External evaluators ACIL Allen want to hear about your engagement with Primary Connections, Science Connections, Science by Doing and reSolve Maths.
This survey will ask you questions about:
how you use the program(s)
the impact the program(s) have had on your professional learning and teaching
how the program(s) have impacted your students’ learning
The evaluation is examining the impact of all three programs, their effectiveness and the extent to which the resources contribute to improved science and/or maths teaching in Australia.
The survey has been extended to Friday 4 April 2025!
Explore the features and functions of our new website.
Introducing our new integrated suite of professional learning-powered teaching resources for all career stages and contexts.
Watch this short video overview for a tour of the new website and its key features.
Using our new online teaching sequences
These interactive resources support teacher practice, integrate the latest research and explain the design thinking behind each decision. Embedded professional learning supports understanding of key ideas and pedagogical practices.
Browse the range of sequences available, using the Year level and/or Australian Curriculum Strand filters to find what you are looking for.
Looking for the downloadable AC V8.4 resources from our previous website? You'll find them all in our Classic sequences section.
Each task features integrated professional learning with teaching strategy support embedded in the teaching sequences, as well as connections to aligned professional learning resources.
Use the floating ‘design lens’ tool to toggle on enhanced advice and support, specific to each lesson step.
Editable downloads for you and your students accompany each task, so they’re easy to use and adapt.
Thepedagogical toolbox is full of research-based strategies are woven into each sequence, to support you and your students in the classroom.
You can also explore the toolbox at your own pace to take a deeper dive into particular areas of interest or practice.
The science contentsection of the site features in-depth articles about subject area content to support you and your students to develop deep understanding. The content areas match the teaching sequences so that you can move between the two.
Finally, you can search the site via the top menu and use a range of filters to find content.
Share your feedback
The site will continue to evolve, with new sequences and additional features planned for release across 2024-25. We’re keen to hear your feedback about the content, features and functionality of the site—you can use the “Feedback” tab from any page to share your ideas with us.
The Primary Connections team
Meet the educators and designers behind Primary Connections.
The Primary Connections team at the Academy includes expert educators with an array of professional experience, diverse knowledge and skillsets, and a passion for working alongside teachers. We have worked in a variety of education settings, nationally and internationally, in primary and secondary schools, cultural institutions, research organisations and tertiary settings including initial teacher education and research.
Helen Silvester, Learning Area Manager Science, Australian Academy of Science
Jennifer Lawrence, Senior Education Officer, Australian Academy of Science
Primary Connections is also supported by a diverse group of academics and educators who provide feedback and guidance on the design and development of our resources. Our current advisors include:
Professor Russell Tytler, Alfred Deakin Professor and Chair in Science Education at Deakin University, Melbourne
Associate Professor Peta White, Associate Professor in science and environmental education at Deakin University, Melbourne
Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, Director of Research Trinity Grammar School and Senior Lecturer Teacher Education Program, UTS School of Education
Professor Linda Hobbs, Associate Head of School (Research) School of Education, Deakin University and lead for the Girls As Leaders in STEM (GALS) program
Dr Charlotte Pezaro, teacher, teacher educator, curriculum writer, pedagogical strategist, assessment designer, coach, and impact planner
Dr Amy Strachan, Pedagogy and curriculum lecturer, University of Sunshine Coast, resource writer, and author of several books for primary education.
Professor Vaille Dawson, Professor of Science Education, Graduate Research Coordinator, University of Western Australia, Perth.
Content contributors
Kim Musgrove
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the staff and students at Caroline Chisholm Primary School for allowing us to visit and collect photos and video footage of teachers and students using our teaching sequences. If your school is interested in being part of future field tests, please sign up to be involved.
We would also like to thank teachers across Australia for their support in the design and testing of the new Primary Connections platform and sequences.
Our new interactive sequences are aligned to AC V9
Our classic sequences are aligned to AC V8.4
To make it easy to adapt our new resources for your curriculum or syllabus needs, we have provided an alignment section on each sequence overview page.
communicate scientific ideas about solids, liquids and gases in a manner appropriate for their selected audience.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
use scientific terminology appropriately, and explaining it using appropriate techniques.
use visual modes to support their written explanations.
In the Act phase, assessment is summative.
Students working at the achievement standard should have:
identified solids, liquids and gases, and named the properties of each.
demonstrated an understanding of the particle model.
They might also have:
applied their understanding of the particle model to approximate the structure of more difficult to categorise substances.
communicated their science understanding effectively.
Refer to the Australian Curriculum content links on the Our design decisions tab for further information.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
A variety of texts that have been designed to communicate science ideas. The following websites are trusted resources with age-appropriate videos and texts:
A variety of materials to support the creation of multi-modal texts including access to a variety of digital tools
Lesson
Act
The Act phase empowers students to use the Core concepts and key ideas of science they have learned during the Inquire phase. It encourages students to develop a sense of responsibility as members of society—to act rather than be acted upon. It provides students with the opportunity to positively influence their own life and that of the world around them. For this to occur, students need to build foundational skills in an interactive mutually supportive environment with their community.
When designing the Act phase, consider ways that students could use their scientific knowledge and skills. Consider their interests and lifestyles that may intersect with the core concepts and key ideas. What context or problem would provide students with a way to use science to synthesise a design? How (and to whom) will students communicate their understanding?
Review the entries into the class science journal created over the course of the sequence.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Act
The Act phase empowers students to use the Core concepts and key ideas of science they have learned during the Inquire phase. It encourages students to develop a sense of responsibility as members of society—to act rather than be acted upon. It provides students with the opportunity to positively influence their own life and that of the world around them. For this to occur, students need to build foundational skills in an interactive mutually supportive environment with their community.
When designing the Act phase, consider ways that students could use their scientific knowledge and skills. Consider their interests and lifestyles that may intersect with the core concepts and key ideas. What context or problem would provide students with a way to use science to synthesise a design? How (and to whom) will students communicate their understanding?
Science education consists of a series of key ideas and core concepts that can explain objects, events and phenomena and link them to the experiences encountered by students in their lives. The purpose of the Anchor routine is to identify and link students’ learning to these ideas and concepts in a way that builds and deepens their understanding.
When designing the Act phase of a teaching sequence, consider the core concepts and key ideas that are relevant. The Anchor routine provides an opportunity to collate and revise the key knowledge and skills students have learned, in a way that emphasises the importance of science as a human endeavour.
Each student comes to the classroom with experiences made up from science-related knowledge, attitudes, experiences and resources in their life. The Connect routine is designed to tap into these experiences, and that of their wider community. It is also an opportunity to yarn with community leaders (where appropriate) to gain an understanding of the student’s lives, languages and interests. In the Act phase, this routine reconnects with the science capital of students so students can appreciate the relevance of their learning and the agency to make decisions and take action.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the everyday occurrences, phenomena and experiences that might relate to the science that they have learned. How could students show agency in these areas?
Examine a variety of texts that have been designed to communicate science ideas. Consider the features of these texts and their intended audiences.
What audience do you think this text was written for?
What words or pictures do they use to make you think that?
What was good about this text?
What would be improved? How would you improve it?
Would it be effective to try to communicate all the past weeks of our learning in a single text?
What difficulties might we encounter doing this?
How could we solve these problems?
Estimated time
Variable
Lesson type
Class
Act
The Act phase empowers students to use the Core concepts and key ideas of science they have learned during the Inquire phase. It encourages students to develop a sense of responsibility as members of society—to act rather than be acted upon. It provides students with the opportunity to positively influence their own life and that of the world around them. For this to occur, students need to build foundational skills in an interactive mutually supportive environment with their community.
When designing the Act phase, consider ways that students could use their scientific knowledge and skills. Consider their interests and lifestyles that may intersect with the core concepts and key ideas. What context or problem would provide students with a way to use science to synthesise a design? How (and to whom) will students communicate their understanding?
When students use their knowledge and skills in new ways, they also have an opportunity to develop and use their creative and critical thinking skills. With scaffolded support, they can become more confident to work in a team and develop a stronger sense of autonomy. This results in stronger student outcomes, attitudes and sense of empowerment.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider what activity would allow students to showcase their knowledge and skills. Consider the current abilities of your students. What are they capable of explaining? What props could they design or build that would support their explanations? How much information would they need in their design brief to support their thinking? How does this connect with their lives and interests?
Using the steps of the design thinking process, students apply their understanding of the properties of solids, liquids and gases and the arrangement of their particles to compose and publish a text that explains the ideas or answers questions about them.
Define
Outline the problem in a simple manner such as:
How can we communicate a science idea so that our audience will understand it?
Can we communicate everything we’ve learned in single text?
Why do you think that?
What issues might we encounter if we tried to do that?
Who are we communicating to?
What do we need to explain?
What do they already know?
Ideate
Students ideate/brainstorm ideas for topics for their text. Prompt students with questions if required:
What is oobleck?
What acts like a liquid, but is really a solid?
Why did my soft drink explode in the sun?
What do scientists say about particles?
Discuss the modes students might use to create their text, including print, voice recording, video, demonstration, text, animations, PowerPoint, poster, or any combination of these. Discuss the features of these texts, and advantages and limitations of each.
Prototype
Allow students time to plan and compose drafts of their chosen medium before the final product. Encourage students to consider their audience at each stage and to consider how their approach could appeal to the individuals in the audience.
Optional: You may wish to link this learning, particularly that about multi-modal texts and their creation, to students’ learning in English.
Estimated time
Various
Lesson type
Class and individual
Act
The Act phase empowers students to use the Core concepts and key ideas of science they have learned during the Inquire phase. It encourages students to develop a sense of responsibility as members of society—to act rather than be acted upon. It provides students with the opportunity to positively influence their own life and that of the world around them. For this to occur, students need to build foundational skills in an interactive mutually supportive environment with their community.
When designing the Act phase, consider ways that students could use their scientific knowledge and skills. Consider their interests and lifestyles that may intersect with the core concepts and key ideas. What context or problem would provide students with a way to use science to synthesise a design? How (and to whom) will students communicate their understanding?
A key part of Science Inquiry, the Communicate routine provides students with an opportunity to communicate their ideas effectively to others. It allows students a chance to show their learning to members of their community and provides a sense of belonging. It also encourages students to have a sense of responsibility to share their understanding of science and to use this to provide a positive influence in the community.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider who might be connected to the students that have an interest in science. Who in their lives could share their learning? What forum could be used to build an enthusiasm for science. Are there members of the community (parents, teachers, peers or wider community) who would provide a link to future science careers?
Organise for students to share their texts with the selected audience. Consider how the audience might provide feedback on students’ texts.
You might like to create a common list of criteria as a class by which the audience can evaluate the text, or support the students through a process of creating their own criteria based on their specific composition and its features.
Reflect on the sequence
You might:
refer to the class science journal and TWLH chart to reflect on what has been learned over the course of the unit.
consider the role of science communicators, and how students felt about working in that role.
Students prepare to undertake the role of science communicators by re-examining substances, considering what questions their audience might ask about them, and preparing possible responses and further questions to ask.
re-examine substances and considering how to answer questions about them, with supporting evidence.
predict the behaviour of the particles that make up difficult to categorise substances.
consider how they are building on the work of other scientists and science communicators.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
contribute to discussions about difficult to classify substances.
consider ways to effectively communicate science ideas.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
the questions students ask/anticipate. Can they be answered in detail by what has been learned in this teaching sequence? Or will they require further investigation?
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard copy)
Each group
Samples of substances students have examined during the teaching sequence, including those that were difficult to classify
Each student
Individual science journal (digital or hard copy)
Lesson
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Review what has been learned so far about the properties of solids, liquids and gases.
Review the role of a science communicator, and discuss again how students are going to create a text to convey the ideas they have learnt to their specific audience, and why these ideas are important.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Pose the questions: What is important for people to know about solids, liquids and gases? What questions might be asked about them? How might we respond?
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Re-examine the samples of the substances students have looked at during the course of the sequence, including any they had difficulty categorising, including oobleck, honey, various powdered solids, carbonated drinks (soft drink, mineral water), sponges etc.
In collaborative teams, students:
examine various substances.
discuss/record:
if each substance is a solid, liquid or gas.
if it might be difficult to categorise and why.
the category they would place it in.
why they would place it there.
represent what they think its particle structure might look like and why they think that.
consider the questions they might be asked about substances, and how they might answer them.
Prompt teams' thinking with sample questions if required:
If something can be poured, wouldn’t it be a liquid?
Is soft drink a liquid or a gas?
If something is soft, how can it be a solid?
Teams might also:
revise the terms used during this teaching sequence.
consider the amount of ‘science knowledge’ the audience may or may not already have, including the vocabulary they might use.
consider how they might, like a science communicator, use everyday language to communicate their ideas.
consider how these ideas are important to their audience, and why it might be important to know them.
Estimated time
20 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team
Pedagogical tools
Communicating science ideas
Science communicators effectively communicate science ideas to all.
Communicating science ideas
The goals of science communicators are to effectively communicate science ideas to all, to raise public awareness of and interest in science, and to engage diverse communities with science.
They use a variety of literary techniques, including persuasion, storytelling, humour and metaphors to connect with an audience’s interests and values.
By thinking about how they might communicate science ideas effectively, and engage potentially disinterested people in science, students are not only building their own science capital, but potentially the science capital of those around them.
Communicating science ideas
The goals of science communicators are to effectively communicate science ideas to all, to raise public awareness of and interest in science, and to engage diverse communities with science.
They use a variety of literary techniques, including persuasion, storytelling, humour and metaphors to connect with an audience’s interests and values.
By thinking about how they might communicate science ideas effectively, and engage potentially disinterested people in science, students are not only building their own science capital, but potentially the science capital of those around them.
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Share teams’ ideas about the substances they re-examined as a class.
How did you categorise some of the trickier substances?
Why did you categorise that way?
What do you think the particle structure would look like?
Do you think the properties of these trickier substances could be changed? How?
What would adding water, heat etc. do to the substances?
Teams then share the questions they think they might be asked about solids, liquids and gases, and the potential answers they have prepared. Record these in the class science journal.
Ask other teams if they might add any details to these potential answers, including considering how they might refer to particle theory in the explanations/answers.
Highlight that, by collaborating and building on each others’ work, they are behaving like scientists and science communicators who have investigated and communicated about particles before them.
What questions do you think people will ask you about the substances?
What responses might you give?
How can we build upon each other’s work to be the most prepared as possible to answer these questions?
How are we building on past scientists'/science communicators' work?
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
reflect on the list of solids, liquids and gases, created throughout the teaching sequence, as well as some of the trickier substances students have encountered. How confident do they feel that substances have been categorised correctly?
add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to solids, liquids and gases.
add to the class TWLH, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about particles.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Revise the term particles introduced in the Launch phase. Remind students that, based on the evidence collected over hundreds of years, scientists think that all substances are made of particles, and that it is the way these particles behave that make something a solid, liquid or gas.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Encourage students to ask questions about particles in relation to solids, liquids and gases. Record the questions in the class science journal.
If required, model some examples for students. For example:
How big are particles?
Do particles move?
How are the particles in solid, liquids and gases different?
How do particles in solids, liquids and gases behave?
Estimated time
10 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Guide students to role-play the behaviour or particles in a solid, a liquid, and a gas, without telling them which state of matter they are role-playing.
Solid
With a strong/stiff upright posture, students stand closely together in uniform rows. They hold hands tightly with the students beside/behind/in front of them (as much as is possible). Ask them to imagine that they are being pushed from one side. They need to slide in the direction they are being pushed, while maintaining their posture, proximity, contact with others and the floor.
Liquid
Place a rope or similar on the floor in a circular shape. Make sure the size of the circle is large enough to hold all students, but small enough that they get a sense that particles in liquid are close together and bonded—though not as close and as tightly bonded as a solid. Students stand in a non-uniform group, relatively close together, and hold hands loosely. Change the shape of the rope, making it square, triangular, freeform, etc. Students might need to move to conform to the new shape, but maintain a similar proximity with other students.
Gas
Students stand randomly in no particular shape, with non-uniform distances between themselves and other students. Students imagine that they are being gathered together. You might ask them to imagine a container enclosing them, or use a rope or similar to, in effect, round them up.
These role-plays require students to be in close proximity and make physical contact with one another. Determine the structure of this activity that is appropriate for your students and context. You might like to have the whole class participate in all three role plays, or split the class into three groups, selectively grouping students who might have sensory or other issues into groups in which they would feel comfortable.
Estimated time
15 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team and class
Pedagogical tools
Scientific models
Scientists use models to represent and visualise complex ideas.
Scientific models
Scientists use models to represent and visualise complex ideas. Models can help bring these ideas into focus, leading to more questions and better explanations. Models are also used to communicate ideas to others. They can be evaluated and refined over time. In this sequence, students explore the behaviour of particles in solids, liquids, and gases through modelling—creating a diagrammatic representation of initial ideas, which they revisit as the sequence progresses, then using role-play as a physical model to further refine their understanding.
It is important to understand that models also have limitations, and we must think critically about these. Models are approximations and are often simplified to make them easier to understand. They can be missing important details. The adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides) should be examined and discussed to determine whether it is ‘good enough’ for its current purpose. In this case, students are ‘playing particles’ but are missing the detail of what is happening at a subatomic level. However, the benefits of being able to visualise particles and their arrangement is ‘good enough’ to be helpful for students’ developing understanding.
Scientific models
Scientists use models to represent and visualise complex ideas. Models can help bring these ideas into focus, leading to more questions and better explanations. Models are also used to communicate ideas to others. They can be evaluated and refined over time. In this sequence, students explore the behaviour of particles in solids, liquids, and gases through modelling—creating a diagrammatic representation of initial ideas, which they revisit as the sequence progresses, then using role-play as a physical model to further refine their understanding.
It is important to understand that models also have limitations, and we must think critically about these. Models are approximations and are often simplified to make them easier to understand. They can be missing important details. The adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides) should be examined and discussed to determine whether it is ‘good enough’ for its current purpose. In this case, students are ‘playing particles’ but are missing the detail of what is happening at a subatomic level. However, the benefits of being able to visualise particles and their arrangement is ‘good enough’ to be helpful for students’ developing understanding.
Science content
Particles and particle theory
All matter is made up of very small particles called atoms.
Particles and particle theory
All matter is made up of very small particles called atoms. Atoms can join together to form molecules.
The way atoms and molecules are arranged in a substance will affect its state: that is whether it is a solid, liquid or gas.
Particles in a solid are held closely together with rigid bonds. They vibrate in place, but do not change position. For this reason, solids maintain a constant volume and shape, do not flow, and cannot be significantly compressed.
Particles in a liquid are held together with looser bonds that allow the particles to slide past each other. They still hold closely together, so maintain a constant volume, but the force of gravity means they will flow when poured, and take the shape of the container they’re poured in to. They have a flat, featureless surface when still.
Particles in a gas are not bonded together and will spread out to fill the available space or container. Because there is ‘space’ between the particles, a gas can be compressed.
All matter is made up of very small particles called atoms. Atoms can join together to form molecules.
The way atoms and molecules are arranged in a substance will affect its state: that is whether it is a solid, liquid or gas.
Particles in a solid are held closely together with rigid bonds. They vibrate in place, but do not change position. For this reason, solids maintain a constant volume and shape, do not flow, and cannot be significantly compressed.
Particles in a liquid are held together with looser bonds that allow the particles to slide past each other. They still hold closely together, so maintain a constant volume, but the force of gravity means they will flow when poured, and take the shape of the container they’re poured in to. They have a flat, featureless surface when still.
Particles in a gas are not bonded together and will spread out to fill the available space or container. Because there is ‘space’ between the particles, a gas can be compressed.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
After experiencing/observing all three role-plays, discuss with students their placement as particles, and which arrangement they think best represents solid, liquid and gas. Ask students to match their movements to the three descriptions of the properties of solids, liquids and gases that students have agreed upon in previous lessons.
What did you notice about the placement of particles in the first/second/third role-play?
How close were the particles to each other?
Did they appear connected?
How strongly were they connected?
How would you describe what happened when they were ‘moved’?
Which role-play would you associate with solids/liquids/gas? Why?
In collaborative teams, ask students to compose a description of the behaviour of particles in a solid, liquid and gas. Share the descriptions as a class, and construct an agreed description that can be added to the description of properties of each in the class science journal.
Working independently, students use their previous drawings/descriptions of solids, liquids and gases completed in the Launch phase to create a new annotated diagram. Encourage them to show the arrangement of particles in solids, liquids and gases. Prompt student thinking by referring explicitly to how they were arranged as ‘particles’ in each of the role-plays.
If required, show students illustrations that show the particle model of all three states of matter. You might like to have these ready on a piece of paper or iPad, and show individual students as required, rather than showing all students.
Undertake a gallery walk to share students’ representations.
Discuss:
the common features of students’ diagrams, and what they think constitutes a high-quality diagrammatic model.
the differences between students' diagrams. This might include a discussion about the size of particles as students represented them.
how the size of particles can differ.
Discuss the purpose of models and how they are used in science, including the benefits and limitations of using them.
What do you think a scientific model is?
Can you think of an example of a scientific model? Have you ever made one yourself?
Examples include using building blocks for a house, using playdough to test different shapes rolling down a hill, building a food chain to show how energy flows in the environment.
Note that the role-plays students just participated in were a type of scientific model, as are the diagram they have drawn showing the particle arrangement of solids, liquids and gases.
Why do you think that scientists often make/use models?
To represent their understanding, to test ideas, to predict and explain how and why things change.
Do you think a model can show every aspect of an idea? Why? Why not?
What did our models of solids, liquids and gases show and not show?
Solid: The model showed how the particles are attracted to each other and are close together. The model didn't show us the properties of that specific substance, if it could be stretched, or bent or folded. It also didn't show us that it can not be compressed.
Liquid: The model showed how the particles stayed close together, but were able to flow around each other, and how they could change shape. The model didn't show us that liquids cannot be compressed.
Gas: The model showed us how the particles in gases are further apart and spread out to fill the space, and how they can be compressed together. The model didn't show us that they still have some attraction to each other.
Optional: Refer to the questions students asked about particles at the beginning of the lesson. Determine which questions have and have not been answered. Add any further student questions to the list.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
reflect on how students' representations of solids, liquids and gases have change between the Launch phase and this lesson.
add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to solids, liquids and gases.
add to the class TWLH, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about particles.
discuss what is meant by a theory in science—how particle theory is widely accepted as it has so far been supported by evidence gathered by scientists over many years.
2 x balloons the same size/thickness, to be fitted over the opening of the bottles
2 x containers deep enough to submerge the bottles
Warm water to fill one of these container*
Ice and tap water to fill the other container*
*Alternatively, you might have communal containers filled with hot and iced water for multiple groups to use.
Note: For this investigation it is ideal for teams to each have two bottles and balloons of the same size, inflated to the same (or as close to) circumference. If enough resources cannot be organised, please allow sufficient time for the bottles/balloons to return to room temperature before submerging in water of a different temperature.
Each student
Individual science journal (digital or hard copy)
Air temperature investigation planner Resource sheet
Safety note
This activity requires the use of hot water and iced water. Consider organising extra adult supervision to support the investigation.
It is recommended that any hot water used in a classroom should be at or below 43°C.
Discuss with students the potential dangers of iced water, and why they should not hold their hands in it.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Review previous learning about the properties of solids, liquids and gases, focusing on gases.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Pose the question:Is hot air the same as cold air? Discuss this idea by focusing on how a hot-air balloon works.
What is a hot-air balloon? What does it look like? What does it do?
How does a hot-air balloon work?
What is in a hot-air balloon?
If air is in a hot-air balloon, why does it go up?
What might this tell us about what happens when we change the temperature of air?
Optional: View images and video clips of hot-air balloons being inflated.
Estimated time
10 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Science content
Heating gases
When heated, the particles in gases gain more energy and try to take up more space (expand).
Heating gases
When heated, the particles in gases gain more energy and try to take up more space (expand). This means that the density (‘mass per unit of volume’ or number of particles in a set volume) of a gas at a certain pressure can vary significantly depending on the temperature.
Hot-air balloons use this principle to rise above the ground. The hot air particles inside the balloon are more ‘spread out’ and less dense than the surrounding air. This causes the balloon to rise above the denser cold air outside the balloon. This is the same principle as when bubbles of air (less dense than water) are pushed to the surface of bodies of water.
Heating gases
When heated, the particles in gases gain more energy and try to take up more space (expand). This means that the density (‘mass per unit of volume’ or number of particles in a set volume) of a gas at a certain pressure can vary significantly depending on the temperature.
Hot-air balloons use this principle to rise above the ground. The hot air particles inside the balloon are more ‘spread out’ and less dense than the surrounding air. This causes the balloon to rise above the denser cold air outside the balloon. This is the same principle as when bubbles of air (less dense than water) are pushed to the surface of bodies of water.
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Show students a transparent plastic bottle with a balloon, inflated to have an approximately 15 cm circumference, fitted over the opening.
Through questioning and discussion have students confirm that there is air inside the bottle and balloon.
What is in the balloon and bottle?
The balloon and bottle both contain air.
What are the properties of air(/gas)?
Can air move in or out of the balloon and bottle?
The balloon and bottle are a sealed space. Air cannot escape.
How might we change the temperature of the air inside the bottle?
Pose the question: What things might affect the circumference of the balloon when we submerge this bottle in water?
Using a variables grid, record the variables that could affect the air in the bottle and balloon. Identify that the thing to be measured during the investigation is the circumference of the balloon and place that in the centre of the grid. Brainstorm other variables in the surrounding columns/rows, such as the size of the bottle, the size of the original balloon, how much it is inflated, the temperature of the water. Sections can be added or removed as required.
Note: In some investigations it is appropriate to allow teams to select the variable they wish to change, and teams might select different variables. However, in this case, the goal of the investigation is to make the air inside the bottle expand, thus ‘blowing up’ the balloon. Changing the temperature of the water the bottle is placed into (and thus the temperature of the air inside the bottle) is what will achieve this, so all teams should investigate this same variable.
Use the question stem to write a question for investigation: What happens to (thing to be measured/ dependent variable) when we change (factor that will be changed/ independent variable). What happens to the circumference of the balloon when we change the temperature of the water the bottle is submerged in?
Discuss how the investigation will be conducted and data collected and recorded.
How could we measure the circumference of the balloon?
What temperature water might we use?
How long will the balloon stay submerged?
How might we record our results?
labelled diagrams, photos, measurements
In collaborative teams, allow students time to complete their investigation planners, conduct the investigation and discuss and record results.
Estimated time
30 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team and class
Pedagogical tools
Writing questions for investigation
A variables grid can be used to turn a broad question into an investigable one.
3:05
Writing questions for investigation
A variables grid can be used to turn a broad question into an investigable one. Investigable questions are characterised by their clear identification of what is being changed and what is being measured in a fair test, supporting students to investigate a specific physical phenomena.
Investigable questions enable students to plan a fair-test investigation. The question they have devised can be answered empirically, and data can be collected to support and justify claims made.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Encourage students to seek further information and clarification from other teams using the science question starters.
Did your results match your predictions? Why do you think that happened?
What happened to the balloon when the bottle was in hot water? Cold water? Why do you think that is?
What claim could you make about what happens to air when it is heated and cooled based on this investigation?
If needed, present the claim ‘air takes up more space when it is heated and less space when it is cooled’ and ask students if they would agree and why/why not.
Could we add another ‘rule’ to the properties we found out about gas? Or more detail to an existing ‘rule’?
Can you think of any real-life applications of this?
Hot-air balloons as discussed earlier, soft-drink cans exploding if left in the sun on a hot day, etc.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to gases.
add to the class TWLH chart, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about gases.
discuss any challenges students faced during the investigation, and how they might overcome them in the future.
discuss safety considerations and why they are important.
discuss how they might use science communication techniques to help other understand what they have learned. Add it to the list created in the Launch phase.
consider what questions a 'non-expert' might ask them about heating air or other gases.
investigate to identify and name the properties that help us describe a gas.
apply this to determine if something is a gas or not.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
record observations about the behaviour of gases using words and labelled diagrams.
make and discuss claims about the properties of gases.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
what teams/students think is happening as they push the cup slowly into the water in the first part of the investigation. What can they feel as they push the cup downwards? What does that tell them about what is inside the cup?
Feedback can also be provided during the class discussion determining the properties of gases (in reference to the properties of liquids and solids). Gauge each group/students’ ideas about the properties in comparison to other groups.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard copy)
Balloons
Demonstration copy of Tissues in a cup Resource sheet
Tea light candle
Small glass
Long matches/lighter
A small jug containing 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Revisit the samples examined, and the ideas students had about gases, recorded on the Y-chart or table created in the Launch phase. Focus on the samples that students thought might be classified as gases. Review the vocabulary they used to describe gases and how they decided what made something a gas.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Allow students to examine an empty balloon, then discuss.
What is it?
Is it a solid, liquid or gas?
What is it used for?
How do we blow it up/inflate it?
Allow students to examine an inflated balloon, or to blow up balloons themselves, and discuss.
What’s inside the balloon now? How do you know?
Is what’s inside it a solid, liquid or gas? Why do you think that?
Why do we tie the end of the balloon off after we’ve inflated it?
Next, show students an empty transparent cup, and ask if there is anything inside it. Turn the cup over and place it on a flat surface and ask again if there is anything inside the cup.
Support students to compose a question for investigation about the cup and its contents, by prompting them to begin a question with ‘how’ or ‘what’. Some examples include:
What’s inside an empty cup?
How can we show there is air/gas inside an empty cup?
Estimated time
10 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Pedagogical tools
Student questions about the ‘empty’ cup
The questions students ask about the cup will depend upon their prior knowledge.
Student questions about the ‘empty’ cup
When viewing the ‘empty cup’ the questions students ask will depend upon their prior knowledge and if they are able to identify air as a gas that takes up space.
If students seem unsure on this point, they might ask questions such as Is there something inside the empty cup?, or How can we show the cup is empty?. The investigation will then provide the experience and evidence to show that the cup is not empty. This, in turn, supports their developing understanding of air as a gas that takes up space.
Ensure the discussion after the investigation supports students to develop the idea that the cup is filled with air and air takes up space.
If students are already able to identify that gas/air is taking up the space inside the cup then they might ask questions such as How can we show there is air/gas inside the empty cup? The investigation will provide the supporting evidence to show there is something in the cup, and the discussion after the investigation can focus on how to gather and record this evidence.
Student questions about the ‘empty’ cup
When viewing the ‘empty cup’ the questions students ask will depend upon their prior knowledge and if they are able to identify air as a gas that takes up space.
If students seem unsure on this point, they might ask questions such as Is there something inside the empty cup?, or How can we show the cup is empty?. The investigation will then provide the experience and evidence to show that the cup is not empty. This, in turn, supports their developing understanding of air as a gas that takes up space.
Ensure the discussion after the investigation supports students to develop the idea that the cup is filled with air and air takes up space.
If students are already able to identify that gas/air is taking up the space inside the cup then they might ask questions such as How can we show there is air/gas inside the empty cup? The investigation will provide the supporting evidence to show there is something in the cup, and the discussion after the investigation can focus on how to gather and record this evidence.
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Students investigate to find out what’s inside the empty cup.
Using a demonstration copy of the Tissues in a cup Resource sheet, review and discuss the steps of Part 1 of the investigation. Students will:
Pack the tissue firmly into the bottom of the plastic cup.
Turn the cup upside down and hold the rim of the cup flat on the surface of the water.
Slowly push the cup straight down into the water.
Remove the cup from the water and examine the tissue
Students discuss their predictions and reasoning for them in their collaborative teams, and record them using the Predict, Reason, sections of the PROE chart. Students then carry out the investigation, observing what happens and recording their findings in the Observe, Explain sections of the PROE chart.
Using a demonstration copy of the Tissues in a cup Resource sheet, review and discuss the steps of Part 2 of the investigation. Students will:
Pack the tissue firmly into the bottom of the plastic cup.
Turn the cup upside down and hold the rim of the cup flat on the surface of the water.
Slowly push the cup into the water, tilting the cup as you push it down.
Remove the cup from the water and examine the tissue.
Students discuss their predictions and reasoning for them in their collaborative teams, and record them using the Predict, Reason, sections of the PROE chart. Students then carry out the investigation, observing what happens and recording their findings in the Observe, Explain sections of the PROE chart.
Model how to complete if necessary.
Allow students time to complete their investigation in collaborative teams. You might ask them to complete the two parts of the investigation separately, discussing and sharing results after each. Alternatively you might review and discuss both steps and allow them to complete each part without interruption, discussing and sharing results at the end. See the Integrate step of this lesson for discussion prompts.
Estimated time
15 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team and class
Pedagogical tools
Predict, Reason, Observe, Explain (PROE)
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking.
Predict, Reason, Observe, Explain (PROE)
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking. It affords students’ experience with developing argumentation skills through science inquiry, and supports you, the teacher, to monitor their thinking in order to guide the inquiry.
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking. It affords students’ experience with developing argumentation skills through science inquiry, and supports you, the teacher, to monitor their thinking in order to guide the inquiry.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Share and discuss findings as a class. Encourage students to seek further information and clarification from other teams using the science question starters.
What did you think would happen to the tissue when you pushed the upside-down cup into the water?
Were your predictions correct?
What did you observe as you pushed the cup into the water?
Did the tissue get wet? Why do you think that happened?
What do you think is inside the cup, apart from the tissue?
There is air inside the cup.
What was happening to the air as you pushed the cup down into the water?
What did you notice happened when you tilted the cup as you pushed it down?
Air bubbles escaped from the cup.
Were you able to get the tissue wet? What did you have to do to make that happen?
Estimated time
15 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Place the tea light into the small glass and light it using the long matches.
Slowly add some vinegar to the jug containing bicarbonate of soda until it bubbles and fizzes. Don’t put in so much that it comes out over the top.
Cover the top of the jug with your hands or a piece of paper, to trap some of the gas being produced.
After a few seconds remove your hands/the paper and pour the gas only—not the liquid—onto the candle. The candle will be extinguished.
Estimated time
10 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Discuss what was happening in the demonstration, and what it tells us about gases.
Why did I cover the top of the jug?
What did I pour from the jug over the candle to make it go out?
What does that tell you about gases?
That some gases can be poured. That some gases are denser—this is similar to oil sitting on top of water—two liquids. In this case it is the air sitting on top of the carbon dioxide.
Referring to the properties of liquids identified in the previous lesson as a reference, challenge students in collaborative teams to write a list of claims, or ‘rules’ (i.e. the properties) for gases. Revise the term volume if required.
Share teams’ list of claims with the class. Discuss each claim made with the objective to reaching consensus and create a list naming the properties of a gas.
Share one claim you have made about gases.
Has anyone else made the same or a similar claim?
What evidence supports or does not support this claim?
Do we agree that this claim can officially be listed as a property of a gas?
If teams are not able to identify all the properties of a gas (spread out to fill the space, can be confined within a container, can be compressed, can sometimes be poured—see the Gas and its properties professional learning embedded in this step), present the missing properties as claims. Ask students if they agree or disagree with these claims and what supporting evidence from the investigation justifies their thinking.
Record the final list of properties of a gas in the class science journal.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to gases and their properties.
refer back to the list created in Lesson 1, or substances students confidently categorised as gases, and substances they weren’t sure about.
Would they reclassify any based on what they have learned?
add to the class TWLH, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about gases.
ask students for further questions about gases to add to the class science journal or TWLH chart.
Discuss how you might investigate to find the answers to these questions. Provide students with opportunities to undertake such investigation.
revisit the drawings and words students used in the Launch phase to describe gases, and make any additions using a different coloured pen/pencil.
discuss how they might use science communication techniques to help others understand what they have learned. Add it to the list created in the Launch phase.
consider what questions a 'non-expert' might ask them about gases.
Estimated time
20 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team and class
Science content
Gas and its properties
What are the properties of gases?
Gas and its properties
Gases usually meet the following criteria:
Gases do not have a constant volume, and will spread out to fill the available space.
Gases can be confined within a container or object.
Gases can be compressed.
Some dense gases can be poured.
Students might not associate gases with matter. They might not think that gases take up space or have mass and weight. They also might not associate air with gases.
Gas and its properties
Gases usually meet the following criteria:
Gases do not have a constant volume, and will spread out to fill the available space.
Gases can be confined within a container or object.
Gases can be compressed.
Some dense gases can be poured.
Students might not associate gases with matter. They might not think that gases take up space or have mass and weight. They also might not associate air with gases.
investigate to identify and name the properties that help us describe a solid.
apply these properties to determine if something is a solid or not.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
record observations about the behaviour of solids in a data table.
make and discuss claims about the properties of solids.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
the properties that students associate with solids. Are they describing the properties accurately? Do they use the properties to correctly identify solids?
Feedback will also be provided during the class discussion determining the properties of solids in reference to the properties of liquids. Gauge each group/students’ ideas about the properties in comparison to other groups.
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Demonstration copy of the Solid scienceResource sheet
Each group
Samples for investigation including:
pourable solids such as rice, flour, laundry powder, sand
other solids such as soap, chalk, playdough, sponges, stones, wood, elastic bands, containers etc.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Revisit the samples examined, and the ideas students had about solids, recorded on the Y-chart or table created in the Launch phase. Focus on the samples that students thought might be classified as solids. Review the vocabulary they used to describe solids and how they decided what made something a solid.
Estimated time
5 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
materials: a substance with particular qualities or that is used for a specific purpose.
properties: attributes of an object or material often used to into a common group.
Make explicit that materials are made of 'substances'.
Note: Students are likely to have used these terms in a scientific sense in previous chemical sciences topics.
Display a selection of samples, including a liquid, pourable solids, and other solids.
Through discussion:
determine which sample is a liquid, referring back to the criteria from the previous lesson.
examine each subsequent sample.
identify the substance that makes up the sample and describe its properties.
Depending on students’ prior learning, they might use more scientifically specific terms such as brittleness, malleability, flexibility, or elasticity. However, this is not required. It is acceptable for students to describe the material/substance using everyday terms such as strong, hard, able to be bent, folded, squashed, torn, shaped, stretched etc., or any combination of scientific and everyday language.
Pose the questions:What makes a substance a solid? How is a solid different to a liquid?
Students will compare each sample to the identified liquid in order to answer these questions.
Estimated time
15 minutes
Lesson type
Class
Science content
Objects and materials
Scientists classify substances as solids or liquids, not objects.
Objects and materials
Scientists classify ‘substances’ as solids or liquids, not objects.
When asked to identify solids, students might name objects such as tables and chairs, rather than the substances from which they are made—wood, metal or plastic. They may require prompting and discussion to focus on the substance the object is made of. Revising what students have learned previously about materials, and linking the term 'materials' to the use of the term 'substance' in this sequence can support you with this.
Focusing on substances, rather than objects, separates the use of the word solid in a scientific sense from the everyday sense. Students might use the term in various ways, for example as the opposite of hollow or as a synonym for strong, hard or immovable.
Using the word ‘substances’ will provide opportunities for students to consider materials or substances that are hollow, such as tennis balls or containers, or that aren’t ‘strong, hard, or immovable’, such as paper, sponges and fabrics, as solids.
Objects and materials
Scientists classify ‘substances’ as solids or liquids, not objects.
When asked to identify solids, students might name objects such as tables and chairs, rather than the substances from which they are made—wood, metal or plastic. They may require prompting and discussion to focus on the substance the object is made of. Revising what students have learned previously about materials, and linking the term 'materials' to the use of the term 'substance' in this sequence can support you with this.
Focusing on substances, rather than objects, separates the use of the word solid in a scientific sense from the everyday sense. Students might use the term in various ways, for example as the opposite of hollow or as a synonym for strong, hard or immovable.
Using the word ‘substances’ will provide opportunities for students to consider materials or substances that are hollow, such as tennis balls or containers, or that aren’t ‘strong, hard, or immovable’, such as paper, sponges and fabrics, as solids.
Science content
Properties of a solid
What are the properties of a solid?
Properties of a solid
Solids usually meet the following criteria:
Solids have a constant volume, and are often referred to as incompressible. They can be compressed slightly, but this requires a great deal of pressure and is usually not possible in day-to-day situations.
Solids hold their shape. They do not change their shape without being physically or chemically changed.
Properties of a solid
Solids usually meet the following criteria:
Solids have a constant volume, and are often referred to as incompressible. They can be compressed slightly, but this requires a great deal of pressure and is usually not possible in day-to-day situations.
Solids hold their shape. They do not change their shape without being physically or chemically changed.
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
The Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Referring to the demonstration copy of the Solid science Resource sheet, discuss each test listed, and how students will undertake that test. For example:
to test if something is hard/can be scratched, students might attempt to scratch it with a sharp implement (taking note of safety considerations) or scratch it against a hard surface like concrete.
to test if something is runny students might shake it or see if it pours.
Add any other testing ideas students have, and also discuss how these tests need to be undertaken.
Allow students time to carry out the investigation and record results in collaborative teams.
Estimated time
20 minutes
Lesson type
Collaborative team and class
Inquire
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Following an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Encourage students to seek further information and clarification from other teams using the science question starters.
Did your tests on the liquid support what we found out about the properties of liquids in the previous lesson?
Which of the tests do you think were ‘for the solids’ and which ones were ‘for the liquids’? Why do you think that?
Some of the tests identified can only be carried out on one state of matter. For example liquid might be classified as ‘runny’ but solids cannot be, and solids can be stretched, but liquids cannot be.
Did all the solids have the same properties? Could they all be scratched, stretched, stirred, poured etc.?
Which samples would you confidently identify as solids? Why?
Which samples did you have difficulty determining what they are?
Why did you have trouble with these samples? Would you add them to the not sure list created in the Launch phase?
Referring to the properties of liquids identified in the previous lesson as a reference, challenge students in collaborative teams to write a list of claims, or ‘rules’ (i.e. the properties) for solids. Revise the term volume if required.
Share teams’ list of claims with the class. Discuss each claim made with the objective to reaching consensus and create a list naming the properties of a solid.
Share one claim you have made about solids.
Has anyone else made the same or a similar claim?
What evidence supports or does not support this claim?
Do we agree that this claim can officially be listed as a property of a solid?
If teams are not able to identify all the properties of a solid (constant volume, typically incompressible, and hold their shape—see the Properties of a solid professional learning embedded in the Question step of this lesson), present the missing properties as claims. Ask students if they agree or disagree with these claims and what supporting evidence from the investigation justifies their thinking.
Record the final list of properties of a solid in the class science journal.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
add to the class word wall of vocabulary related to solids and their properties.
refer back to the list created in the Launch phase, or substances students confidently categorised as solid, and substances they weren’t sure about. Would they reclassify any based on what they have learned?
add to the class TWLH, completing the H and L sections with what they have learned about solids.
ask students for further questions about solids to add to the class science journal or TWLH chart. Discuss how you might investigate to find the answers to these questions. Provide students with opportunities to undertake such investigation.
revisit the drawings and words students used in the Launch phase to describe solids, and make any additions using a different coloured pen/pencil.
discuss how students might use science communication techniques to help others understand what they have learned. Add it to the list created in Launch phase.
consider what questions a 'non-expert' might ask them about solids.
discuss how students were thinking and working like scientists during the lesson. Focus on how they were building new knowledge based on past discoveries, in this case, comparing what they had learned about liquids to help them identify the properties of solids.
Our digital educative teaching resources for science are based on a robust pedagogical framework, drawing on an extensive body of research.
Australian Academy of Science Education has developed digital teaching resources that align with Australian Curriculum V9 and which include embedded just-in-time professional learning to support the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in Australian schools, Foundation to Year 10. Teachers have the opportunity to link the guided teaching sequences to contemporary education research that is part of the ‘Teaching with Intent’ education approach developed by the Australian Academy of Science.
While the focus remains on scientific literacy, it also supports teachers to increase the science capital (science-related knowledge, attitudes, experiences and resources) in their classrooms and the associated science identity of students.
Godec, King and Archer (2017)1 describe the benefits of increasing the science capital for students.
Improves students’ understanding and recall of science content.
Helps students find science more personally relevant.
Deepens students’ appreciation of science.
Widens and increases students’ engagement with science in lessons.
Improves students’ behaviour during science lessons.
Increases the proportion of students seeing themselves as ‘sciencey’.
The PISA 2024 Strategic Vision and Direction for Science (2020)2 describes the importance of a student’s scientific identity to inclusion and the equity of science cultures and practices:
If we fail to pay attention to a young person’s scientific identity outcomes then we undermine the achievement and potential of scientific learning and the extent to which young people will be able to critically use and act with these competencies in life (p.12).
The implementation of the Australian Curriculum Version 9 has provided an opportunity for the Australian Academy of Science Education to reimagine science education. The result is a new framework that is designed to connect contemporary research on science education, science identity and science capital. Applicable in both the primary and secondary sectors, the framework aims to equip students with a consistent approach that builds student’s knowledge, skills, and identity that will prepare them for the scientific challenges beyond the classroom.
Evolution of the 5E model
Underpinned by research and trialled extensively in classrooms, the 5E model of inquiry has been the foundation of Primary Connections’ resources since the program’s inception in 2003. The LIA Framework (Silvester & Lawrence, 2025)3builds upon this strong foundation and draws from the latest research to increase the emphasis on the local and global contexts, while integrating the three Science Strands of the Australian Curriculum V9 (Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Inquiry). The Launch phase promotes the importance of science in the students’ lives now. The cyclic nature of the Inquire phase allows ongoing questioning and investigation to systematically clarify and refine student representations of the Core concepts, while the Act phase empowers students to use the skills and knowledge of science.
This framework is designed so that teachers can use the information and professional learning to easily modify their approach to suit the context of their students and classroom. The Australian Academy of Science aims to build the capacity of teachers to develop innovative educative teaching resources that are grounded in contemporary education research.
Table 1: Correlation between AAS Science Framework and other pedagogies
AASE Science
LIA Framework
5Es4
International Baccalaureate5
OpenSciEd6
STEM (Stanford)7
Science of Learning8
Launch Phase
- Experience/ Empathise
- Anchor
- Elicit
- Connect
Engage
Explore
Tuning in
Anchoring Phenomenon
Empathise
*First impressions colour future judgement
*Background stories increase engagement
Inquire Phase
- Question
- Investigate
- Integrate
Explore
Explain
Elaborate
Finding out
Sorting out
Going further
Making conclusions
Navigation
Problematising
Investigation
Putting the pieces together
Define
Ideate
*Pre-activation questions guides learning
*Spacing out practice enhances memory
*Visible learning
*Formative feedback
Act Phase
- Anchor
- Connect
- Design
- Communicate
Elaborate
Evaluate
Taking action
Prototype
Test
*Embrace error to improve learning
*Active recall trumps passive review
LIA Framework
Watch this short video that introduces the LIA Framework.
Launch phase
The Launch phase is designed to increase the science capital in a classroom by asking questions that elicit and explore students’ experiences. It uses local and global contexts and real-world phenomena that encourages students to ask questions, explore concepts, and engage with the Core Concepts that anchor each unit.
Each Launch phase consists of a series of teaching and learning routines that provide opportunities for students to:
Experience science in a real-world context and Empathise with the people who experience the problems science seeks to solve,
Anchor the experience to the Core concepts that students will explore,
Elicit students’ prior experiences, existing science capital and potential alternative conceptions related to the Core concepts,
Connect the students’ lives, language, and interests to the anchored Core concepts.
These routines will provide opportunities for diagnostic assessment and support for students to develop the necessary representational capabilities.
The related professional learning will guide and encourage teachers to use local contexts to establish a learning community that links to the key ideas of science.
Inquire phase
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate them into their current understanding of the world.
Questions are identified and encouraged during the Launch phase of the LIA Framework. Identifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. Reviewing past activities and using effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content.
Investigate: This provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. The data is processed to identify trends and patterns that relate to the real-world context experienced in the Launch phase.
Integrate: Following an investigation, data is evaluated, representations consolidated and refined, and anchored to the Core concepts and key ideas of science. This makes student thinking visible and formative feedback opportunities. It may lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
Repeated inquiry cycles support students to deepen their understanding of the Core concepts and key ideas, improve their application of science practices, ultimately empowering them to act.
Act phase
The Act phase empowers students to use the Core concepts and key ideas of science they have learned during the Inquire phase. It provides students with opportunities to
Anchor their understanding of the Core concepts, and
Connect these to real-world examples experienced in the Launch phase, so that students develop the agency to,
Design solutions to problems or ways to use their science knowledge, increase their science capital and,
Communicate their ideas effectively to others, advancing science and influencing the community in general.
Throughout these Teaching and Learning Routines, a teacher provides formative feedback on the representations presented by students. The final product also provides opportunities for summative assessment.
By anchoring phenomena in real-world contexts, supporting students to develop their understanding of that phenomena, and applying this knowledge and understanding in new and genuine contexts, students can appreciate the relevance of their learning, and its potential impact on future decisions. In short, it moves beyond scientific literacy and increases the science capital in the classroom and science identity of the students.
References
1Godec, S., King, H., & Archer, L. (2017). The Science Capital Teaching Approach: engaging students with science, promoting social justice. University College London.
4Joswick, C., & Hulings, M. (2023). A Systematic Review of BSCS 5E Instructional Model Evidence. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-023-10357-y
5Bores-García, D., González-Calvo, G., Barba-Martín, R. A., García-Monge, A., & Hortigüela-Alcalá, D. (2023). International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme: a systematic review. Journal of Research in International Education, 22(2), 149-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/14752409231188215
7Auernhammer, J., & Roth, B. (2021). The origin and evolution of Stanford University’s design thinking: From product design to design thinking in innovation management. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 38(6), 623-644.
