observed by educators at the end of the lesson (appendix 5).

References:

Earthporm. (n.d) 23 Heartbreaking Photos Of Pollution That Will Change The Way You Live [image]. Retrieved from
Fleer, M. (2015). Science: For children. Port Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Glennine, A., & Cox, L. (2014). The river you can’t see for RUBBISH: Former Indonesian paradise is now clogged with household
waste and toxic chemicals dumped by textile factories [image]. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2601944/Indonesian-river-clogged-toxic-chemicals-dumped-textile-factories.html
http://www.earthporm.com/heartbreaking-photos-of-pollution/
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-
environmental behaviour? Environmental Education Research, 18(3), 239-260. doi:10.1080/13504620220145401
Liu, X. (2009). Essentials of science classroom assessment. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Nguyen, D. (n.d). Water Pollution in Vietnam “A better future for water, life and the environment” [image]. Retrieved from
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work/themes/governance/]
Protecting our Water Resources: Students Activities for the Classroom. (n.d). Water Resource Educational Activities for
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http://www.stormwater.ucf.edu/toolkit/vol3/Contents/pdfs/Student%20Activities/student_activities.pdf
Rapid Industrialization Causing Environmental Issues in Asia, China and India. (2013) Pollution in India [Image]. Retrived from
http://environmental-issues-asia-china.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/pollution-in-india.html
Ross, A., Skinner, C., & Fillippino, T. (2005). It's Not Easy Being Green—Adaptation is Our Theme: Inquiry Teaching in the Middle-
Level Science Classroom. Childhood Education, 81(4), 228-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2005.10522278
Skamp, K. (2004). Teaching primary science constructively (2nd ed.). Southbank, Australia: Thomson.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2017). Victorian Curriculum: Science. Retrieved from
http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/intercultural-capability/introduction/structure
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