Curriculum resources

Students play First Nations games, discover First Nations toys and investigate the forces of pushing and pulling through movements such as throwing, hitting, spinning and rolling. They design and make a toy using natural materials applying their knowledge of forces and First Nations games.

This unit explores the important information First Nations Peoples collect and communicate from observing the natural environment. Students will identify and make connections to what we observe, why we observe, how we observe and ways to communicate observations.

This unit guides learners to explore seasons, both Western and Indigenous, through observation, community research, hands-on activities and critical thinking. Indigenous seasonal knowledge was essential in the past for living well, and remains important today in order to live with and look after Country for future generations.

Students explore the diversity of Indigenous art, analysing how symbols, patterns, shape and colour are used to record and communicate cultural, spiritual, historical and geographical knowledge. Students explore how to use these same design components to communicate information about their own lives within their local landscape.

Students will be immersed in First Nations stories, art and dance and reflect on how this can enrich their own communication and understanding. They will learn how to use features such as animal tracks, visual patterns, rhyme, descriptive words and movement to read the world and communicate meanings to others.

Students investigate ways materials can be physically changed through hands-on learning. They develop understanding by predicting, observing and discussing the results of changes. Students learn about changes First Nations Peoples make to natural materials and use this knowledge, and exploration, to design their own object from natural materials.

Students explore length using both variable and uniform informal units of measurement and investigate ways First Nations people use measurement in everyday life. Students create a weaving artwork using informal measurement to share their learning with others.

Students explore how cultural stories of First Nations Peoples of Australia describe the patterns in the changing positions of the sun, moon and stars. Students recognise that astronomers use patterns of movement of celestial objects in the sky.

Students learn about the types of toys used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, methods used in making them, and the push and pull forces involved in using them. Students design and make a toy boat using sustainable materials and race them to test their designs.

Students compare the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals, and investigate why they’re important resources. They discover how rocks and minerals are used by First Nations Peoples, and learn about scientific knowledges that have been passed down through generations.

Students learn how First Nations Peoples understand and use the life cycle of living things sustainably. They develop an understanding and appreciation for the diversity of life through personal observation, investigation and creative writing.

Students explore the use of scientific knowledge for the development of effective and sustainable techniques and products in First Nations communities over thousands of years. Students learn how knowledge of the change in state between solid and liquid through heating is used to adapt materials when creating a range of products.

Students explore heat and heat transfer, identifying examples in their everyday lives, and observe cooking methods at home as examples of heat transfer. Students learn about First Nations cooking methods to better understand the cultural importance that‘s woven into the cooking and sharing of food in many communities.

Students examine the ecological importance of the Daintree Rainforest and learn about the Daintree’s Traditional Custodians – Eastern Kuku Yalanji People. Students also learn how, as a decomposer and keystone species, the southern cassowary regenerates the Daintree Rainforest by distributing seeds.

Students learn about water and the ways it enriches life. They explore how water’s perceived, valued and how it connects places in the environment. In looking at how First Nations Peoples understand and care for water, students develop their appreciation for water and water places, to learn to care for and sustain these places.

Students explore the relationship between pattern and symmetry in mathematical equations and as a tool to estimate and predict outcomes. Students will appreciate the central role that pattern, symmetry, and scientific thinking and processes in mathematics and science play in Indigenous life and cultures.

Students investigate properties of natural materials through investigation, experiments and research. They learn how First Nations Peoples apply scientific knowledges to create tools, clothing and artworks. Students learn how the diversity of Australia’s materials defines the design of everyday items.

Students learn how we can use scientific knowledge of erosion and weathering to better protect and preserve sites of cultural significance of First Nations Peoples. Students experiment on different materials to see erosion and weathering in action.

Students explore how First Nations Peoples use knowledges of the structural features and behaviours of some animals and plants. They learn about Australia’s unique plant and animal diversity, and how First Nations Peoples to use and manage this through ancestral knowledge systems and practices.

Students explore sustainable Indigenous resource management practices. Students engage with perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples about how relationship to Country shapes decision-making, and they examine a geographical site to show how the environment was altered to sustain ways of living.

In this science resource, students will test predictions by gathering data and using evidence to develop explanations of observable facts and events. They’ll examine First Nations Peoples’ contributions to, and the importance of, Indigenous astronomy stories and knowledge to understand phenomena from the land, sky, sea and waterways.

Explore how First Nations Peoples use science to select and change materials. Students investigate natural materials, design tools using local resources, and explore reversible and irreversible changes through cultural knowledge and practical experiments.

This unit explores the relationship between habitats and survival of living things and how the knowledges of First Nations Peoples about Country allowed different species to thrive for millennia. Students investigate changing physical conditions by creating their own experiment.

Students learn about Indigenous ecological knowledge and fire management practices. They investigate how Indigenous knowledge continues to be used today to look after plants, animals and the landscape; and how the science of reversible or irreversible change applies.

Students explore First Nations Peoples’ knowledges of Earth and space cycles, the significance of sky Dreaming, and how cycles are used in daily life. Students compare and contrast this with Western scientific understanding of the same phenomena through a variety of hands-on science activities.

Students explore their local environment by surveying biodiversity and creating food webs. They investigate the differences between various types of fire, including cultural burning, and how such fires affect biodiversity in their local region.

Students compare and contrast First Nations Peoples’ different approaches to classifying organisms and the Western scientific approach known as the Linnaean system. They explore how different classification systems might inform our knowledge of the ecological interactions between organisms, including food chains and food webs.

Students explore ancient and contemporary chemistry techniques that people, including First Nations Peoples of Australia, use to separate substances from mixtures. They investigate how particles in pure substances and mixtures can be modelled and how differences in the properties of substances can be used to separate mixtures.

Students explore how First Nations Peoples use unbalanced forces to enhance motion in the design of everyday objects. They’re given opportunities to understand the physics of motion through a variety of hands-on science activities that are underpinned by First Nations pedagogy.

This unit explores the cultural accounts of geological features and events by First Nations Peoples, and how these histories have been preserved for millennia. Students research and locate volcanoes around Australia and compare creation stories against the geological evidence found today.

In this geology unit, students explore how rocks are formed and change over time, alongside the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ geological knowledges and rock selection. Students understand the importance of protecting culturally significant geological sites.

Students investigate how First Nations people use geological knowledge and sophisticated mining techniques to extract ochre, and the chemical processes employed to make pigments and dyes. Students analyse how the colonisation of Australia impacts the sharing of Indigenous sciences and disrupts First Nations people’s connection to Country.

Students investigate how First Nations Peoples’ land and fire management techniques assist to maintain biodiversity, reduce the severity of bushfires and reduce carbon emissions. Students explore the use of renewable energies used by First Nations people in remote communities.

Students examine how current carbon-dating science supports First Nations Peoples’ ancient oral histories of and long presence on this continent. Students research and present on ancient artefact locations and learn how advances in technologies are giving a greater insight into the continent’s past.

Students investigate the principles of convection, conduction and radiation through a case study in possum skin cloaks, an important practical and cultural item for First Nations Peoples in south-eastern Australia. Students apply what they’ve learnt, as well as principles of biomimicry, to develop and test their own perfect insulators.

In this biological sciences unit, students investigate disorders of feedback systems and effects on the development of products to address issues. Students research the relationships between First Nations healing and biomedical models in contemporary medical systems, and present findings to peers.

In this biological science unit, students explore the relationship humans have with ecosystems, focusing on the ways First Nations people have used and continue to use scientific knowledge to maintain ecosystems. Students investigate the use of fire to regulate biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems, and as a land management technique.

Students learn about the contribution of First Nations knowledges to Western science, and the benefits of approaching science from different worldviews. They consider global issues using understanding of First Nations science and cultural knowledges, and show their understanding by writing a report.

The past tells how our ancestors migrated across the world and came to settle in Sahul. A story of resilience is uncovered through studying the biological evolution of First Nations Peoples. Genetic isolation and extreme climate changes have given rise to societies rich in archaeological histories.

This chemical science unit looks at the chemical processes First Nations people use across the continent to detoxify substances (such as seeds) to make them edible. It covers processes such as leaching and fermentation.

As the first astronomers in Australia, First Nations Peoples have rich knowledges and understanding of the night sky and how it affects the land. First Nations Peoples have used knowledges of the celestial bodies for navigation, weather predictions and explaining the universe's origin through sky stories.