Search results

Online

Growing healthy plants using natural pesticides

Plants are vulnerable to pests and diseases. This learning activity is designed for children to: understand how to cultivate healthy plants using organic gardening methods; look to natural ingredients as a solution to ridding plants of unwanted pests and diseases; and know how to make a natural pesticide and evaluate the ...

Text

I am an inventor lesson

In this lesson, students explore the life, work and times of Rube Goldberg. The lesson uses Rube Goldberg’s work to teach students about simple machines, how they function and their design principles. Working in groups, the students then design and create a Rube Goldberg machine that can complete a simple task. Students ...

Downloadable

If only animals could talk

This is an illustrated narrative describing the engineering decisions made to create wildlife corridors for safe passage for Australian fauna to protect them and the stormwater networks they had been traveling through. It shows the creativity, innovation and collaboration required, and focuses on the value being an engineer ...

Online

Beeswax wrap project

This project creates opportunities for students to design, create, market and sell a plastic wrap alternative, and to work with a local business or community group that supplies some materials. This lesson was devised by Trudy Ward, Clarendon Vale Primary School, Tasmania.

Text

Transportation Though the Ages: Science as a human endeavour

Humans are constantly working to develop and improve our technology and understanding. This resource provides step-by-step instructions to help students consider why innovative design and improvement is important. Students firstly identify as many types of transport they can think of and then discuss why new types of transport ...

Downloadable

Moving a town

This is an illustrated retelling of the engineering decisions made to relocate a town from low to high ground following a dangerous flooding event. Based on a real-life event, the story shows the creativity, innovation and collaboration required to manage the process and focuses on the value engineers brings to the local ...

Online

Sphero slalom lesson

In this lesson students explore slalom sports and how competitors maximise speed when completing a course. Students research different slalom sports and then share their findings with the class. Students investigate the impact of distance and friction on time to complete a course through digital and unplugged activities. ...

Online

Education - Return to 1616 Ecological Restoration Project

This is a comprehensive education package based on of the world's most exciting ecological restoration projects that is happening right now in Western Australia! It features interactive virtual tours, 3D skulls, videos, real-action inquiry projects, research projects, native animal educational card games and activities, ...

Downloadable

Fighting floodwaters

This is an illustrated story retelling the real-life engineering decisions made to mitigate flood damage to a Queensland town that experiences frequent, dangerous flooding. It focuses on the value of being an engineer and how It benefits local communities. The downloadable PDF includes classroom activities.

Video

Game builder

Game Builder is an online resource for teachers and students making their very first videogame, and for those who have some experience already. There’s more to a good game than good code! As with most creative projects, success comes from good ideas and thorough preparation. This resource will take you through the building ...

Online

Creating a bee hotel: construction

As we clear land for urban development, and for broadacre farming, we remove the spaces where bees nest and find their food. With no food, and nowhere to produce their young, native bee populations are under threat of local extinction. In this activity, we will look at providing nesting spaces for native bees which mimic ...

Video

Different paper plane designs

How many different paper plane designs are there? Lots! Watch as Dylan Parker, paper plane expert, demonstrates some of his favourites. Notice the way the different shapes and features of the planes cause them to move through the air in different ways. Which one do you like the most? Why not have a go at making something similar?

Video

Introduction 'Technology' in AgriBusiness (Animation)

This is a video about how Australian farmers embrace technology. Using animation, photographs and commentary with occasional puns and jokes by a primary-school--aged boy, it sets the scene of the overall impact of technology, describes why Australian farmers have always been innovative; provides a definition of technology; ...

Video

What do authors do besides writing – they farm truffles?

This is a video about author and farmer SD Gentill and how she combines writing with growing black truffles. It consists of an interview in which she answers questions posed by Will, a young boy. To a background of scenes from her Snowy Mountains farm and a Brisbane restaurant she supplies, Gentill explains how truffles ...

Video

Spark: A better way to predict the spread of bushfires

In recent years, new technologies have helped us respond to natural disasters more quickly by providing up-to-date information as it becomes available. What if we could take this one step further with new technologies that can also predict disasters? Learn how Spark, which uses our existing knowledge of bushfire behaviours ...

Online

Game changers and change makers: resource book of ideas for National Science Week 2018

This resource book includes ideas to support students’ involvement in investigating, exploring, experimenting, designing, creating and communicating their understandings about game changers and change makers from the past who have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems, to game changers and change makers of today, ...

Interactive

Environmental and Zoo Education Centres – primary school resources

A collection of digital resources for primary school teachers and students to support teaching and learning from home, with a particular focus on geography, science and history. The resources were developed by Department of Education teachers from 25 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres in NSW and include Google Sites, ...

Online

Sydney Metro – a 3D design focused inquiry – Stage 3

This inquiry-based unit of work was created, trialled and peer reviewed as part of a professional learning program in inquiry-based learning for school teachers. The professional learning courses were part of a pilot partnership between the NSW Government’s Sydney Metro transport agency and Western Sydney University.

Video

How to build a Mars rover

Imagine if you were building a robot to help you explore Mars. That's exactly what these engineering students are doing. Watch this video to find out about their design process. How important do you think it is to test and review the final product after it has been built?

Video

How to fly around the world without fuel

Imagine if we could fly day and night using only solar energy. The expertly engineered Solar Impulse plane is flying around the world delivering a powerful message: clean technologies can achieve the seemingly impossible. Powered by a dream, determination and breakthrough engineering, this flying adventure aims to inspire ...