With the generous assistance of educators in the fields of
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and History, HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences), below you’ll see where and how the epic flight (and flight more generally) can be studied within the Australian Curriculum.
Reception/Foundation: Flight Thematic Unit.Essential Question: How does the shape of a balloon affect its flight? Science: The way objects move depends on a variety of factors, including their size and shape (ACSSU005). Mathematics: Sort, describe and name familiar two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects in the environment (ACMMG009). Design and Technology: Explore how technologies use forces to create movement in products (ACTDEK002). For a four-lesson overview, please click here.
Year 1: Essential Question: How does changing the properties of a plane change how it moves? Science: Everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways (ACSSU018). Mathematics: Identify outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language such as ‘will happen’, ‘won’t happen’ or ‘might happen’ (ACMSP024). Design Technology: Explore how technologies use forces to create movement in products (ACTDEK002).
Year 2: Essential Question: What forces manipulate the travel of kites in flight? Science: A push or a pull affects how an object moves or changes shape. Mathematics: Investigate the effect of one-step slides and flips with and without digital technologies (ACMMG045). Design technology: Explore how technologies use forces to create movement in products (ACTDEK002).
Year 3: Essential Question: How does the a battery helicopter produce heat compared to a pull string helicopter? Science: Heat can be produced in many ways and can move from one object to another (ACSSU049). Mathematics: Measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of length, mass and capacity. Design Technology: Select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques and use safe work practices to make designed solutions (ACTDEP016).
Year 4: Essential Question: How do forces affect the lift and drag on a helicopter? Science: Forces can be exerted by one object on another through direct contact or from a distance. Mathematics: Select and trial methods for data collection, including survey questions and recording sheets. Use simple scales, legends and directions to interpret information contained in basic maps. Design Technology: Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a product or system.
Year 8: Essential Question: What technology has increased the kinetic energy of a plane? How does the amount of kinetic energy affect the speed of a plane? Science: Energy appears in different forms, including movement (kinetic energy), heat and potential energy, and energy transformations and transfers cause change within systems (ACSSU155) People use science understanding and skills in their occupations and these have influenced the development of practices in areas of human activity (ACSHE136). Mathematics: Plot linear relationships on the Cartesian plane with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMNA193). Design and Technology: Analyse how motion, force and energy are used to manipulate and control electromechanical systems when designing simple, engineered solutions (ACTDEK031).
Year 10: Essential Question: How are airplanes engineered using Newton’s laws and energy transformations? Science: Energy conservation in a system can be explained by describing energy transfers and transformations (ACSSU190). The motion of objects can be described and predicted using the laws of physics (ACSSU229). Advances in scientific understanding often rely on technological advances and are often linked to scientific discoveries (ACSHE192). Mathematics: Substitute values into formulas to determine an unknown (ACMNA234). Design Technology: Investigate and make judgments on how the characteristics and properties of materials are combined with force, motion and energy to create engineered solutions (ACTDEK043).
Year 10: Post WWI. Developments in flight/experience of pilots. Why was this an important goal? What was the significance for Australia (trade/travel/defence/communication)?
Year 9: Geographies of Interconnections. Focus on investigating how people, through choices and actions, are connected to places throughout the world. Students examine ways transport and information and communication technologies have made it possible for services to be provided internationally. Transport/communications comparisons – the impact of becoming a more interconnected world.
Year 1: Differences and similarities between students’ daily lives and life during their parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods.
Year 2: Through a study of technological change, students see how they are both similar and different to people in the past and how they are connected to places near and far. History: Knowledge and understanding. Students examine remains of the past and consider why they should be preserved. Examine impact of technology on people’s lives in the past. Geography: How have changes in technology shaped our daily life? How changing technology changed lives in the past. The influence of purpose, distance and accessibility on the frequency with which people visit places.
Year 3: Students examine how individuals and groups celebrate and contribute to communities in the past and present, through establishing and following rules, decision-making, participation and commemoration.Inquiry questions: How do people contribute to their communities, past and present? What events to different people and groups celebrate and commemorate and what does this tell us about our communities?
Year 5: How have individuals and groups in the past and present contributed to the development of Australia?
Year 6: Australia in the past and present and its connections with a diverse world. The Year 6 curriculum focuses on the social, economic and political development of Australia as a nation, particularly after 1900, and Australia’s role within a diverse and interconnected world today. Students explore the events and developments that shaped Australia as a democratic nation and stable economy, and the experiences of the diverse groups who have contributed to and are/were affected by these events and developments, past and present. How have key figures, events and values shaped Australian society, its system of government and citizenship? History: the contribution of individuals and groups to the development of Australian society since Federation. Geography: Australia’s connections with other countries and how these change people and places.