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Travel Times

Life would be very different today if we did not have modern transport. In this activity, students calculate the time it would take for humans to travel long distances through different modes of transport. They then analyse the impact of these technological developments.

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Creating an Indigenous plant-use garden: vision

Planning for an Indigenous plant-use garden is a good way to develop a connection with and respect for First Nations people's perspectives. Use this learning activity to explore exciting ideas, create goals and understand more about successful Indigenous plant-use garden projects. Outcomes of this learning activity are ...

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Beyond Earth: Shelter from the Elements

This resource provides a scaffold for students to undertake a design challenge. The design challenge requires students to develop a shelter that protects humans from the hostile conditions on another planet. Students draw on their existing scientific understanding (for example, conductors and insulators), along with their ...

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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.

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The life cycle of your polyester t-shirt

This illustrated article describes the environmental impact resulting from the making of the textile, the off-shore manufacture and the retail distribution of a t-shirt to an Australian consumer.

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Contemporary fire management

In this resource, students learn about ways that groups are combining traditional indigenous knowledge of fire management with satellite imagery, fuel load mapping, and aerial incendiary technology. Students will investigate the interaction between traditional knowledge of fire management and new technologies. Using case ...

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Paper Circuits

This activity invites students to use copper tape and surface-mount LEDs to make creative circuits on a flat surface, like a piece of paper. Students can make light-up greeting cards or create three-dimensional pop-up paper sculpture that have working lights in them. The activity includes a list of tools and materials required, ...

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Tiny Theaters

This activity invites students to tell stories inside cardboard boxes using craft materials and light. Turn on and off LEDs using a homemade switch and a circuit made with copper tape. The activity includes a list of tools and materials required, assembly instructions, inspiration and ideas, and encourages a tinkering mindset.

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Balancing Sculptures

This activity invites students to explore balance and stability by designing and building whimsical kinetic sculptures that tilt, slide, and suspend everyday objects and ordinary materials into surprising arrangements. Students explore stability, centres of gravity, balanced forces and symmetry through this hands-on, tactile ...

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Opencourses Hub

The hub provides access to a wide range of resources developed to support remote Indigenous students. The resources employ multimodal learning frameworks to improve student engagement and overcome literacy barriers in order to provide a positive learning experience for Year 8 – 12 students while building students' self-confidence ...

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The Conversation: innovation

A series of articles exploring the concept of innovation, including how governments can promote innovation, investment, science, and technology. The articles are authored by experts from universities in Australia and around the world. The collection is regularly updated with new contributions.The articles are clearly written ...

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Invictus Games Sydney 2018 – Design and Technology – Stage 5

How can we make our contemporary world more inclusive? This Stage 5 Design and Technology module, Build a better world - investigating inclusive and accessible technologies and spaces, explores inventions and architectural designs that seek to improve access for those with disabilities throughout their everyday routines. ...

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How do solar panels work?

The Earth intercepts a lot of solar power: 173,000 terawatts. That’s 10,000 times more power than the planet’s population uses. So is it possible that one day the world could be completely reliant on solar energy? Richard Komp examines how solar panels convert solar energy to electrical energy. This TedEd animation (4:58 ...

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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 ...

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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, ...

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Design thinking across the curriculum

This cross-curriculum resource is designed to introduce Stage 2, 3 and 4 students to the design thinking process through a series of videos and interactive activities. This resource is also downloadable as a SCORM file: the downloaded version will only work if you upload it to a webserver, such as Moodle or Canvas.

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How does the Sydney Metro meet the needs of society? – 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.

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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.

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How to grow a pair of jeans

This is a slideshow for primary students that traces the steps in cotton production and processing from seeds to jeans. The ten slides in the show use photographs and relatively simple text to cover ground preparation for the cotton crop; seed planting; irrigation and the efficient use of water by Australian cotton farmers; ...

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How do you like your eggs?

This is a teacher resource containing a sequence of inquiry relating to egg production systems used by egg farmers in Australia. It contains material to assist planning, implementing and assessing a research task about the egg production systems and the management techniques used to produce eggs, the claims associated with ...